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Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016

Version 1.0

April 2013

South Gloucestershire Council Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 of 30

CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 ............................................................................................ 3

1.2 ICT Vision ................................................................................................................................. 3

1.3 Objectives of the Business IT Strategy 2013-2016 .................................................................. 4

1.4 ICT Services in South Gloucestershire Council ........................................................................ 4

1.5 Corporate ICT Services ............................................................................................................ 6

2 ON THE ROAD TO 2016: RECENT AND EMERGING BUSINESS AND ICT TRENDS............................. 7

2.1 The role of ICT in supporting the Council’s Vision and Core Values ....................................... 7

2.2 Economic environment ........................................................................................................... 8

2.3 Technology enablers for the Business ICT Strategy ................................................................ 8

2.4 Environmental Sustainability ................................................................................................ 10

2.5 UK Government ICT Standards and Guidance ...................................................................... 10

2.6 Aligning with the Council’s core values ................................................................................ 11

2.7 ICT strategic themes ............................................................................................................. 12

2.8 Delivering the Council’s priorities ......................................................................................... 13

2.9 Optimising ICT service delivery ............................................................................................. 14

3 AN ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE BASED APPROACH ..................................................................... 15

3.1 Architectural Principles ......................................................................................................... 16

3.2 Developing the Business ICT Strategy ................................................................................... 18

3.3 Recommended strategic project portfolio............................................................................ 20

4 LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE .................................................................................................. 23

4.1 Strategic alignment ............................................................................................................... 23

4.2 ICT Target Operating Model (TOM) ...................................................................................... 23

4.3 ICT skills and staff development ........................................................................................... 23

4.4 Service management framework .......................................................................................... 24

4.5 Information and security management ................................................................................ 25

4.6 Vendor management ............................................................................................................ 25

4.7 Business ICT Strategy governance ........................................................................................ 26

4.8 Transparent cost of technology services .............................................................................. 27

5 STRATEGY INTO ACTION 2013-2014 ............................................................................................. 28

6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 30


1

1.1 Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016

South Gloucestershire Council’s vision is to achieve the best for our residents and their communities,

ensuring that South Gloucestershire will always be “a great place to live and work”.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has a critical and expanding role in enabling the

Council’s ambition, by providing both radically different ways for customers to access and use

services, and encouraging new internal working practices which can improve both service quality

and staff productivity whilst reducing the overall operating costs of the Council.

The purpose of this document is to define the South Gloucestershire Council ICT Strategy for the

years 2012 to 2016. It builds upon work already undertaken and the key principles of how ICT can be

used to effectively support the delivery of the Corporate Plan objectives. The ICT Strategy sets out a

fresh approach to the provision of corporate ICT services within the Council (excluding the provision

of ICT Services for Schools).

This strategy is intended to be flexible so that ICT developments are not constrained by it but can

change in line with advances in technology and changes in Council priorities, whilst still having a

clear framework within which to operate. It aims to provide a framework for the delivery of

innovative services to our customers, to build a reliable and resilient business driven technical

infrastructure which is both cost-effective and sustainable, and to keep environmental costs to a

minimum.

An organisation-wide project was established to define this strategy. Its board had senior

representation across all departments and a programme of workshops and analysis ensured ICT

users were appropriately consulted.

1.2 ICT Vision

“To provide trusted, agile, innovative and robust value-for-money ICT solutions that enable the organisation to be effective and productive – putting the customer at the heart of all we do.”


1.3 Objectives of the Business IT Strategy 2013-2016

1. Define and agree how ICT will be used effectively and efficiently as an enabler in the delivery

of the Council’s business objectives

2. Define a business system and technical architecture and a measurable roadmap to deliver

common use corporate and service specific capabilities

3. Set out a target operating model to deliver effective and efficient operational services to

agreed service levels

4. Define how IT innovation and agility will maximise associated benefits

5. Define an ICT governance model to enable the strategy to be applied and implemented

6. Enable and deliver a step change in ICT culture across both the service departments and the

ICT function

7. Underpin the Business ICT Strategy, with a rolling 4 year portfolio of business enabling ICT

change projects

1.4 ICT Services in South Gloucestershire Council

1.4.1 About the Council

South Gloucestershire Council is a unitary Council with above average performance and high levels

of resident satisfaction. It is an organisation that performs in the top quartile of Councils with

funding in the bottom quartile.

