Meeting documents

The Head of Business Support provided an update on the Joint ICT Strategy. Approval was given by the Joint Committee on 28 June 2018 for the proposed Shared ICT Strategy.

At the same meeting, although not part of the ICT Strategy, approval was given to move Officers to using a shared email address of @chilternandsouthbucks.gov.uk. Approval to use the domain name was given by the Government Digital Service on 22 August 2018. The ICT Infrastructure Team completed work on configuring the email server by 7 September 2018 and the shared email address was now ready to use. Work had been undertaken with the Communications Team to ensure that residents were aware of the shared email address and for changes to be made to webpages and letter templates.

In response to this update Members were informed that staff would cease using the single email address on a service by service basis. Redirection of emails would be in place for a reasonable length of time.

In relation to the Shared ICT Strategy the Head of Business Support reported that a budget of £30,000 was authorised to cover the cost of employing external expertise to help develop the financial and technical business case for a move to a cloud delivery model. Technical workshops were planned for early October. The logical approach for a move to the cloud was to build on the existing in-house knowledge of Microsoft. Councils were not yet ready to move to a pilot for Windows 10 as not all core IT systems were Windows 10 compatible.

Members were also informed of the ‘Delete the Data’ project in line with the Information Governance Group programme. Files would be deleted if they were between 7-10 years old or 5 years old if they had not been looked at for a long period of time. Under the General Data Protection Regulations it was important to get rid of information after it had been held for a period of time, particularly personal data. Staff would be asked to manage their email inbox to only keep recent emails. A Member commented that some departments deleted their data quickly whilst others held onto it for a longer period of time. Planning documents were held in perpetuity whereas other information such as licensing had a shorter shelf life.

Members asked whether a small specialist company would be used to hold cloud files and were informed that the Council was looking at Azure Cloud Services because of their experience. A question was asked about the possibility of a Unitary Council and was informed that this would be a long project. Wycombe were using the same provider but Aylesbury Vale District Council was working on different options.

The Head of Business Support reported that the following transformational projects were being supported:-

·         Insourcing of the SBDC Rev\Bens IT systems

·         The digitisation of the planning archive

·         IT aspects of set up for the Customer Experience Programme

·         Flexible and mobile working in Environment and Rev/Bens Services

Goss were providing the software for the Customer Experience Programme. There would be an overlap between the current and new supplier. The Head of Customer Services reported that the new system would be released shortly and they would be working closely with Service areas.

The Head of Business Support reported that with the insourcing of the SBDC Rev\Bens Team some staff would be working remotely as they did not live in the local area. They would be supported in mobile working arrangements. The system used by Northgate called Academy would be brought in-house. The system at Chiltern District Council was Civica. In the longer term one system would be investigated.

A Member asked about mobile working and what equipment would be made available in the future. The Head of Business Support reported that rather than have ipads they would look at Notebook/Surface Pro computers with touch screen. Reference was made to the shorter battery life and the need for wireless chargers to avoid the need of charging cables. Another question was asked about staff using their own devices, but this would be difficult because of the level of security required. However, with new Microsoft technology any mobile device would be secure.