I did not submit a tender for the proposed new user friendly City of Campbell River website, so I am not speaking out of my pocket.
However, I am concerned at the amount of $56,993 plus HST being spent in our present economic climate and the reason the successful applicant was awarded the contract. Having designed websites of all types since 1999 I am well aware of the requirement to have a website that is easy to navigate and user friendly.
Apparently one of the reasons the company was given the contract is that their personnel were proficient in SharePoint. SharePoint is a Microsoft software program that is available for the huge price of $159 (2010 version) and you certainly do not have to be Einstein to have this program attached to any website.
SharePoint is a great program that allows collaboration with all personnel in a company business. It really does not matter if you design a website for a City or for any other type of business, a website is a website and the basic formatting is the same. It is understandable the City of Campbell River has to have a website, but to spend this amount of money at this time in my opinion is ridiculous.
We should all be trying to support all local businesses. Any local web designer could have done this website for a third of the cost.
Robert Lawrie, Internet Consultant
Campbell River