Typical implementation lead times for a council?
From the Loci team’s perspective, it is around 1 week worth of effort to get the application live for a new council. However this is influenced by the response time of the council in providing the approval on the URL’s that we propose for the app tiles, the approved logo and the HEX colour code. From our experience, and taking into account potential council response times, this process can be anywhere from 1-4 weeks.
For further information on the end-to-end onboarding process, please visit the following page on the Loci knowledge centre: https://knowledgecentre.lociapp.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/5149787617311-How-Councils-Get-Started-with-Loci-Onboarding-Process
What does onboarding involve for IT and service teams?
IT and service team involvement is kept to a minimal during the onboarding process of Loci. The platform is designed so councils do not need to deploy new infrastructure, run technical projects or support Loci operationally.
Loci is built around three core technical priorities:
- Security and trust
- Low operational impact for council IT
- Scalability and resilience across authorities
For a standard Loci deployment, councils do not need to:
- Provide APIs
- Host or replicate data
- Configure internal firewalls
- Install plugins or extensions
- Support identity or authentication systems
- Provision servers or cloud capacity
Loci retrieves public service information using secure methods such as:
- Direct HTTPS calls
- HTML parsing
- Web crawling using headless browsers
This allows Loci to maintain a normalised, up-to-date copy of council service information without accessing internal systems or generating load. Scraping is intentionally low-frequency and uses exponential backoff with jitter to avoid traffic spikes.
For further information on the technical setup for Loci, please visit the technical overview on our knowledge centre here: https://knowledgecentre.lociapp.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/5151047675935-Loci-Technical-Overview
What support do you provide during setup?
The Loci Customer Experience team will provide an end-to-end onboarding for councils. All we will need from the council is to provide an approved council logo, a HEX colour code for us to use for branding the council services section of the app & for your team to review an excel sheet with the URL’s that we are proposing to use in the application based off of the Semrush data we collate on the most visited URL’s for the councils website.
What does “good” adoption look like in the first 3–6 months?
Based on similar council apps that have launched/promoted, on average they have achieved a 20% download rate from the adult population of the council within a 6 month period.
To support the council's successful promotion of Loci to its residents, we provide fully customised co-branded content and copy for the council to leverage across all platforms/avenues e.g. social posts, newsletter features, website banners, digital assets for public spaces etc. You can find examples of previous examples here: https://loci-launch-assets.netlify.app/
What is the exit strategy if a council decides not to continue?
As per the Loci Branding agreement:
4.2.1. Either Party may terminate this Agreement by providing thirty (30) days’ written notice.
4.2.2. Upon termination, Loci will have thirty (30) days to remove all reference of the Council from its presentations, on the website, or in any marketing materials.
How portable is council content?
All content is council managed, and therefore this is not applicable in this case. Loci acts as a portal signposting to the councils content and therefore does not directly hold any of the data, hence there is nothing to be migrated away from Loci is the partnership was to end in the future.
What risks should we be aware of from an IT, reputational and operational perspective?
From an IT, reputational and operational point of view, the risk is relatively low because Loci is designed to sit alongside existing council channels, not inside core council infrastructure. It does not require councils to replace systems or hand over service delivery, and it can operate without direct integration into council infrastructure where needed.
From a resident perspective, the experience remains stable and familiar. The app is Loci-branded, with a dedicated council services area that can reflect the council clearly for residents without creating confusion about where official information sits. Operationally, resident support is handled directly by the Loci team, which helps reduce pressure on council teams.
It is also designed to have minimal disruption over time. If a council chooses not to continue a partnership, the wider community experience can still remain available to residents, so there is no sudden loss of the local platform itself. That makes the model lower risk than something that requires councils to build, own and maintain a standalone app or service from scratch.