South Gloucestershire has a rich natural and cultural heritage. It is a mixed urban and rural authority

of great diversity located in the South West of England. It covers 53,665 hectares.

The district has a population of 264,800 and this is projected to increase by 20% to 308,100 by 2026.

60% of the population live in built areas, 19% in markets towns and the remaining 20% live in the

rural areas. This provides an interesting dynamic given 80% of the geographical area is rural and only

20% urban.

South Gloucestershire is relatively affluent but there are pockets of deprivation. The district has seen

substantial levels of development with 62,000 jobs and 21,000 homes since 1991.

Like all local authorities, South Gloucestershire is facing intense financial pressures. Funding from

government will reduce by at least six per cent each year to 2017/18, with similar sums possible for

a number of years after this.


1.4.2 Provision of Council Services

The dispersed nature of the Council’s communities means that service delivery can be costly and

complex which places additional pressure on the Council to strike a balance between competing

customer demands and to be clear about priorities.

The Council provides many of the key public services required to meet the needs and expectations of

the growing population. The Council educates over 58,000 children and young people in 114 schools

as well as caring for 170 children and young people who are looked after. The Council helps more

than 4,850 older people and those with disabilities to continue living in their own homes.

This is in addition to protecting the rich environment and diverse communities whilst ensuring that

the aspirations of the residents for quality jobs and homes are met. From children’s services to

community care, from planning the development of the Council’s infrastructures to strengthening

the prevention and reduction of crime, from waste collection to environmental protection, South

Gloucestershire Council provides over 150 public services which are vital to the residents of the area.

Excluding schools, 3,100 staff members are engaged in providing these services. Additionally an

increasing proportion of our services are being provided by external partners.

In order to make South Gloucestershire ‘a great place to live and work’ the core values of South

Gloucestershire Council, as detailed in the Council Strategy 2012/16 are:

Excellence for our customers and communities;

Strong Community Leadership;

Valuing our Staff;

Engaging with our partners;

Equality of opportunity for all;

Protecting the Environment for future generations; and

Using our resources to deliver Value for Money.


1.5 Corporate ICT Services

The shape of the Council’s corporate ICT service is undergoing a transformation that commenced in

late 2011 as a response to the changing business requirements of the Council, changes to the way

services need to be delivered to the community and on-going cost pressures.

Over the last few years there has been increasing emphasis on flexibility and agility in the way the

Council delivers services and ICT have put in place a number of supporting initiatives; in particular

the Smarter Working initiative launched in 2009 which has seen a shift of 20%-30% of staff now

working remotely on a regular basis. This service development work is on-going and ICT is

committed to continuing to develop new and innovative ways to meet the requirements of the

business and support it in delivering the Council’s core values as set out above.

The corporate ICT function supports the 3,100 staff engaged in providing services and there are

currently approximately 4,000 desktops, laptops, thin client or tablet devices. There are around 30

key business systems and almost 600 business productivity applications in regular use. There are

three primary IT locations and around 30 branch and satellite offices.

In addition, the Schools IT service provides ICT support services to 114 schools in the Council area

and makes use of the corporate IT Data Centres and Network services. The Business ICT Strategy

2013-2016 anticipates increasing co-operation between Corporate ICT and Schools IT services with a

joint approach to ICT service provision whenever appropriate.

The major restructure of the provision of corporate ICT services was delivered as part of the

Council’s wider transformation programme. The overriding aim of the new ICT organisational

structure is to maximise customer service and work more effectively to manage and deliver IT

enabled business change. The service will continue to provide professional IT advice and technical

support to all areas of the organisation including Councillors, other Council departments and

partners.

The Business ICT Strategy will shape and drive the on-going ICT transformation journey over the

coming period of 2013-2016 and will build on the established foundations to meet the new and

emerging business requirements.


