RESOURCES POLICY PANEL - 9 NOVEMBER 2006
PART I -
11. VALUE FOR MONEY - ICT
(DSS/DCR)
1. Summary
1.1 This report commences the process by which the Council will be able to demonstrate value for money in its information and communication technology services.
2. Details
2.1 The Executive Committee on 5 June 2006 (Minute EX04/06 refers) agreed the principles behind the Council’s Value for Money Strategy and that Waste Collection and ICT services should be the subject of benchmarking in the current year.
2.2 Benchmarking information on waste collection is to be reported to the Public Services and Health Policy Panel.
2.3 The Value for Money Strategy seeks to demonstrate efficiency by determining appropriate input and output measures and by the use of regression analysis comparing the Council with other authorities.
2.4 A Best Value Review of ICT was completed and signed off by this Panel on 14 September 2006, Members agreed that the outstanding recommendations and monitoring from the Improvement Plan be incorporated into the ICT Service Plan. The key findings are detailed in Appendix 1.
2.5 To further demonstrate value for money it is proposed to undertake benchmarking using comparative information collected by the Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM). The input and output measures to be used and the timetable is attached at Appendix 2.
3. Options/Reasons for Recommendation
3.1 The recommendation is made so that benchmarking of the ICT service can commence.
4. Policy/Budget Implications
4.1 The recommendations in this report are within the Council’s agreed policy and budgets. ICT should contribute to the delivery of high quality services effectively, efficiently and economically.
5. Legal, Equal Opportunities, Staffing, Environmental, Community Safety, Customer Services Centre, and Website Implications
5.1 None specific.
6. Financial Implications
6.1 There are no changes to the budget or the efficiency gains already agreed by Members as a result of this report.
7. Risk Management Implications
7.1 There are no risks associated with the decision members are being asked to take.
8. Recommendation
8.1 That members agree the action to be taken to benchmark the ICT service.
Background Papers
ICT Best Value – Options for Service Delivery – ICT Panel 15/07/03
ICT Best Value Review – Facilities Management Procurement – ICT Panel 29/04/04
Consideration of Recommendations from the ICT Panel and Resources Policy Panel for ICT Best Value – Facilities Management Procurement – Executive Committee 28/06/04
ICT Update Report - Best Value Review of ICT- Final Improvement Plan - Resources Policy Panel 14/9/06
Report prepared by: Denis Adams – ICT Manager
David Gardner – Director of Corporate Resources
APPENDICES/ATTACHMENTS
Appendix 1 - ICT Best Value Improvement Plan - Key Actions
Appendix 2 - SOCITM Benchmarking
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APPENDIX 1
ICT Improvement Plan – Progress Reporting Table
This table is an extract of the final improvement plan produced at the end of the Best Value Review of ICT. A full version of the overall plan is available from the ICT Officer. Items on this table are either outstanding items from the mid-term Improvement Plan or new issues identified in the staff surveys and workshops conducted during 2006.
Shaded tasks represent those issues that are either completed from the mid term plan or now require on-going monitoring.
No / Recommendation / Priority / Responsible Officer / Original Implementation Date / Actions Completed Since publication of Mid-term Plan / Future Actions Identified / Revised Implementation / Review Date (if necessary) /1. / Perceived lack of user participation in the planning of new systems and developments / High / ICT Manager / Telematics Programme Area Team / November 2003 / · Telematics groups meeting regularly. Re-emphasised responsibility of reps to disseminate information to their staff as necessary.
