The Water Regulations Advisory Scheme (WRAS) purpose is to contribute to the protection of public health by preventing contamination of public water supplies and encouraging the efficient use of water by promoting and facilitating compliance with the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations and Byelaws in Scotland.
The subscribers of WRAS are the 26 UK Water Suppliers, including:
The website has a number of features, some designed to be publicly accessible, other for internal administrative purpose. The administrative interface forms a significant supporting role in many tasks carried out day to day by the WRAS team.
The WRAS website has a wide range of functionality. It's chief purpose is to manage the registration and testing of all materials and components used within the UK public water system. This includes the creation and sending of letters and certificates for over 20,000 products. This system sits as the back end to their website, allowing the public and plumbing professionals to test the validity of parts before their use in connection with mains running water.
The website was initially designed over a 12 month period. Based in South Wales, the WRAS organisation is physically remote from Duo Design, based in Manchester. However the distance didn't prove to be a problem. Utilising our online issue tracking system, in conjunction with regular screen sharing sessions, we were able to communicate issues and features and move the project along.
The system developed was put in place to replace an existing 'access database' system, which was used in combination with with a manually updated website. The original system was supplemented with a number of other ad-hoc excel spreadsheets. Duo spent time at the WRAS offices with each of the key members of staff who managed the old systems to gain insight and understanding into their existing processes, while pinpointing existing 'pain points'.
As the system developed, access to a development server was given to the WRAS team so they were able to give feedback. A migration system was created to make it possible to sync live data to the development server so it could be seen and tested within the new interfaces.
The system was migrated from old to new over the course of a weekend. All the data was extracted from the old system late on Friday, tested over the weekend and made available to staff of the Monday morning.
Although going live in 2015, Duo have been contracted to give monthly support to WRAS. When investing in a bespoke database and website of this type ongoing maintenance is a key tool in keeping the system working well for the stakeholders. Since it's launch there have been many features refined and added to the system to keep it working well and making it a valuable tool for the WRAS team, members and website visitors.
February 2015
