Canberra-based service provider OPC IT has won a contract to migrate five Department of Education & Training websites from SharePoint to the govCMS Drupal 7 platform. 

“The migration of these websites to the govCMS platform follows the strategy all levels of government have increasingly been adopting to take advantage of the numerous benefits offered by this Open Source platform,” the company announced.

“Aside from the financial benefits derived from not paying licencing costs, govCMS offers agencies with limited resources and staff the security and necessary skills to manage their websites whilst complying with Australian Government standards around design, accessibility, privacy, security and information/records management.”

As of mid-March 2018 there were 184 govCMS live websites with 37 in development across 70 agencies.  

These five DET websites cover a wide range of subject matter including requirements and procedures for higher education, overseas study, assistance for financing tertiary study, skills assessment and licence recognition.

According to OPC IT operations manager for web services, Michael Goss, “The challenge OPC faces in migrating these websites is replicating SharePoint functionality as closely as possible in Drupal, particularly ensuring that it works in the govCMS SaaS environment.   

“OPC's credibility and extensive experience in migrating websites to govCMS contributed to us edging out all competitors in the Drupal space nationwide to win this prestigious contract through the Digital Marketplace.”'