Leading the content transformation behind Buy.NSW

The challenge

Buy.NSW was being developed to replace ProcurePoint as the central digital destination for NSW Government procurement.

The existing content estate was enormous. It included more than 300 policy documents, guides, webpages and other resources, comprising over 1,600 source pages and more than 1,100 accordions.

The material covered procurement policies, schemes, contracts, tools, templates and detailed guidance for both government buyers and suppliers. It had been created over many years, in multiple formats, by different teams and subject-matter experts.

The problem was not simply that some of the writing was difficult to understand. The content itself had no clear, consistent organising logic.

Information was duplicated, buried or divided according to the structure of government rather than the needs of users. Individual source documents frequently addressed several different subjects, while information needed for a single new webpage could be scattered across multiple documents.

Before the content could be rewritten, it had to be determined exactly how the entire body of information fitted together. Antelope Media led that content strategy work.

Antelope Media's role

Antelope Media drove the content transformation from audit and information architecture through to content mapping, restructuring, writing, stakeholder engagement and review.

We worked alongside NSW Procurement and the Buy.NSW digital team, providing the editorial direction needed to turn a large and fragmented source estate into a usable digital service.

Our responsibilities included:

• establishing the content strategy
• auditing the existing ProcurePoint material
• developing the information architecture for the Buying section
• mapping legacy content to the new website
• determining how source material should be broken apart and recombined
• identifying duplication, gaps and conflicts
• restructuring complex procurement guidance
• determining the content design of the new website pages
• writing and editing the new content
• working with subject-matter experts and content owners, and
• guiding content through review and implementation.

Developing the content architecture

We began by auditing the existing ProcurePoint content and examining it from the perspective of the people who would use the new website.

We then developed a new information architecture for the Buying section of Buy.NSW. The proposed structure alone extended to approximately 90 pages.

To make the transition manageable, we created two complementary content maps:

• one showing where every item from the existing content batches should sit within the new website; and
• another showing which source documents and sections would be used to construct each new page.

This exposed gaps, duplication and conflicting information while giving the project team a practical blueprint for transforming the old content estate.

Instead of transferring entire documents into new templates, we broke the material apart, reconsidered what users actually needed and rebuilt it within a clearer structure.

Creating an audience-led procurement journey

A central part of our work was turning procurement policy and procedure into useful guidance.

We organised information around a clearer Plan, Source and Manage journey, making it easier for government buyers to understand what they needed to consider at each stage of procurement.

We also restructured content for suppliers trying to understand government opportunities, eligibility requirements, schemes and contracts.

This required continual editorial judgement. We determined:

• what information belonged on each page
• which material should be consolidated or separated
• what could be removed
• where shared guidance should replace repeated explanations
• how content should be laid out to best provide users with the information they needed
• how technical and legislative requirements could be expressed clearly, and
• how different pages could work together as one connected service.

Working through complexity

Government procurement content cannot simply be shortened until it becomes readable. It must remain legally, technically and procedurally accurate.

We worked with content owners and subject-matter experts to understand the underlying policies, resolve questions and negotiate content outcomes.

We participated in regular project meetings, managed detailed review cycles and adapted the content as priorities, source material and digital requirements changed.

Our role extended beyond providing copy. We helped stakeholders understand how people read online, explained the reasons behind structural and editorial decisions and established a more consistent approach across the website.

What Antelope Media delivered

• a comprehensive audit of the existing ProcurePoint content estate
• an audience-led information architecture
• visual sitemaps and practical content-mapping tools
• forward and reverse mapping between source material and new webpages
• content rationalisation and gap analysis
• restructuring of complex policy and procedural material into user-friendly content
• plain-English digital copywriting
• content for procurement policies, guidance, schemes, contracts, tools and templates
• stakeholder and subject-matter expert engagement, and
• editorial support throughout review and implementation.

The result

Buy.NSW received a coherent foundation for presenting NSW Government procurement information as a connected digital service.

Antelope Media led the work that transformed hundreds of disparate documents and webpages into content organised around what buyers and suppliers needed to understand and do.

The information remained technically rigorous, but users no longer had to reconstruct the procurement system for themselves. Instead, the content journey became both logical and easy to understand.

The work also gave the digital and procurement teams a clear structure for reviewing, loading and managing content across the new website.

Program Director Elizabeth Walter subsequently described Antelope Media as extremely flexible, able to accommodate the complexity of government and skilled in negotiating content outcomes with subject-matter experts.

“I have since engaged them to review and write all procurement content.”

Elizabeth Walter, Program Director

Meanwhile, the NSW Government itself noted that the new site helped businesses save time and resources by simplifying transactions. It observed that government buyers now found it considerably easier to find suitable suppliers and buy from them through the portal's detailed guidance pages, while experienced buyers could go straight to the site's dynamic libraries to find the information they needed.