Swindon Borough Council

ICT Strategy 2014-2019

Full report and work plan

ICT strategy report (full) with workplan

30.06.2014 Reference ICT strategy full v1.0.docPage 1 of 116

Swindon Borough Council

Version History

File reference / Date / Author/amend / Description / Status
ICT strategy full v0.1 / 28.05.2014 / D Maclean / Draft / Not yet issued
ICT strategy full v1.0 / 30.06.2014 / D Maclean / Final / Issued

CONTENTS

1EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1Background

1.2ICT strategy 1 – Overall direction

1.3ICT strategy 2 - Information and systems

1.4ICT strategy 3 - Working with others

1.5ICT strategy 4 - resilient, robust and flexible infrastructure

1.6ICT strategy 5 - smart(er) working

1.7ICT strategy 6 - customer focus

1.8ICT strategy 7 - strategic sourcing of IT

1.9The Web and customer management

1.10Strengthening the in-house team

1.11What the strategy will deliver

2INTRODUCTION

2.1Purpose of strategy

2.2Key principles for the ICT service

2.3The starting position

2.4Maturity assessment

2.5Benchmarking

2.6Council direction impacting on ICT

2.7ICT drivers

3STRATEGY OVERVIEW

3.1Introduction

3.2Driving down the cost

3.3Recovering staff confidence in ICT

3.4Enabling the council to work with others

3.5Delivering business benefit

3.6Improve the quality of service

3.7Improve the governance of ICT

3.8Turn ICT from being a “net cost” to being a “net benefit”.

3.9Reduce the risk to the council

3.10Turning these requirements into a strategy

4OVERALL DIRECTION

4.2ICT strategy

4.3Governance structure

4.4Ground rules for the use of ICT

4.5Ensuring the appropriate staffing of the client side ICT function

4.6Having systems in place to manage performance.

4.7Managing risk

5EXPLOITING INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS

5.2Infrastructure

5.3Systems

5.4Applications

5.5Resource

5.6Other activities

6WORKING WITH OTHERS

7RESILIENT, ROBUST AND FLEXIBLE INFRASTRUCTURE

7.1Components

7.2Servers and data storage

7.3Network infrastructure

7.4Desktop environment

7.5Telephony systems

7.6Disaster recovery

8SMART(ER) WORKING

8.1Introduction

8.2What’s needed

8.3Smart working

9CUSTOMER FOCUS

9.2Internal customers

9.3External customers

10STRATEGIC SOURCING

11DEVELOPING DIGITAL SWINDON

11.1Context

11.2The Web

11.3Role of the Web in customer service

11.4Web governance

11.5Social media

11.6Digital inclusion

12PROPOSED ICT ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

13PROPOSED INVESTMENT PLAN AND BENEFITS

14LIST OF STRATEGIC PROJECTS (NOT OTHERWISE COVERED)

15ANNEX A – SUMMARY OF CURRENT POSITION

16ANNEX B – PERSONS INTERVIEWED

17ANNEX C – REFERENCE DOCUMENTS

18ANNEX D – CORPORATE PLAN – KEY POINTS

19ANNEX E – CURRENT DESKTOP AND SERVER SYSTEMS

19.1Desktop/laptop numbers

19.2Servers

20ANNEX X – LIST OF APPLICATIONS IN CURRENT USE

21ANNEX F – ICT GOVERNANCE BOARD ToR

21.2Terms of reference

21.3Membership

22ANNEX L – OUTLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGY

22.1Introduction

22.2Three channels

22.3Achieving the ideal – the strategy

1EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1Background

ICT is not currently serving Swindon Borough Council well – various factors including a lack of strategic direction over several years have taken their toll. The current server and data storage infrastructure is outdated and largely unstructured; it is inefficient to maintain and support, and there are some key gaps which place some of the council’s information and systems at risk. Most importantly, the council is not reaping the benefit it should from its ICT – so overall ICT is seen as a net cost rather than a net benefit.

