Policy paper

UKTI open document publishing

Updated 4 June 2015

1. Purpose

This plan covers:

• UKTI’s approach to publishing documents on GOV.UK using open standards
• implementation of open document standards across UKTI
• open standards and office productivity tools within UKTI
• open document formats for UKTI’s integrated tools

2. UKTI’s audience

UKTI’s audience is primarily:

• UK based businesses looking to be successful in international markets
• overseas companies looking at the UK as a location to set up or expand their business

3. Phase 1 - publishing in open format

• the majority of UKTI related content on GOV.UK is published in HTML5 format
• CSV format is used to publish UKTI transparency data
• PDF is used for selected UKTI publications
• Word documents and Excel are rarely published by UKTI on GOV.UK

3.1 Publishing tools

• the GOV.UK content management system is used to create content in html
• CSV files are created using Microsoft Office 2010. They will continue to be published in this format
• PDFs are provided to UKTI by third party agencies using their own publishing tools. We already require these agencies to provide content in an accessible format but not all are PDF/A compliant

3.2 Plan for implementation of open document standards on GOV.UK

UKTI’s original plan (below) is now complete and we will continue to ensure future content is compliant. The original plan included the following actions:

• UKTI’s Digital and Content team now ensure that all items submitted to them for publication comply with open standards. Any word or excel documents are published in open document format
• UKTI’s Digital and Content team have updated UKTI’s guidelines for UKTI content owners to include the need to produce GOV.UK content that is compliant with the standards
• UKTI’s Production Unit always informs its third party agencies of the need to provide publications that are PDF/A compliant. UKTI’s Digital and Content team also make sure that all PDF publications published on GOV.UK are in PDF/A format

4. Phase 2 - Office Productivity Tools and ODF

4.1 UKTI staff overseas

Around 1300 UKTI staff overseas use Microsoft Office 2013. This is the productivity suite which is part of the cloud-based UKTI Mobile Office System.

MS Office 2013 is compliant with ODF 1.2 and staff have been instructed in how to save documents to ODF. There are no immediate plans to change the default settings at an administrator level to mandate saving documents in ODF. This policy will be reviewed in November 2015 when the Mobile Office contract is re-tendered.

UKTI staff overseas also use the FCO Firecrest system. This uses Microsoft Office 2007. Please see the FCO ODF plans for further information on compliance in this area.

4.2 UKTI staff in the UK

The majority of UKTI’s UK-based staff use the BIS Evolve system. This uses Microsoft Office 2010. Please see the BIS ODF plans for further information of compliance in this area.

4.3 Future plans for Office Productivity Tools and ODF

• by 30th June 2015, UKTI will provide clear guidance to its Mobile Office users explaining the process for saving documents to ODF. We will also engage with this user group to promote the importance of using ODF as the default standard and provide support, where necessary
• UKTI will also collaborate with its parent departments BIS and FCO to ensure that UKTI staff using these systems have received the appropriate guidance and training

5. Phase 3 - Open document formats for integrated tools

• from July 2015, UKTI will review all of its in-house applications to check their compatibility with ODF guidelines. Our ambition is to complete this by September 2015
• UKTI will decommission or update its applications within each contractual lifecycle to support the move to ODF whilst still ensuring value for money
• UKTI’s CRM system will reach the end of its contract in March 2017 and any future replacement will be designed to comply with ODF guidelines