Exit process - the closedown procedure

We're always sad to say goodbye, but we understand that these things happen. A responsible supplier should aim to make the process of leaving as straightforward as possible. As important data is involved there are some key steps which both you and we have to go through to ensure you have everything you need before your site is closed.

We've put together this article to explain how this works.

Closedown Steps

1. Setting a Close Down date

When you let us know that you're not renewing then we will give you your close-down date. This will generally be the Wednesday following the end of your subscription.

2. Exporting your data

It is your responsibility to export and save all data and make any record of content you wish to keep from the site by this agreed Close Down date. This may include all response data and user-generated content, any content which may have been added directly into the app (e.g. activities, challenges or consequences), and screen shots of live pages. For all our products, you can retrieve this data at any time, you do not need to wait until your contract comes to an end. Nothing is hidden and there are no technical manuals or instructions you need to follow to get hold of your data, it is all held in simple exports.

Follow the links below to find out how you can retrieve your data:

Exporting data from Citizen Space
Exporting data from Dialogue
Exporting data from Simulator

3. What happens to the URL once your site is closed down

a) If you are on your own sub-domain (e.g. https://haveyoursay.department.gov.uk)

You/your tech team can re-direct your DNS record to wherever you like, such as a new platform/ product, or a holding page. If you do plan to do this then please contact your DNS provider to have the sub-domain pointed at the server hosting your replacement site before the Close Down date. If you do this at least 72 hours before the Close Down then when we close the site your visitors will not see any disruption - just a clean switch-over from your site to your replacement site. Please make sure you have exported all data from your site before changing the DNS record.
If you choose not to do this then visitors to your URL will see an error message.

b) If your instance is on a Delib domain such as organisation.citizenspace.com, organisation.dialogue-app.com or organisation.budgetsimulator.com

Any visitors to your old URL will see an error message.

4. What do we do to 'decommission' your instance?

On the Close Down date, the instance will be shut down and your virtual machine deleted.

5. How long will my data remain in Delib backup systems?

A backup will be retained for 7 calendar days after the close down date.

All data is permanently deleted from Delib backup systems within 8-14 days after the closedown date. Once backups have been deleted, the data cannot be recovered.

Exporting data from your Citizen Space site

As the data controller/owner, it is your responsibility to export and save all of the data you wish to keep. This includes all response data and user-generated content, alongside any content you may have added directly into the app (e.g. activities), and screen shots of live pages (homepage, terms and conditions etc).

In terms of suggested methods for doing this, this is largely dependent on your internal data protection and storage policies, and what you wish to keep. However we have added some options and guidance here:

1) Export the list of all activities

You can do this via Manage Activities using the 'download this list of activities.xlsx' file. This gives you a nice overview of all the activities your organisation has run.

2) Keep a full record of each activity

You may choose to set up local folders for each activity to keep the data for each in one place

Use the 'Print Survey' feature on each dashboard. This also allows for a printable version of all the pages and questions for each activity and allows you to save this as a PDF
Export all the response data for each activity. This can be done by taking the 'download all responses' or 'download all responses including analyst fields. xlsx' export(s) for each activity, both of which contain all the questions and responses. The one including analyst fields also contains any tags or analysis notes you applied
Take the PDF summary report of each activity via the dashboard
Download any supporting documents and activity reports you added. It is likely you have these all saved locally anyway, so you may simply prefer to move them to any local activity folders you've set up

3) Screenshot the homepage and policy pages

You can do this if you wish to keep a record of how your site looked and also any wording in your policies, such as the Terms of use and Privacy policy

4) Take the 'Users' export

This gives you a list of all the admin users you had set up on your Citizen Space site and the permission level they were assigned to

Note: There are tools, such as Site Sucker, which can copy most of the public data from a website - however there are limitations to a tool such as this, so do read their supporting information carefully.

Exporting data from your Dialogue site

As the data controller/owner, it is your responsibility to export and save all of the data you wish to keep. This includes all response data and user-generated content, alongside any content you may have added directly into the app (e.g. challenges), and screen shots of live pages (homepage, terms and conditions etc).

1) Export the site-wide data

You can do this via Site settings using the 'Export raw site-wide data' link at the bottom of the page. This gives you the ideas, comments, ratings and tags data for all the challenges in your site via an .xlsx export

2) Keep a full record of each challenge if you wish

You may choose to set up local folders for each challenge to keep the data for them separate

Take a screenshot of the public-facing challenge page
Export all the response data. This can be done by taking the exports from the bottom of your challenge dashboard. There are exports for: All the challenge data, and a summary report
You may wish to take a screenshot of the challenge dashboard for a record of the challenge states, access settings, creation dates etc.

3) Screenshot the homepage and policy pages

You can do this if you wish to keep a record of how your site looked and also any wording in your policies, such as the Terms of use, Privacy policy, About page, and Moderation policy

4) Take the 'Users' export

This gives you a list of all the registered users you had on your Dialogue site

Exporting data from your Simulator site

As the data controller/owner, it is your responsibility to export and save all of the data you wish to keep. This includes all response data and user-generated content, alongside any content you may have added directly into the app (e.g. your consequences and service groups), and screen shots of live pages (homepage, terms and conditions etc).

1) Export the full response data

You can do this via the Results page, choose 'Export Response Data'

2) Screenshots of all public pages

You can do this if you wish to keep a record of how your site looked and also any wording in your policies, such as the Terms of use and Privacy policy. We'd advise taking screenshots of the: Homepage, Results page, Consequences page, Demographics page and Thanks page.

3) Keep your consequences and numbers

You may have used our consequences template when setting up your Simulator, if so, then keep a hold of this document as it will have all the figures you entered, slider scales you used, and the consequences for each slider increment. If you didn't use it at the start then you could use the template now and copy the data from the Groups and Sliders page in the admin side of your site so that you have a record of the financial details and consequences you entered.

An export of services, slider scales, consequences and other site settings is available from your customer success manager on request. The export is in JSON format and is not intended for general use, but it may be useful to your technical team. We can't provide support for parsing, interpreting or importing this data into any other system, as that would be the responsibility of the owner of that system.