CIVIC is Ibexa's October Partner of the Month

CIVIC UK is a full-stack digital agency offering services from UX, brand, to development and support. Based in Edinburgh with a 40-strong team, CIVIC has a deep customer base of public sector bodies such as the Crown Prosecution Service, Social Security Scotland, Pensions Ombudsman, St Albans City and District Council, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority. The agency is equally at ease with private sector businesses such as Parcelforce and insurance actuarial software firm Longevitas. 

CIVIC identified the need to develop functionalities that extended beyond those offered by content management systems such as Drupal, especially for its larger clients. “This is what attracted us to Ibexa DXP,” says Greg Rouchotas, CIVIC Managing Director. “During the demos we soon realized Ibexa had the kind of functionalities that would add to what we can offer clients, so we pressed ahead with formalizing our relationship.  Rather than re-developing something that is already there, we can now recommend Ibexa.” 

Last year, CIVIC joined the Ibexa ecosystem and the agency is our Partner of the Month for October. “We have four Ibexa-certified developers,” says Rouchotas, “and two colleagues who have commercial certification for Ibexa DXP. 

CIVIC’s targeted marketing approach is proving effective. “We know the pain points of our longstanding clients. Potential new clients are, typically, still on Drupal and need to be much more agile, especially when it comes to content creation and distribution. This is where Ibexa DXP becomes a trump card.”

Listing Ibexa on G-Cloud 13

Public sector procurement is notoriously complex, with long sales cycles and an extensive burden of compliance. For some public sector clients, this hampers their decision-making. This is why Rouchatos and his team have worked hard to get Ibexa DXP listed as one of the services it offers on G-Cloud 13.

G-Cloud is a framework where supplier cloud-based solutions are made available through a front-end catalog called the Digital Marketplace. It was launched by the UK government to improve procurement and commercial operations of the public sector, as well as for semi-public bodies such as universities and charities. It lists some 31,000 suppliers across three “lots”: cloud hosting, cloud software, and cloud support. Ibexa will be listed on cloud hosting and cloud software from October 30. 

The G-Cloud listing is a game changer not least for a couple of reasons. First of all, G-Cloud accreditation involves due diligence and not every product or supplier is eligible for inclusion. “This means the solution is to some extent ‘pre-vetted’ for compliance,” says Rouchotas. 

The second benefit for CIVIC and Ibexa DXP is that procurement officers tasked with researching digital transformation projects will now be able to find Ibexa DXP on the platform where they habitually place their orders for cloud-based software.

“Even for procurement officers who know about Ibexa DXP and are already convinced of its merits, inclusion on the G-Cloud platform could be decisive because it really speeds up the process. You could be signed on to Ibexa DXP within days, rather than weeks or months. This is why many procurement teams within the public sector won’t even consider a tool that’s not on G-Cloud, irrespective of its merits.” 

The G-Cloud application process took time, but it has removed most of the pain points from the public sector procurement process. “So, it was time well spent,” Rouchotas concludes.

Collaborative Partnership

CIVIC is committed to its partnership with Ibexa DXP because of a technological and cultural fit. 

Rouchotas explains. “Our vision of the partnership with Ibexa DXP goes to the core of our ethos as a company: we value relationships more than anything. That’s why the vast majority of our clients have been with us for years, some for decades.”

CIVIC’s commitment to the partnership is reflected in its efforts with G-Cloud. “But it’s very much a two-way street,” says Rouchotas, “and Ibexa is listening to our suggestions and acting on them.” 

CIVIC has a history of being ahead of the curve, especially in data security and compliance. The agency is the UK market leader in cookie consent; its Cookie Control tool has become the de facto tool for the UK public sector to manage cookie consent on its websites. 

The Edinburgh agency has also been looking at accessibility for the past few years. 

“We already deliver this in the front-end of our development projects,” says Rouchotas, “but the UK legislation also demands backend accessibility, something that will be compulsory [subject to sanctions] in Europe from 2025.

“The industry is behind on this, so we urged the Ibexa DXP product team to take the lead on accessibility compliance by adapting its back end. We are very pleased to see that this is happening.”

CIVIC’s requests for backend accessibility are on the Ibexa DXP product roadmap for the next version of the software, v5. However, part of this brief could make it into the next Long Term Supported release – v4.5 – planned for early 2023. This is important because most customers considering an upgrade would go for v4.5 and will be more compliant for back-end accessibility as a result. Of course, this benefits all Ibexa DXP customers – a great example of how the partner network helps us respond to what is preoccupying the market.

“And it’s an area where Ibexa DXP holds another advantage over the very largest DXP vendors, such as Adobe,” says Rouchotas. “With Ibexa, you can have a real impact on the development roadmap, whereas with Adobe you have to adapt to Adobe’s vision of the future, not yours.”

Rouchotas is optimistic about the future. “With the expertise and trust Ibexa DXP and CIVIC bring to the table, there is no limit to what we can achieve together.”

If you would like to discuss your digital transformation project with Civic UK you can fill in their contact form or give them a call on +44 131 624 9830