This will provide a point of entry for Google and other strategic links formed by the council. This can be fully branded in-line with councils' brand guidelines for seamless integration with the existing council web site. Access to the system can be limited to an encrypted and secure channel (SSL).

This serves two purposes - to initially recruit a large community (a private community) which will form the basis of the consultation/ empowerment / information exchange processes. Also, as an ongoing process to collect those who have made an enquiry on the Council's website and have been directed to the Registration (see below) page for data collection prior to entry into the 'private community'.

This is a page completed by those who are being recruited to join the 'private community.' Respondents can give their contact details together with demographic and geographic information and also any areas of interest which respondents may have and may wish to discuss with other respondents and the Council.

Keyword searchable information repository of previous, current and future topics/consultations. Easily provide URL links to external and third party information and services.

With unlimited levels of administrative access and control, you can grant administrative users access to just the sections you want, even down to the page level. Accounts access includes enforceable security including configurable periodic change and is flexible enough to enable mimicking of existing security protocols such as minimum length and multiple character sets.

Users can be assigned different administrative roles; some users can edit and publish new content or consultations, while others can only post draft content. Once approved, that content, survey or consultation can be published with one click. The built-in review and workflow process makes it easy to send a page to another user for review and comments, or just a simple notification that there's a new consultation on the site.

All actions of administrators, users and respondents are tracked on the system.

The system includes an extensive capability to easily create, publish and audit online surveys. These can be tailored and adapted to suit the purpose of each consultation with real-time access to data available from within the administration suite.

key issues - emerging themes - This is essentially a wall where members of the public and key administrators can post announcements and responses to notices. This can be monitored and controlled according to the requirements of the client

This will provide the ability for the client to conduct real time discussions with members of the forum on invitation. Recording of such meetings will also be available for monitoring and evaluation.

Links to archive discussions/outcomes will be made available on the site

Comprehensive reporting tools are available to enable organisation, analysis and reporting on responses to consultations. Collected data can be exported to Microsoft Excel format in one click. NWA will assist with further detailed analysis, weighting and independent reporting of data as required.

The Modular Architecture of Consensus enables the rapid deployment to a live environment usually within a 4 week timescale (dependent on client requirements).

A comprehensive training and support programme will be provided for as long as is required.