The Client

The Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) is a major public safety initiative jointly owned by the Canal & River Trust and the Environment Agency. Its mission is to minimize the risks of fires, explosions, or pollution on boats, protecting both the people who use the UK's inland waterways and the surrounding environment.

The Challenge

As the governing body for boat safety standards, the BSS manages a vast network of certified examiners and high-volume public inquiries.

The primary technical challenges were:

• Data Integrity: Ensuring the public-facing "Find an Examiner" tool always reflects the most current certification status and contact details for examiners nationwide.

• Administrative Efficiency: Moving away from manual entry for public inquiries to ensure safety concerns are addressed rapidly.

• Information Accessibility: Making complex technical standards easy to navigate for both professional examiners and recreational boaters.

The Solution

Plan 9 developed a high-performance platform on Umbraco that functions as a real-time extension of the BSS’s internal operations, achieved through deep Salesforce integration.

Key features of the project include:

• Salesforce-Driven Examiner Search: The "Find an Examiner" directory is not a static list; it is a live integration with Salesforce. This ensures that when an examiner's details or certification status change within the CRM, the website updates automatically, providing boaters with 100% accurate data for their mandatory 4-yearly examinations.

• Automated Support via Web-to-Case: To streamline communication, all contact forms across the site are integrated with Salesforce Web-to-Case. Inquiries are funneled directly into the BSS support pipeline, allowing the team to track, manage, and resolve safety queries with greater speed and transparency.

• Digital Standards Library: We transformed the extensive BSS Essential Guide into a structured, searchable digital format, allowing users to quickly find specific safety requirements for fuel, electrical, and LPG systems.

• Dynamic Safety Alerts: A central hub for safety bulletins and emergency requirements, ensuring that critical warnings—such as Carbon Monoxide alerts—reach the community instantly.

The Result

By connecting the digital front-end to a Salesforce back-end, Plan 9 has turned the BSS website into a lean, automated service hub. The site acts as the definitive authority for inland waterway safety while significantly reducing the administrative burden on the BSS team.

Since the launch, the platform has:

• Guaranteed Data Accuracy: Eliminated the risk of displaying expired or incorrect examiner details by using Salesforce as the "single source of truth".

• Optimized Inquiry Handling: Reduced manual data entry and improved response times for public and professional inquiries through automated case creation.

• Enhanced Public Trust: Provided a reliable, high-availability channel for compliance and safety awareness during a period of significant governance evolution.