The Dextrous Web (trading as dxw)

WordPress implementation

dxw are experts in designing, developing and operating WordPress websites. Our GovPress team works with public/third-sector clients to research, design and build secure, accessible WordPress websites, leveraging the highly flexible WordPress block editor. We provide content creation, analytics and SEO expertise and have significant experience migrating sites to our Platform-as-a-Service.

Features

• Specialist WordPress design and development expertise
• Full multidisciplinary team: research, design, development, accessibility, content, operations
• Agile, iterative development approach, following GDS design principles
• Development to meet WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards
• Custom theme and plugin development
• Content strategy and content migration experts
• Flexible hosting, maintenance and support (optional 24/7 support available)
• Specialists in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Analytics expertise - Google Analytics, Matomo, Plausible
• Security review of legacy WordPress sites

Benefits

• Specialists in leveraging open-source technologies
• Deliver value for end users through user research
• Meet your user's needs through custom-built functionality
• Accessibility experts - development to WCAG 2.2AA standards
• We understand security: we're ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certified
• Friendly, helpful support from dedicated WordPress experts
• Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice specialists
• Support for GDS service assessments
• Software development in accordance with government guidance on AI

£800 a unit a day

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at sales@dxw.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

951383207455108

Contact

Alex Jackson
0345 257 7520
sales@dxw.com

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: To help us better understand your needs, we recommend starting development projects with a short inception and planning phase to help uncover user needs and business goals for the service. ; With this in mind, we will consider the best approach to meeting these needs, taking into account your budget, timeline, internal capability and any other technical constraints.; We will then make recommendations as to the best solution to meet your needs
• Planning service works with specific services: Yes
• Hosting or software services the planning service works with:
  • WordPress
  • Dxw's GovPress hosting, maintenance and support platform
  • Client's own WordPress hosting solution

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: When you choose dxw to research, design and build your site, you get the support and combined knowledge of a team of true multi-disciplinary WordPress experts. ; ; Our team are long-standing, active and well-respected members of the WordPress community.; ; We can provide WordPress specific training for publishing teams and site administration teams, tailored to your specific needs.
• Training is tied to specific services: Yes
• Services the training service works with: WordPress

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: Dxw works in an iterative way with its clients. At the start of the work, we will sit with you to define a plan for your work. This will include your goals, needs, assumptions, dependencies, and things that you need to learn or prove. We'll then use this plan to start defining work items for the migration. Where necessary, we can carry out research and discovery work to document your needs or research potential solutions. We can also provide security specialists, technical architects and other specialists as required. We'll also help to define the most appropriate migration strategy for your needs and work with you to complete it. Throughout our work, you will have a named delivery manager, who will manage every stage of the process.
• Setup or migration service is for specific cloud services: Yes
• List of supported services: WordPress

Quality assurance and performance testing

• Quality assurance and performance testing service: Yes
• How the quality assurance and performance testing works: Dxw works in an agile way with clients to inspect and adapt our work to ensure continuous improvement. We have designed mechanisms to promote transparency, use collaborative tools to manage work and keep an always-open line of communication with clients. To keep everyone up to date with progress, direction and concerns, we publish weekly digests and run show and tells to keep wider stakeholders abreast of our progress. In terms of performance testing, we work with you to understand what your key performance indicators are and build these into the service so we can easily report on them.

Security testing

• Security services: Yes
• Security services type:
  • Security strategy
  • Security risk management
  • Security design
  • Security testing
  • Security incident management
  • Other
• Other security services:
  • Security reviews of legacy WordPress applications
  • Third-party plugin security reviews
• Certified security testers: No

Ongoing support

• Ongoing support service: Yes
• Types of service supported:
  • Buyer hosting or software
  • Hosting or software provided by your organisation
  • Hosting or software provided by a third-party organisation
• How the support service works: Dxw can help to support you in your ongoing use of WordPress CMS. ; When you choose dxw, you get the support and combined knowledge of a team of true multi-disciplinary WordPress experts. We’ve been building, hosting and supporting WordPress sites for public sector teams for over 12 years and our team are long-standing, active and well-respected members of the WordPress community. ; ; The exact nature and costs of the support we can offer will depend on your needs. Please get in touch for further details, via the clarifications process.

