Your Online Presence > Delivering Services Through Your Website, Strategy & Development

Getting a Website - Why Do You Want a Website?

By Lasa Information Systems Team

Of course you want a website! But answering the question why will guide you through the rest of the process much more smoothly.

Your organisation can benefit from having a website in many ways.

To publicise your service

Many organisations start off with a simple site like an on-line brochure. The site can explain what your organisation does and how people can contact you, and should include the information that people most often want from you.

Your site is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

People can often find it difficult to get to an agency during opening hours. They may be working or have to care for children, public transport may be poor, or they may have mobility problems. A website is available at any time, to anyone who can get to a computer.

You can update information immediately

It can take weeks to design and print a leaflet – and leaflets can still turn up years after they are outdated. Your web site can always hold accurate and timely information.

You may be able to reach people who don’t use your service now

The Samaritans have provided a well-known phone service for many years. They now also provide a service by email, publicised on their website. The organisation has found that 9 out of 10 people who seek help by e-mail wouldn’t use their phone service – so they have extended the service they provide.

You may be able to link people who would benefit from working together

Lasa runs the RightsNet website, which includes discussion forums for welfare rights workers. Expert advisers from all over England and Wales are able to share information on detailed points of law, and so help their clients claim benefits.

You may be able to develop your service

You can use a website to sell publications or other products, or to take bookings. In September 2000, Lasa organised a conference with Happy Computers. Over 90 percent of the people attending the conference booked on a website we set up for the event. Because this reduced our costs, people booking online received a £10 discount. You may be able to develop your service in other ways. Hostels Online is a website which provides details of vacancies at hostels for homeless people in London. Before the site existed, staff in the different hostels had to phone round all the other ones – frequently getting an engaged tone – to get this information. Now each hostel sends its vacancies to the website, at any time of the day or night.

You may be able to build a campaign

The internet is playing an increasingly high-profile role in campaigning. Email and the web were used, for example, to organise the protests at the World Trade Organisation meeting at Seattle in December 1999. There are other, more local examples. North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntary Organisations have campaigned successfully against local cuts using an online email campaign which circulated briefings and reports directly to groups and members of the public.

You may raise your profile

Tony Blair pledged that all government services will be deliverable in electronic form by 2005.  This reflects the fact that the government is keen to encourage use of the internet. In general, for an agency to have a website implies to funders and other bodies that the organisation is forward-thinking and dynamic. It’s not a reason in itself to get a site, but it’s an added bonus of having one.

This page is one part of a longer document about getting a website. If you want to read through the whole thing, you'll want to start with the Introduction.

If you are reading through all the parts of this document, the next part is Develop Your Strategy