2

In developing the Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 a number of enabling or underpinning factors

were considered as follows:

The current and emerging trends within the ICT industry and how these have been successfully adopted in other businesses;

The role that the ICT service has to play in supporting and enabling the Council’s stated vision and core values;

The impact of the current economic landscape;

The requirements for environmental sustainability; and

Current and emerging ICT standards and guidance from central government.

2.1 The role of ICT in supporting the Council’s Vision and Core Values

Localism, regional partnership and policy development, the emergence of city mayors, Police Crime

Commissioners, changes to the National Health Service and other national and regional

developments demand closer working with our neighbouring Councils, other public sector bodies,

the voluntary sector and national government.

The wider Council Strategy 2013-2016 emphasises our ethos of one Council with “..everyone

working in an integrated way..” and our “..culture of collaborative working”.

This need for ever closer collaboration places demands on the Business ICT Strategy to provide the

right systems and services to support and deliver this vision.

The period 2013-2016 will see the Council face continuing challenges such as:

The continued reshaping of the organisation;

Further reductions in available budget for services;

Increased pressure for efficiencies and productivity gains; and

Greater requirement for mobility in delivering front line services.

In this more collaborative, distributed environment, understanding the link between Council policy

and investment decisions and outcomes for customers will become even more important. The

Council will require strong ICT Governance processes to shape the investment decisions going


forward, maximise the return and value for money, and support the organisation in meeting its

objectives. To achieve these goals the Council will require a step change in culture moving to an

approach where an organisation-wide view is always applied to ICT decision making.

The Council will also require strong information management processes and systems including

collaboration tools, social media tools, and greater integration and interoperability across the ICT

landscape, to support not just management reporting but the overall goal of ever more integrated

working.

2.2 Economic environment

The forecasted economic environment over the period 2013-2016 is expected to place further

pressures on budgets, back office services and central service overheads.

The Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 will drive the more efficient use of IT assets through the use of

the Total Cost of Ownership model, ensuring that the ICT cost base demonstrates good value for

money whilst delivering high quality services. This approach calculates the end-to-end whole life

costs of IT Services – from procuring an application, through to data storage, desktop operating

system, network access, maintenance and support, security, and the decommissioning and disposal

of IT assets.

This will require increased rigour in the assessment of change requests for ICT investments and the

implementation of formal governance around the delivery of the Business ICT Strategy.

2.3 Technology enablers for the Business ICT Strategy

A number of enabling factors will support the delivery of the Business ICT Strategy:

The cost of access devices (PCs, laptops, tablets etc.), connectivity circuits and “data centre” services

have fallen significantly in recent years, with some business applications migrating to ‘cloud based’

delivery accessible from anywhere via the Web. Suppliers, local government and national

government are all investing heavily in cloud computing models and the Business ICT Strategy will

seek to leverage these service models for the Council wherever possible to deliver Value for Money

over the period of 2013-2016 while ensuring our information security obligations continue to be

met.

Over the last two decades, the Internet has developed as a major channel for exchanging

information between citizens and government, both local and central. In recent years the further

computerisation of government processes has enabled wider opportunities for self-service and the

introduction of greater automation. The Business ICT Strategy will leverage the further automation

of Council business processes, greater business systems integration, and channel shift.


Consumerisation of ICT, or “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) or “Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC), is

rapidly becoming the norm within the wider business community, and is based on a simple premise:

employees can bring their own devices to work and access all the business systems they need to

carry out their day job. The rationale being that this option increases staff satisfaction as they have

self-selected a device that they find easy and enjoyable to use, and allows the ICT function to focus

on other strategic initiatives, rather than managing and troubleshooting a large estate of physical

devices. There is already a demand within the Council from staff to allow them to use their own

devices for work purposes. The Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 will therefore support this

aspiration and establish the environment that enables this to happen in a secure manner.

As virtualisation technologies mature there are increasing opportunities to do more with limited

resources. In turn, employee expectations are rising. They are looking for greater mobility, device

flexibility and solutions from corporate ICT that can help them in their daily jobs. The Business ICT

Strategy will leverage virtualisation technologies to deliver solutions that support growth, are cost-

effective, and make ICT solutions more efficient, flexible and productive.

