# Hello from Etch **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [November 1, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271 "2022-11-01T14:18:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PhilDye](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/phildye/32/80_2.png) [@PhilDye](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/PhilDye)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 2:18pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/1 "2022-11-01T14:18:11Z")
A quick ‘hello’ from me and the team at [Etch](https://www.etchuk.com) - we’re a digital customer experience consultancy and have recently started work on a new directory product for Southampton City Council. We look forward to sharing our journey with the community here, and I’ve no doubt my colleagues will be along in due course to discuss technical topics and challenges! Phil ---
**Author:** ![bloom](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/bloom/32/103_2.png) [@bloom](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2022, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/2 "2022-11-01T14:33:21Z")
Welcome, Phil! I’m quite fond of Southampton, have a bunch of good friends there, including the proprietors of Unity Brewing. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/mikethacker-istanduk/32/8_2.png) [@MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MikeThacker-iStandUK)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 12:11pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/3 "2022-11-03T12:11:15Z")
It’s really good to have you here Phil. We recommend that a directory publishes data via an Open Referral UK compliant API. If you’re customer experience experts, you’re probably also developing one or more front ends on the directory which will read your own API. Of course, you may add extra fields/properties that are not in the standard but needed in your case. Do stay in touch and let us have your API endpoint to take a look at when it’s ready. All the best. ---
**Author:** ![PhilDye](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/phildye/32/80_2.png) [@PhilDye](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/PhilDye)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 12:23pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/4 "2022-11-03T12:23:15Z")
Yep, we’re doing exactly that - building an ORUK compliant API, with custom properties added for our frontend (which we’re basing on the awesome Scout project BTW). ---
**Author:** ![MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/mikethacker-istanduk/32/8_2.png) [@MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MikeThacker-iStandUK)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/5 "2022-11-03T14:01:31Z")
That’s music to my ears Phil. keep in touch and we can give you lots of publicity when your directory is ready. ---
**Author:** ![PhilDye](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/phildye/32/80_2.png) [@PhilDye](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/PhilDye)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/6 "2023-01-31T14:05:19Z")
We’re really pleased to announce that our directory product has gone live today for Southampton City Council, at [Directory](https://www.southampton.gov.uk/directory/). We took the awesome Scout project (with a few tweaks) but used the (equally awesome and open-source) Umbraco CMS to provide an editor-friendly backoffice, with an ORUK compliant API. We’ve still got some features we’re working on for a subsequent release, but we and Southampton City Council are really pleased with what we’ve acheived. We’ll be putting together a full case-study over the coming weeks, but any questions, just ask! ---
**Author:** ![bloom](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/bloom/32/103_2.png) [@bloom](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2023, 2:19pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/7 "2023-01-31T14:19:45Z")
Congratulations!! It would be great to feature your case study [on Open Referral’s blog](https://openreferral.org/category/blog/), when you’re ready! I’d be glad to discuss further. ---
**Author:** ![JamesM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JamesM](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/JamesM)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2023, 10:23am UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/8 "2023-02-16T10:23:17Z")
Yes we are very happy - early days but exciting to be live and lots of opportunities to get people adding and using the directory! ---
**Author:** ![MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openreferral.org/mikethacker-istanduk/32/8_2.png) [@MikeThacker-iStandUK](https://forum.openreferral.org/u/MikeThacker-iStandUK)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2023, 2:59pm UTC](https://forum.openreferral.org/t/hello-from-etch/271/9 "2023-02-16T14:59:11Z")
This is great news. We’ve added the Southampton/Etch Open Referral UK API feed to [the Dashboard](https://openreferraluk.org/dashboard) and [API Query tool](https://tools.openreferraluk.org/ApiQuery/?endpoint=https://directory.southampton.gov.uk/api). With the growth in suppliers supporting the ORUK standard, there should now be no good reason for any UK council to procure a directory that does not support the standard.