· Development of the Information Strategy
- Workshops with key users and Management Board when information gathering
- Regular consultation with Management Teams
- Telematics acting as communication links with departments throughout progress
· Additional system user groups have been established to discuss more ‘grass roots’ issues. / · Continued involvement of Telematics group
· Assign ownership of new projects and developments to departmental reps on Telematics team
· Ensure continued development of the existing user groups and establishment of groups that do not currently have a meeting
· Plan for the ICT ‘microsite’ on the Intranet to disseminate information with newsletters, suggestion board, change request, etc. Steria to use I-site for publication of their information
· Review required as the role the newly developed intranet may play in the dissemination of information
· Make the identification of resources (primarily staffing) a key part of the Project Initiation and Project Planning process / October 2006
2. / Address the lack of formalised continuous improvement / High / Medium / ICT Manager / FM Contractor / December 2003 / · Commitment from suppliers and Authority staff to continuous improvement identified in Invitation to Tender.
· New contractor made commitment to continuous improvement in tender documents. Expected to implement regular strategic reviews and management briefings
· ICT team considering plan to address issue in day to day work / · Continued consideration given to developing a culture of continuous improvement within the section and in the contract
· Review of section expected during September 2004 / Complete / On-going
3. / Improve monitoring of the performance of the Facilities Management contractor / High / ICT Manager / FM Contractor / December 2003 / · Invitation to Tender included Service Level Agreements which had been agreed in consultation with Departments
· Requirement included in the ITT for contractors to provide more frequent summary information via the intranet to reach a wider audience
· Standard publication of service delivery reports requested on a monthly basis to be issued to client team and all Departmental Heads. / · Development of new Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as part of the contract handover process
· Review the distribution of the monthly monitoring reports more widely
· Consider publication of summary data to all staff using the Intranet.
· SLAs in place and reported against on a regular basis / Complete / On-going
4. / Requirement to improve the response speed of contractor to resolve user problems / High / ICT Manager / FM Contractor / Departments / December 2003 / · Service Levels developed in consultation with users for inclusion in Invitation to Tender
· Identified need for SLAs to be agreed with chosen supplier of the FM service when known / · New Service Level Agreements to be agreed between departments and Steria
· Continued monitoring of SLAs / Complete / On-going
5. / Requirement to develop 3-5 year Information Strategy / High / ICT Officer / December 2003 / · NCC consultants were appointed for initial phase of Strategy development.
· Staff workshops to ascertain staff view on strategy content
· Face to face interviews with Management Board
· Structure of strategy developed and approved before completion and distribution / · Final publication required / Complete
6. / Improve the existing Change Request procedure / Medium / ICT Officer / FM Contractor / April 2004 / · New electronic method of Change Request Process developed and being tested
· Implementation of pilot system completed April 2004
· Communication of new process completed during March 2004 / · Any changes to existing procedure to be agreed with Steria as part of due diligence process
· New electronic process implemented and used successfully. / Complete
7. / Improvements required to IT Training Programme in terms of structure and content / Medium / ICT Officer / Training Officer / April 2004 / · Provisional meeting taken place with Training Manager
· Identified new methods of training delivery and a need to run courses more frequently
· Second meeting took place in February to make specific plans for new training programme to commence in April
· New training programme commenced in April 2004 / · Investigation with Steria into the use of ECDL on three stages:
- Staff training and development at desktop with external exams
- Accredited centre for staff to take courses and exam
- Opening of centre to train and test the public
· Fully utilise alternative forms of training such as floor-walkers, one to one training, Computer Based training, etc. / December 2006
8. / Improve the availability of staff within ICT team to answer user queries / Medium / ICT Manager / ICT Officer / June 2004 / · Test system for logging calls established – now requires full implementation
· Staffing level review deferred until content management system is in place.