Application consolidation may hold even more savings potential than server virtualisation for the

council. Application consolidation can merge redundant systems into a common platform that

reduces complexity, saves money on software licensing and enhances information sharing.

Consideration for application consolidation has been incorporated throughout the development of

the council’s Business ICT Strategy and will form a core aspect of the ongoing ICT governance.

In delivering the Business ICT Strategy the Council will:

Continue to review the functionality and opportunities of emerging cloud offerings;

Assess ‘fitness for purpose’ of proposed solutions when assessing business

requirements;

Ensure that solutions are as ‘future proof’ as possible;

Ensure that agreed SLAs and recovery times are developed, agreed and communicated;

Demonstrate the value for money that solutions offer the Council.

Through the Business ICT Strategy the Council will seek further economies of scale through supplier

rationalisation and consolidation, whilst delivering more business focused IT services which meet the

needs of our services and customers. The Business ICT Strategy will support the rationalisation of the

Council office accommodation, providing increased flexibility for home working including use of

personal devices for Council business and enhance our business continuity provisions where

required.


2.4 Environmental Sustainability

It is essential that the Council’s ICT services are delivered in a way that minimises environmental

impact and contributes to the Council’s environmental delivery targets and aspirations. Importance

is particularly placed on:

Careful procurement which minimises the ICT estate, thus reducing energy use in

manufacture, operational use, and end of life disposal;

Reducing energy use of the ICT desktop estate, supporting the Carbon Management

Plan, and reducing electricity costs to the organisation;

Reducing energy use and heat generated by ICT servers, supporting the Carbon

Management Plan and reducing electricity costs to the organisation;

Encouraging the re-use of ICT assets that can benefit the wider community and

contribute to the digital inclusion initiative, and where this is not possible, to carefully

commission end of life waste disposal for all ICT equipment including consumables so

that there is no detrimental environmental impact and minimising waste to landfill.

Reductions in the carbon footprint will be sought from 2012/2013 including ICT estate

consolidation/rationalisation, increased use of thin client devices and a rationalisation of ICT data

centres.

2.5 UK Government ICT Standards and Guidance

The UK Government has developed an ICT Strategy underpinned by a range of standards, guidance

and services. In particular, the Public Services Network (PSN) is at the foundation of the Government

ICT Strategy. PSN provides an assured network over which Government can safely share services,

including many GCloud services; collaborate in new ways, and work more effectively and efficiently

than ever before.

In developing the Business ICT Strategy we have taken cognisance of the extensive work already

done by the Cabinet Office around ICT strategy and services and will seek to leverage these services

to deliver efficiencies in the delivery of Council services over the period of 2013-2016.


2.6 Aligning with the Council’s core values

The Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 has been developed to provide the capabilities required to

support the Council’s vision and core values as set out in the Council Strategy 2013-2016. During the

development of the Business ICT Strategy a number of Strategic Themes for ICT were developed by

the Business and ICT to support these core Council values and the diagram below illustrates their

mutual alignment.

Figure 1 - Alignment of ICT Strategic Themes and Core Council Values

Delivering Value for Money `

Excellence for our customers and communities

Protecting the environment

Engaging with our partners

Customer focused

Working in an integrated way

Collaborative working

Flexible Infrastructure

Adaptable and appropriate skilled

workforce


2.7 ICT strategic themes

Theme Description

Information management

The Business ICT Strategy recognises the need to drive up customer satisfaction through consistent, common standards and effective front-line activities, whilst also reducing corporate overheads on services. Through this theme, focus will be given to customer records in departmental systems which underpin almost all Council service delivery. Improved governance and tools will be developed, and further use made of document and records management to provide an evidence base for Council decision-making.

Efficiency and effectiveness

The ICT Transformation programme which commenced in 2011 highlighted a proliferation of technologies, systems and applications across the various directorates that appear to carry out similar and/or overlapping functions. Through this theme, focus will be given to consolidating the various systems in use and rationalise the technologies deployed across the Council.