Service scope

• Service constraints: Our standard support service is available between 1000-1800 on weekdays, excluding public holidays. Only emergency support issues can be addressed outside of these hours.; ; For clients requiring additional assurance, we offer an optional out-of-hours and 24/7 support service. Please get in touch to discuss.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: For urgent priority, the initial response is 1 support hour. For continued support, response times are 2 working hours (though dxw will usually continue working and updating urgent priority support tickets during support hours). For high priority, the initial response is 2 working hours. For continued support, response times are 8 working hours. For normal priority, the initial response is 8 working hours. For continued support, response times are 24 working hours (ie three working days). For low priority, the initial response is 24 working hours. For continued support, response times are 80 working hours (ie two working weeks).
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: No
• Web chat support: No
• Support levels: Our experience has taught us clients’ support needs differ depending on their in-house technical capabilities and the profile of their sites. Our support plans can be tailored to reflect these needs with optional of out-of-hours and 24/7 emergency infrastructure support add-ons. Our support helpdesk is available 10:00-18:00 for routine requests, 08:00-20:00 for out of hours clients and 24/7 for sites requiring emergency support. By raising a ticket, you can ask for assistance with any problem you come across, from a bug on the system to help using the WordPress administration interface. With a minimum of 1 hour of retained support per month, our plans can be scaled up in hourly blocks in line with clients’ regular usage.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Approachable Certification
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 06/04/2023
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Our certification covers all areas of the business and operations.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  dxw strives to positively impact the public and third sectors through its work. One of our key initiatives is our commitment to environmental sustainability and the fight against climate change. We have achieved carbon neutrality recognition by disclosing our carbon footprint calculation, implementing a carbon reduction strategy, and implementing a carbon offsetting program that neutralises 150% of our estimated carbon footprint. We also set ambitious goals for ourselves, including a year-on-year reduction in emissions, collaborating with sustainable and ethical companies, challenging suppliers to reduce their carbon footprints, and working with clients to provide data on their emissions. Our carbon reduction plan is publicly accessible on our website. Working with dxw can help minimise the environmental impact of your digital service through low-tech options, carbon reduction strategies, and offsetting where possible. For example, we can help establish an environmental performance budget for your services, defining key goals and constraints such as page loading times, asset optimisation, and performance ratings. This can help optimise performance, reduce energy consumption, and enhance user experience, particularly in regions with limited electricity access or on battery-powered devices. By reducing energy consumption, dxw can contribute to both environmental sustainability and enhancement of user experience. A service with fewer assets and optimised content can help reduce overall energy consumption for users and at the hosting level. This offers cost savings and performance savings for users. Overall, dxw's commitment to environmental sustainability and the fight against climate change is commendable. Our approach to minimising the environmental impact of the services we work on through low-tech options, carbon reduction strategies, and offsetting, where possible, can help achieve tangible cost and performance advantages for clients while contributing to a better environment.

  Tackling economic inequality

  As an employee-owned company, we prioritise the collective well-being of our staff and strive to create an inclusive environment that represents the communities we live in and addresses the complex and interrelated issues affecting inequality in employment, skills, and pay in the digital and data profession, within the UK public sector and supply chain. Our commitment to promoting equity and diversity is evident in various initiatives, such as advertising job opportunities in platforms targeting underrepresented groups, implementing measures to reduce bias in our recruitment process, introducing standardised pay bands, and providing robust career progression frameworks. We actively engage in initiatives promoting diversity and equity, such as sponsoring Ada Lovelace Day and collaborating with the University of Leeds to inspire talent from underrepresented groups in STEM careers. Our public blog reflects our commitment, where we share insights on diversity and equity issues, including team members' perspectives and discussions on neurodiversity, trans awareness, and more. To gauge our company's standing and identify areas for improvement, we conduct an annual diversity survey, meticulously monitoring and anonymously reporting on nine dimensions of diversity. We also provide open and confidential channels for staff to raise and discuss diversity and HR-related matters. Our leadership team is dedicated to upholding our inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunities policies. We offer training on unconscious bias for new hires and equality in recruitment for hiring managers and allocate an annual learning and development allowance of £1000 and four days for professional development. We actively support team members with paid assistance for professional qualifications and offer flexible and remote working options. By championing inclusivity, fostering professional growth, and addressing systemic biases, we strive for a workplace where everyone can thrive and contribute meaningfully.

  Equal opportunity

  dxw believes that being a team of individuals with different backgrounds, views, and experience enables us to create better public services. We’re employee-owned, so it’s part of our deed of trust to pay staff fairly and support their wellbeing. Our leadership team is responsible for our inclusion, diversity and equal opportunities policy. To understand and identify where we stand as a company and how we can improve, we run an annual diversity survey, monitoring and anonymously reporting on nine dimensions of diversity. We also provide open and private channels, as appropriate, that enable staff to identify and discuss diversity and HR issues and topics. We provide unconscious bias training on joining and equality in recruitment training. We recently offered discipline-specific training for the UCD team on ‘Equity by Design’, which gave our teams practical ways to ensure that BAME communities are represented in our work. We advertise jobs in places that target less-represented groups, e.g. Coding Black Females, Ada’s List and disability-focused recruitment sites. We reduce bias in our recruitment process through anonymisation and situation/skills-based selection rather than CVs. We relocated our HQ to Leeds to create more opportunities outside of London. We introduced standardised pay bands mapped to SFIA levels to reduce pay inequality across and within teams. We use career progression frameworks to set out behaviours, skills, and capabilities needed to progress. We offer flexible working patterns and support remote working. We write about diversity and equity issues on our public blog to encourage representation, including individual team members’ perspectives on equity in March 2023, neurodiversity and autism in the workforce in February 2023, and trans-awareness week in November 2022. We also have a working group that regularly discusses, recommends, and supports actions to improve Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI).

  Wellbeing

  dxw is committed to promoting wellbeing in the workplace and has developed a comprehensive wellbeing program for its staff. The program includes a cash plan, a cycle-to-work scheme, and access to an employee assistance program. We also monitor staff wellbeing through regular check-ins, tracking annual leave utilisation and working hours, and monitoring staff engagement with physical wellbeing benefits. We conduct company-wide sentiment analysis through quarterly surveys to refine our HR policies and address identified issues effectively. This has included the introduction of personal leave allowances in addition to our regular annual leave. To support individual wellbeing, line managers are trained to support staff on individual wellbeing matters and have access to forums for knowledge sharing. Our board of directors actively address health and wellbeing concerns, and any wellbeing issues impacting projects are escalated to the appropriate director for discussion and resolution. We offer flexible work schedules to promote a healthy work-life balance, such as four-day workweeks and compressed hours. ; ; Overall, dxw prioritises employee wellbeing, demonstrating our commitment to socially responsible business practices.

Pricing

• Price: £800 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at sales@dxw.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.