To remedy this, a five-year strategy for the council’s ICT has been developed (this document). Based on interviews with key staff throughout the council, and a detailed analysis of the current ICT provision, it addresses the current weaknesses of the ICT service and focuses on supporting the council in the achievement of its strategic objectives over the next few years.

The strategy recognises that Swindon Borough Council is changing as an organisation, and as a result, its requirements for ICT need to change. The Council is becoming more of a commissioning and enabling organisation, and seeking to work more closely with communities, public sector partners and voluntary groups to achieve better outcomes for citizens and businesses in the area in more efficient and cost effective ways. This means the council increasingly needs to share information with other organisations and to enable more flexible access to its information systems from those of other partners. This will enable and support individuals and communities to take more responsibility for their own well-being and that of their community, and to seek new and more efficient ways of matching individuals’ needs to the services available.

The ICT landscape, too, is changing - virtual servers, structured storage and virtual desktop environments are now the norm and offer significant advantages in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO), security and flexibility. The use of a secure Cloud for data storage and to host and deliver software applications is becoming commonplace, supported significantly in the public sector by central government. Tablet technology has at last come of age. “Bring your own device” – the challenge of enabling employees and others to use their own devices to access corporate networks and information is now widely accepted within the security constraints of PSN compliance. A national initiative will deliver high-speed broadband access to the internet throughout the country. Open Source products have also come of age – particularly for web content and customer management, standard office products, and for core products such as financial systems and document management systems.

ICT sourcing options are changing too – with a clear trend towards shorter, more focused arrangements for sourcing ICT support and services, replacing the older, longer-term contracts.

The following sections outline the seven key strands of the proposed ICT strategy, which together tackle the issues identified from the review of ICT, and position the ICT service to meet the needs of the Council in the future.

Summary Figure 1 – the seven strands of the ICT strategy and how they address current concerns

1.2
ICT strategy 1 – Overall direction

It is proposed that an ICT strategy (this document) will be produced annually, on a rolling five-year horizon – with the first year in detail, and future years in outline. This will set out the overall business objectives and outcomes which the strategy seeks to achieve, and the ICT systems and services needed to achieve them. It will propose a programme of work covering both business-as-usual and specific projects, and will set out the financial provision needed for achieving it.

It is also proposed to:

  • Create a Governance Board for ICT, to ensure that the strategy is created each year, and to take ownership of it; to ensure its implementation and decide priorities for ICT projects within the strategic framework.
  • Establish clear ground rules for ICT, for agreement by the Governance Board – covering ICT security, practice guidelines, procedures to ensure the achievement of benefits from ICT and to be consistent with information governance policies and standards.
  • Create similar governance boards for the corporate website and for customer service (an Information Governance Board already exists)
  • Re-structure the in-house ICT staff to pool the existing dispersed resources and provide a stronger and more focused direction to the development of ICT in the organisation (see section 1.10)
  • Appoint a Head of ICT Strategy and Information to be the strategic manager of both information and technology resources of the Council
  • Ensure the effective management of change to infrastructure and applications – including clarity of responsibility between systems/application providers, ICT provider, in-house ICT and the service requesting or implementing the change – including formal systems for planning, testing and handover
  • Change the relationship between the Council and its ICT provider, driven by a recognition that the ICT landscape will change dramatically in the next few years, as migration to the Cloud gains momentum. The contract for core ICT support needs to change radically, and to reduce year by year.
  • Review the funding arrangements for ICT – it is proposed that the core “Business as Usual” ICT service, covering core infrastructure, basic desktop/end user devices and corporate systems are funded centrally; service specific applications, projects and services to be funded by the service concerned
  • Manage all spend on ICT (equipment, services, systems) centrally through the Head of ICT Strategy and Information and ensure that all ICT spend is identified as such in the financial accounting system. This is to ensure compliance with the ICT strategy and to maintain a clear view of the overall spend on ICT in relation to the benefit it delivers.
  • Involve ICT at the earliest stages of any projects with an ICT element to them – to ensure ICT input to the specification of requirements, early involvement in the project design and management, and focus on achieving business benefits from the ICT investment
  • ICT strategy 2 - Information and systems