Collaboration The theme of collaboration is one that resonates with the wider Council Strategy 2013-2016 and is a key element to the Council’s vision and core values. The technologies to support collaboration across the Council will be addressed as part of the Workplace Environment opportunity (Table 4 – High priority strategic Infrastructure recommendations) which also supports the environmental theme by looking at the greater use of conferencing technology for meetings to reduce staff travel.

Customer service

The theme of customer service is one that is particularly emphasised in the wider Council Strategy 2013-2016 and is also a key element to the Council’s vision and core values. All the opportunities set out in the strategy must consider whether they enhance customer service as part of assessing the potential benefits. However, the Appointments Booking opportunity (Table 5 – High priority strategic organisation-wide recommendations) was identified as offering particular benefits with regard to customer service.

External partnerships

The theme of improving our interaction with external partners is another key element of the wider Council Strategy 2013-2016. The technologies to support interactions with external partners will be considered in all ICT initiatives and in particular development of standard extranet technologies, collaboration spaces and processes.

Protecting the environment

The theme of protecting the environment is one of particular importance to the Council and will be considered when formulating the delivery of ICT projects. The Workplace Environment and Single Integrated Network opportunities (Table 4 – High priority strategic Infrastructure recommendations) both have the potential to deliver a cost effective and energy efficient ICT estate that delivers reduced environmental impact and enables new and sustainable ways of working for the Council.

Table 1 - ICT Strategic Themes


2.8 Delivering the Council’s priorities

The Business ICT Strategy will encourage the convergence, wherever possible, of business

applications onto more corporately aligned collaboration platforms moving away from traditional

departmental ‘silo’ applications that will not deliver the collaboration or value for money necessary

to tackle the service provision challenges facing the Council and its customers.

The Council will retain on a case by case basis “best of breed” systems that deliver unique

requirements of individual Council services. This strategic approach will support increased joint

working that leverages, wherever possible, common systems and services on a shared services basis

– both within and external to the organisation.

The Business ICT Strategy will require more sharing of systems and functionality across Council

departments to deliver the common business processes wherever required and an approach that

seeks to adapt individual department’s business processes on a best practice basis to enable use of

these common systems rather than adapting systems to meet individual business processes.

Critical to the Council in the period 2013-2016 will be the unlocking of the aggregated value of

information captured and managed in departmental systems through the implementation of a

standardised approach to data interfacing and interoperability between departmental systems,

whilst ensuring we continue to comply with all relevant information governance requirements.

The Business ICT Strategy will seek to leverage more flexible and customer-driven solutions where

possible incorporating Web and social networking tools to track and improve customer satisfaction

levels.

Underpinning the Business ICT Strategy will be a set of agreed Service Level Agreements and

business recovery timescales for key systems, to ensure that the organisation can depend on robust,

available and reliable ICT services.


2.9 Optimising ICT service delivery

The delivery of the Business ICT Strategy will reflect the priorities of the Council and the way our

services are delivered. “Commodity” or utility services, such as document management systems,

network services and data centre services, will be procured through outcome-based contracts using

an aggregated approach where appropriate (i.e. we will be vendor neutral and seek the most

economically advantageous contracts for delivering these technologies, simplifying and

standardising commodity or utility applications and services across the Council where possible).

Through the Business ICT Strategy we will improve our contract and procurement arrangements for

those maintenance and support services essential to underpinning the delivery of ICT services. This

will require the development of enhanced supplier management, commercial and contract

management skill sets to deliver value for money and customer satisfaction.

The Council will seek to develop relationships with key technology partners to support requirements

for rapid deployment of significant business change initiatives or to provide additional 3rd line

support capacity in key infrastructure technology areas.

The Council will also seek to further rationalise the ICT supplier base and drive greater supplier

aggregation to drive out savings whilst ensuring business needs are still appropriately met.


3

The Council has adopted an Enterprise Architecture as the basis for achieving Business/ICT alignment

within the Business ICT Strategy. It is based upon the industry best practice framework TOGAF (The

Open Group Architecture Framework).

“Enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting

the integration and standardization requirements of the company's operating model. The operating

model is the desired state of business process integration and business process standardization for

delivering services to customers. Enterprise Architecture models are arranged in a logical manner

that provide an ever-increasing level of detail about the enterprise: its objectives and goals; its

processes and organization; its systems and data; the technology used and any other relevant

spheres of interest.”

