Who We Are & What We Do

2commune specialise in providing digital technology exclusively to the local council sector and are well established in this market. Our team understand the legislative requirements within which Local Councils work and have an in depth understanding of their business.

Our Managing Director, Tina Britt is a member of the Leicestershire & Rutland Association of Local Council's 'Local Council Award Scheme' accreditation panel. Ray Smith was a Parish Councillor until recently, he understands what it's like on 'your side of the table' and the pressures that you work under. Tina and Ray used to work for Leicestershire County Council where they setup an infrastructure to deliver 'joined up digital services' across the three tiers of local government in Leicestershire & Rutland in 2001. This included providing a web site for every parish and town council in the area. Cuttlefish (our business partner) have been working with us to develop digital technology for parish and town councils since then.

Our head office is in The Old Rectory, Glenfield, Leicestershire, ideally placed in the Midlands. It's right on the north-western outskirts of Leicester near junction 21A on the M1 motorway. This Grade II listed building is a lovely place to work, full of character and history. One of the staircases dates back to Jacobean times.

Cuttlefish provide technical resource on an 'as and when required' basis. This allows us to scale our development and technical support capacity to meet fluctuating demands. Not relying on a single developer (as some companies do) reduces risk and means that we don't lose vital skills if someone leaves. Cuttlefish are at the cutting edge of web development which means new ideas are constantly being fed in, to improve our product which is called UK Local Councils (UKLC).

Similarly we have a number of associates (familiar with UKLC) who work with us. This enables us to scale our professional and support services as required for specific projects. This flexible approach to staffing coupled with our in-depth knowledge of the sector means that we are able to offer our clients a highly proficient and cost effective service.

Our tried and tested web products known as UKLC (UK Local Councils) are rapidly becoming the 'industry standard' for Parish and Town Council websites. They have been designed and built specifically for local councils with the aim of making you more efficient and effective. They will Enhance your council's reputation, Improve communications & Save staff time.

• We supply secure and reliable digital technologies that make good communication simple. We combine their power, and a detailed knowledge of local council business with service and support that will delight you.
• Our custom-built Content Management System (CMS) is a mature, stable system which has been built from the 'ground up' to satisfy the unique requirements for local council websites.
• Our proven technology joins-up online information and service delivery across the three tiers of local government making it easy for your customers to 'self serve'.

We also provide websites for several of the County Associations of Local Councils and are working with them to replicate the proven 'Leicestershire Model' to join up websites and back end systems across local government in their areas.

As the risk of cyber attacks increase it's essential that your website is secure. We use secure Rackspace hosting as detailed in our service agreement. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption provides a secure connection from your desktop to our servers ensuring that hackers can't intercept passwords etc.

The UKLC custom built CMS has built in functionality that sends alerts to our support team if anyone is attempting to attack your site. Our staff can then investigate and solve issues proactively to protect you and your users. We keep detailed audit trails of all actions made on your website so in the event of anything unusual happening we can trace exactly when and whose account was used.

We recognise that your website represents a big investment to your council. UKLC is more that just technology. When you invest in our product you will join a passionate group of UKLC users working together to improve the product and share best practice.

Because our technology uses a common 'back-end' when we add new features all of our customers benefit.

If any of our customers have a new requirement we handle it in one of three ways.

1. If it's something that's fairly quick and easy to do and we think that most of our customers would benefit, we just do it and everybody gets it.
2. If it's more than a couple of hours work or we're not sure if many customers would want it, we will quote you for the work. If you accept the quote we will do the work. Once complete that feature will become available to all of our customers.
3. If you feel that the quote is higher than expected. We will add the requirement to our 'wish list'. We hold regular user group events at which delegates can vote on the list. The top five items that get the most votes are then built into our development plan.

This approach ensures that every penny of public money invested in UKLC product enhancement benefits all of our users. We don't just add functionality that we think you would like, it's you that decides on new features.

Our websites are continually evolving and provide one view of services across the three tiers of local government, making it easy for someone to find whatever they want, without needing to know who provides it, with access to the information at a time that suits them. This approach benefits both site visitors and council staff - it saves their time, directs users to the right service provider, and reduces the number of calls and queries to staff.

All sites are designed to comply with usability guidelines ensuring the best visitor experience for site visitors. They also share a common look and feel which helps visitors quickly find their way around neighbouring sites.

Integrating information and services across the tiers of local government helps produce 'rich' content which draws more users to your site, and increases engagement with residents. The ability to deliver more services online, and out of 'office hours', reduces the amount of 'avoidable contact' saving considerable time and leaving you to prioritise other activities. The level of automation provided by our web technologies helps you to focus on content rather than presentation and improves your efficiency freeing your time for other activities. Specailised functionality like the meeting management and consultation modules make your council more efficient and effective saving you time and money.

The sites are built around a template of pages (which can be easily adapted) which will help you meet the requirements for the Local Council Award Scheme, the Information Commissioner, Open Data, Transparency, Accessibility and GDPR regulations. Our websites are fully compliant with the WCAG 2.1 AA public sector accessibility regulation. They were built on a WCAG compliant framework from day one. Their common look and feel, with excellent support, helps to provide continuity when clerks move between councils.

2commune Limited is Registered in England 5609420 Registered office: The Old Rectory, Main Street, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8DG

2commune Limited is registered as a Data Controller under the Data Protection Regulations 2018 (Reg. No. Z3174927)