The National Trust has budgeted £2m to update its digital services, including a new website and mobile app, as part of a £30m overhaul of its technology.

The £2m digital upgrade forms part of the National Trust’s Systems Simplification Programme, which will overhaul both the trust's IT processes for managing interaction with customers and its back-office services.

Howard Scott, head of digital at the National Trust, told Civil Society News that the digital aspect of the system overhaul is just a small fraction of the programme, which will be rolled out over the next five years.

The digital strategy will build upon the technology platforms and content that the charity has at the moment by focusing on three “core pillars”.

These are “content marketing”, which involves telling stories to the charity’s supporters that gets across both the National Trust’s cause and charitable objectives; and “devices”, with a heavy focus on mobile and tablets in particular, which the Trust’s current website doesn’t respond to particularly well. Finally, it will focus on “relevance and personalisation”, which involves saying the “right thing to the right person”, instead of the same thing to everyone.

Howard said: “We’ve got several programs including new mobile apps for the major platforms and a load of other things going on which probably won’t be that public facing, but will enable us to talk to our supporters, including members, non members and donors and anyone else who has a relationship with the Trust in a more personal and relevant way.”

He said that having a two way communication with supporters is a central part of the digital overhaul, and, as a result, "social media will be a big thing moving forwards".

The Systems Simplification programme has four core quadrants, of which Howard says digital is likely to be the smallest one. The other three are: supporter loyalty, which is about having the right relationship with supporters; finance systems; and tills and till systems.

The programme was mentioned in the National Trust’s 2013 accounts. It said it would mean that: “Management information will be quicker and more accurate and tills easier to use and more integrated, removing many of the frustrations
currently felt.”

Dame Helen Ghosh, director general of the National Trust wrote in her message in the accounts: “One of my first priorities will be building the organisation’s capability: simplifying and improving our systems and processes to provide our property teams with the tools they need to look after our properties and serve supporters well”. 

• At the Charity Technology Conference 2014 the British Red Cross will explain how it moved to a new website.