It is proposed to re-design the ICT infrastructure to better reflect the key role and importance of information to the council – by creating an appropriate efficient and secure infrastructure, implementing relevant systems, backed by the necessary resource. This means we plan to:

  • Develop a well-architected structure for server and data storage (moving to a virtualised server environment and well-organised data storage such as a Storage Area Network (SAN), leading to a migration to the Cloud). Tackle the large volume of data which is currently unstructured and of uncertain value by de-duplicating the data and implementing tiered storage so that older, less-used data uses lower-cost, lower performance storage (and hence reduces the cost of data storage).
  • Implement structured systems for managing information better – starting by auditing what information exists and where it is located, and developing a corporate-wide electronic document and records management system (currently four separate systems are in use), and introducing alternatives to email to reduce the amount of data held in email files. Also manageapplications effectively to meet the business requirements of the council in an efficient and cost-effective way
  • Resource the information management task effectively – recognise that information is one of the council’s key resources (along with staff/skills, finance, and capital assets, all of which are specifically managed). Use the information audit to create an information asset register as a first step towards a full information architecture

Alongside these activities:

  • Continue to develop the spatial data resource in the Council, which is increasingly proving its value in supporting the council in its strategic objectives
  • Continue to develop clear policies and standards for information security and management – ensure completeness and enforcement
  • Develop the website to be the single source of information and service requests for customers – implement the website on a new, open source platform, and significantly re-design the content and structure to achieve this – this is expanded later
  • Critically review, the current use made of the Lagan customer relationship management system (CRMS). Key information on the council’s customers is currently limited, because the CRMS is not being used to best effect and it is not serving its intended purpose. Depending on the review, it is proposed to replace the current system with a lower cost, more focused alternative, linked to or part of the revised web platform (again open source)
  • Review all the entire portfolio of applications in use in the council in order to identify opportunities to rationalise and reduce the number of supported systems
  • Review key applications in use in the council to ensure full value is being derived from them – some are not delivering their full potential; link this to the information asset register to create an information architecture – aiming to rationalise information and derive more benefit from it.
  • Review and ensure that a clear support agreement exists for each application, making clear the support requirements from the application provider, the ICT service provider, internal ICT and the service using the application.
  • ICT strategy 3 - Working with others

Proposed changes to the infrastructure (well-architected server and data storage, virtualised server environment, virtualised desktop environment) will all facilitate joint working with others – with partner organisations and communities/individuals

Self-service on the website will support not only customers, but will enable communities and individuals to take more responsibility for their local areas by being able to use the web platform for community microsites, and to create forums for matching individuals’ needs to services available locally.

Other proposed changes are:

  • Use social media in a structured way – for outreach, engagement of minority or community groups, local democracy
  • Develop the data warehousing/data mining capability (currently being developed for spatial data) to enable better directed services and to support joint working.

  • ICT strategy 4 - resilient, robust and flexible infrastructure

The infrastructure comprises three main elements:

  • The servers and storage devices that store the Council’s data and host the applications used by the Council
  • The network that links the servers to the end users (as well as linking the servers together and providing connections to the Internet); this is both wired and wireless
  • The end-user devices – the desktop computers, laptops, tablet devices, printers, scanners, cash tills and IP phones – everything that connects to the network.

