Two factors were determinant:

• The general management wanted an intranet tool to manage internal information (publication, centralized working documents and resources for council staff),
• Government decentralization, which will increase the number of staff from 1,000 to 3,000 by the end of 2008.

It was essential that the future tool be open, malleable and evolutive, and able to bear heavy loads. A tool developed earlier in-house handled some of these needs, but it failed to live up to the expectations of users and the IS Manager.

The IT Department, working in collaboration with the Communication Service, started by consulting and federating the various Council Departments to find out their needs then decide how to organize and structure the future site into sections and functions.

This audit identified 15 priority points including:

• The technologies used (Java, XML)
• Openness: a modular, non-proprietary tool was needed
• Functions to ensure future evolutions (publication, documentation, forum, and notably handling of content validations in a workflow)
• Support and training during implementation of the solution
• The possibility of adding collaborative spaces

Out of ten initial proposals the Council shortlisted three. In the end, Jalios JCMS was found to be better than rival products on all the priority features.

Guillaume Rousseau, Applications Manager in the Finance and IT Department, says:

"Impossible to find fault with Jalios: competent and available people!"

"Jalios JCMS is a practical tool, rapid and evolutive and capable of supporting our future projects. With JCMS we do not feel at all constrained."