· Cross training of the different areas of expertise is ongoing to provide a better level of cover during staff absence / · Full implementation of logging calls required
· Review of ICT section to take place
· Continued cross training within ICT team to develop better contingencies
· Investigate with Steria the shared ownership of calls (i.e. System Admin calls through the Steria Service Desk) / November 2006
9. / Internal ICT team to deal with users problems more quickly / Medium / ICT Officer / Systems Administrators / June 2004 / · Service levels updated during tendering process
· Staffing levels review deferred until content management system is in place
· Cross training of the different areas of expertise is ongoing to provide a better level of cover during staff absence
· Detailed service levels to be developed during transition process / · Review of ICT section to take place
· Continued cross training within ICT team to develop better contingencies
· Development of Service Level Agreements between user departments and System Admin Team / December 2006
10. / Improve communication links between users and the internal ICT team / Medium / ICT Officer / Systems Administrator / April 2004 / · New user groups established to focus upon specific systems. These are to be attended by members of the ICT team to improve two way communication
· Progress required on developing new methods of communication. The use of content management system to develop an ICT Intranet presence / · Continue to manage the group and create new ones for areas not covered
· Development of the ICT Intranet micro site and implementation of the Steria I-site / December 2006
11. / Address lower than expected levels of system availability / Medium / Systems Administrators / April 2004 / · This issue still needs to be addressed. / · Link to development of Service Levels in item 3 and 4
· Continued monitoring of SLAs / Complete / On-going
12. / Consider potential to expand System Administration function for all departmental systems / Medium / ICT Manager / ICT Officer / Management Board / April 2004 / · Consideration was given during the tendering process for the possibility of System Admin being provided by the FM contractor
· A review of the function is now required to look at the issue internally / · Review of ICT section to take place / August 2006
13. / Address lack of technical skills within the internal ICT team / Medium / ICT Officer / Training Officer / August 2004 / · Training on basic SQL has been given to one member of the ICT team / · No further identification of training requirements identified during appraisal round
· Review perception following the latest staff opinion survey / Complete / On-going
14. / Address inadequate resource plans for new systems and developments / Medium / ICT Manager / Telematics Programme Area Team / August 2004 / · New project management methodology has been developed and approved by Management Board
· Methodology has been tested on two key projects for the Authority
· PID documents now generated for all significant projects to identify resource requirements and risks
· The responsibility for managing ICT development projects has been placed with the user departments. These users will report to the Telematics group to share news on progress / · Continue to use the project management methodology for all projects and use PID documents to identify potential problems
· Identify staff perceptions in the user satisfaction surveys
· Full resource implications to be considered in all PIDs – especially focussing on staff resources required to implement and support the projects in the future / March 2007
15. / Collect information on staff opinion of the ICT service / Low (annual) / ICT Officer / Corporate Initiative Unit / September 2004 / · Identification that the survey requires completion for 2004
· Survey issued in June 2004
· Further survey issued in March 2006 / · Analysis of the results from the survey is required and comparisons made with previous years. / Annual
16. / Collect information on relative performance of the ICT service (Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)) / Low (annual) / ICT Manager / ICT Officer / Performance Improvement Manager / September 2004 / · Early results collected and compared with other data collated by SOCITM. Results reported to Members / · Identification of the Key Performance Indicators requires completion.
· Data requires analysis using templates created for previous year / Annual
17. / Plan for expiry of existing Facilities Management contract / High, Medium and Low / ICT Manager / ICT Officer / April 2005 / · Project Plan Completed
· Consultation with shortlised suppliers completed
· Specification issued on 19 December
· Evaluation process decided upon
· Completed paper evaluation of tenders
· Invited suppliers to make presentations
· Shortlisted three suppliers
· Conducted reference site visits
· Selected preferred supplier
· Generated PID / · Complete period of due diligence
· Complete final contractual negotiations
· Create schedules and service levels / Complete
18. / Perceived lack of senior management commitment to ICT in the organisation / Medium / ICT Manager / Management Board / March 2007 / · N/A (New Task) / · Increase profile of ICT issues at Management Board and Management Team Meetings
· Make staff more aware of IT discussions at Resources Policy Panel by circulating minutes
19. / Make staff more aware of roles and responsibilities between Three Rivers and Steria staff / Medium / ICT Officer / December 2006 / · N/A (New Task) / · Simple publication of roles and responsibilities to all staff
· Increased presence on the Intranet explaining team functions
· User seminars
· Closer joint working to be considered to allow a single point of contact for all enquiries.
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