For the server and data storage infrastructure – it is proposed to

  • Develop an overall architecture (as referred to in 1.3 above) – to be a virtualised server environment, backed by a storage area network, leading to a migration to a Cloud-based solution.
  • Migrate to the new architecture as existing servers fall due for replacement (a large number require immediate replacement)

For the network infrastructure:

  • Review the network architecture – the capacity is generally satisfactory for current needs but may need some upgrading of older switches and some increase in capacity to cope with the introduction of records management and an increase in smart and mobile working
  • Review Wi-Fi coverage in SBC buildings to bring all up to a consistent standard (needed for effective mobile working)
  • Re-visit the possible development of Borough-wide Wi-Fi in the light of the potential funding from BDUK– for council use and public use – to further support and enable mobile working

For the desktop environment

  • Migrate to a virtualised desktop environment to replace the current thick-client configuration. This will involve additional server infrastructure and software licensing (the costs are well established from experience in other councils), but offers long-term benefits of lower total cost of ownership (TCO), greater flexibility, extension of life for existing end user devices, stronger security, ease of working with partners (and reduction in cost for Windows 7 upgrade)
  • Review printer/scanner deployment to optimise positioning and overall value for money (e.g. avoid multiple printer types (requiring different consumables) in one location)

In addition, it is proposed to replace the current Disaster Recovery arrangements (5 day response, with limited cover) with a fully replicated/mirrored storage solution giving immediate response and full coverage; strengthen the council’s business continuity (BC) plans

1.6ICT strategy 5 - smart(er) working

Smart working is only partly implemented in the council – leaving opportunities for further benefits to be achieved.

The introduction of the virtualised desktop (proposed in 1.5 above) and EDRMS (see 1.3 above) will help – these will allow access to records and documents from any location – so will support flexible working, easier mobile and home working, and the current hot-desking arrangements.

The proposed implementation of corporate EDRMS will also reduce the requirement for paper document storage (and the office space it occupies).

For smart(er) working it is proposed to build on the current hot-desking solutions in the council by enabling electronic access to documents and records, reducing the reliance on email (particularly for distributing documents), enabling more collaborative tools, and rationalising communication tools. This means:

  • Continue to develop a solution to support mobile working in the short term, pending completion of the virtualised desktop environment
  • Rationalise the current telecommunications facilities – three unrelated telephone systems are in use; develop the use of audio and video conferencing, in the longer term, review the options for unified communication
  • Examine options for alternatives to email – instant messaging, collaborative work-spaces, discussion forums – to be more efficient and more immediate than email, and when combined with EDRMS should reduce data storage required, and enhance personal productivity
  • Develop self-service for internal processes to reduce manual processes and staff intervention needed – e.g. for leave applications

There is potential for Members to lead the way in smarter working – through adopting electronic means of distributing and accessing committee papers, the use of tablets, and using the (re-designed) council website to support constituents.

There is also potential to streamline procurement processes through the use of electronic procurement portal(s) – which will also present a more modern image for the council.

More generally, it is proposed to develop a stronger focus on achieving business benefits from ICT-related projects – through more effective project management, a consistent use of business cases, and on benefits realisation. Related to this, it is proposed to inject a stronger business analysis input to ICT projects.

1.7ICT strategy 6 - customer focus

Internal customers

It is proposed to:

  • Implement regular monitoring of how satisfied internal customers are of the ICT service, seeking to achieve a consistent year on year improvement. The review should reflect a combined view of both the in-house and external ICT provision.
  • Ensure that ICT service staff work to ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) practice procedures. ITIL is recognised as the industry standard for ICT management and service delivery.
  • Implement improvements to the service desk response, to demonstrate that root causes of faults are being tackled, not just symptoms. The move to a virtualised desktop environment will enable direct swap-out of faulty equipment which will aid rapid response and will reduce staffing needed for technology support
  • Continue to undertake business liaison visits – to bridge the gap between ICT and the business. Resource this with existing in-house systems support staff, potentially aided by further training.
  • Implement a stronger focus on achieving business benefits from ICT – through more effective project management, the use of a clear methodology for supporting project management, insistence on business justification to support ICT investment (clear business cases to support all planned projects).
  • Manage expectations better – disseminate service standards for ICT service elements (e.g. how long to fix a PC); implement KPIs for all aspects of the ICT service that reflect user experience

External customers