Combined contract for consultation platform and e-news platform

Southend-on-Sea City Council is looking for a single contract to cover the electronic news platform (currently Granicus govDelivery for LG) and the consultation platform Your Say Southend (currently Granicus Engagement HQ).

For eNews platform:

To communicate our key messages and information and ensure it is both seen and acted on by local people. This technology must make use of modern standards, such as accessibility standards and responsive design, as well as ensuring that residents are able to self-select the topics that they want to receive alerts and bulletins for.

• Ability to manually create and reuse branded newsletters, bulletins and alerts
• Automated bulletin creation, fed from the Council website and other digital sources
• Ability to easily grow the number of people receiving alerts, bulletins and newsletters
• Automated subscriber management
• Full data analytics
• Potential integration with CRM and other relevant Council applications
• Exceptional rates of delivery

Consultation platform: To consult with the public on key council decisions (formal consultations) and gather feedback from the public less formally on plans and potential activities, or changes to services. This technology must make use of modern standards, such as accessibility standards and responsive design

• Analyse public sentiment about the council and its service provision through advanced reporting tools and sentiment analysis.
• Involve the public in co-creating services by enabling interactive feedback mechanisms such as idea boards, surveys, and discussion forums.
• Customisable consultation templates for different types of surveys, polls, and engagement activities.
• Real-time analytics and reporting to track participation rates, sentiment trends, and demographic breakdowns.
• Easy-to-use moderation tools for managing public comments and ensuring discussions remain respectful and productive.
• Platform content translation tool to engage non English speaking residents effectively.
• Interactive mapping features for geographically relevant consultations (e.g., traffic schemes, infrastructure developments).
• Automated notifications and reminders for participants about upcoming deadlines or new consultation opportunities.
• Secure data handling and compliance with GDPR and other relevant data protection regulations.
• Mobile-friendly interface to allow residents to participate easily from smartphones and tablets.
• Accessibility tools such as screen reader compatibility, text resizing, and alternative formats for diverse user needs.
• Feedback loop functionality to close the consultation process by informing participants how their input influenced decision-making.