Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors builds premium content portal with Jadu

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has teamed up with content management system (CMS) provider, Jadu, to create the surveying and property industry's definitive online resource.

RICS' knowledge base, isurv, has been rebuilt on the Jadu platform to enable property professionals to access isurv's vast library of legislative, official and practical guidance materials easily from any web-enabled device.

isurv's previous technology platform proved to be both time consuming and expensive, with site administration handled by a third party. Selecting Jadu CMS empowers RICS to update isurv content directly, slashing maintenance costs and drastically improving update speed. For example, legislative changes can be updated in a matter of minutes to ensure Chartered Surveyors on-site have access to the latest legal guidelines as soon as possible.

Navigation of the isurv site has also been improved, with functionality allowing for a more dynamic website experience. Users wishing to save content locally for later consultation, such as environmental compliance guidelines, will soon be able to download entire sections to save and print as a PDF file.

"Property professionals are very experienced using the web as a resource and they expect a certain level of service, which our previous system couldn't deliver," explains James Robinson, Electronic Publishing Project Manager, RICS. "Jadu demonstrated passion for the field and provided a very 'can-do' service that was tailored to our needs and resources. The CMS solution, along with Jadu's proactive support, provides a great foundation for regular improvements which we look forward to delivering with Jadu."

The new isurv website also features Jadu Rupa Enterprise Search for Google; an enterprise search system that uses the Google Search Appliance (GSA) as its core search engine.

Suraj Kika, CEO of Jadu, comments, "We are delighted to partner with RICS and help them achieve their objectives with isurv and electronic publishing. It is vital that the website's subscription base have full access to important property industry information wherever they are and from whichever device they have."

The new website features premium content available to subscribers and the ability to deliver 'teaser' information or snippets of content. This gives users control to select the content channel they wish to subscribe to. Corporate members will also benefit from a single sign-in to all RICS online portals including isurv.

Our aim is to provide professionals with the most useful and reliable information about property and construction practice whenever they need it. Working with Jadu gives RICS considerable advantages in speed, control and flexibility which will help ensure the new isurv is a significantly better product for our customers.

Tim Robinson - Director of Strategic Business Development - RICS

Jadu and RICS will continue to work together planning the rollout of Jadu CMS and Jadu Rupa for Google to the other websites across the RICS Group.

About RICS

With 140,000 members operating out of 146 countries RICS is the leading organisation of its kind in the world for professionals in property, land, construction and related environmental issues.

About Jadu

Jadu helps businesses, public sector and charity organisations to create and manage their online presence quickly, simply and cost effectively. Jadu was formed in 2001 to provide Content Management Systems (CMS) for government organisations. Since its first implementation for the DTI's Oil and Gas portal in 2002, Jadu has evolved further and been implemented for hundreds of private and public sector organisations across the UK.

Providing a refreshing approach to Enterprise Content Management, Jadu offers ground-breaking functionality including integrated Google searches, user intelligence and full statistical reporting, full eGIF and eGMS compliance, intelligent FAQs with a host of other web productivity tools and unparalleled support service.

Published: 26th January 2008