During 2012 an Enterprise Architecture was developed to provide a technical, contractual and

commercial framework for future Council ICT service provision decisions. The absence of a

framework in the past has caused ICT and the wider Council to react to technology requests with ad-

hoc or interim solutions.

The Enterprise Architecture sets out a common strategic approach which offers significant cost and

service benefits. This approach will help to ensure that the Council provisions only what is needed,

that provisioned services will operate effectively together with increasing interoperability, and that

the Council can continue to further rationalise and optimise the ICT estate and improve the

performance and effectiveness of ICT operations across the organisation. These principles have been

developed using both industry and government standards and guidance and adapted to our Council

needs.

Going forward business and technology requirements will be assessed against a set of agreed

Architecture Principles and only those requirements and solutions that meet these principles will

progress to detailed business case development and approval.


3.1 Architectural Principles

The following set of Architectural Principles, which will govern the design and provisioning of the

Council’s ICT services, are summarised in the following table. There is no set priority contained

within these principles with the relative priority of each considered on a case by case basis.

Ref Architecture Principle Explanation

1 Generic capabilities in systems where possible, versus bespoke systems

The Council will pursue a strategy of configuring fit-for-purpose packaged software rather than bespoke software development, and wherever possible encourage the use of “vanilla” products with minimal local customisation.

2 Control technical diversity and consolidate

The Council will seek to minimise and standardise the portfolio of technology implemented across the business. We will seek to consolidate technology so that multiple solutions share core infrastructure appropriately. We will capitalise on organisational-wide licensing benefits and remove multiple versions of the same software whenever possible. We will also seek to ensure that all projects embed decommissioning activities as part of project deliverables and cost.

3 Prioritise supportability The Council will procure and implement solutions that inherently consider the whole life support skills and resources required so that service delivery can be maintained and ensure projects embed IT and business staff training as part of project deliverables and cost. We will ensure that projects consider the on-going support requirements as part of their decision making processes, and ensure the resources to deliver these are identified.

4 Design common use solutions that promote reuse of business functionality

The Council will seek to provide generic ICT capabilities available to the whole organisation that can be repurposed to deliver specific solutions for individual service areas. Where appropriate we will also enable the reuse of standard business process and functionality.

5 Maximise existing and future ICT investment

ICT provisioning decisions will control cost of ownership and support business needs whilst balancing cost, functionality, risk and benefits. This includes reuse of existing applications, infrastructure and skills/capabilities within the business and with our partners. This principle will not impose unacceptable limitations on transformation, and the enterprise architecture will govern the introduction of technology according to actual business need.

6 Embed appropriate Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity provision

Solutions and infrastructure will be selected, configured and deployed in such a way that the business is protected from individual component failures according to prioritised risk and impact assessments. We will ensure appropriate contingencies and reduce risk for when serious failures occur.

7 Ensure availability of ICT Services

Solutions and infrastructure will be designed to meet the required levels of availability of the business. This may include special provision at key times to support periodic fluctuations in demand for the service area.


8 Ensure value for money Through effective contract management and appropriate selection of solutions and suppliers, ICT and the business will prioritise value for money by considering total cost of ownership.

9 Enable agility in ICT Services

ICT systems and services will be designed to ensure agility and flexibility to support potential and known future requirements based on business planning and forecasting. This includes consideration of factors such as simplicity and cost of change without complex dependencies on additional ICT resource or equipment.

10 Ensure scalability ICT systems and services will be designed to ensure scalability to support potential and future use based on business planning and forecasting. This includes consideration of factors such as user concurrency and data storage capacity.

11 Maximise interoperability across ICT systems

The design of ICT systems and services will consider the ease of data exchange, and system-to-system communication.

12 Focus on robust information management and security

Our information will be protected from unauthorised use and disclosure according to corporate policies and standards. Access and changes to data will be recorded where appropriate. ICT systems, services and processes will be designed in a way to comply with relevant security policies and industry standards.

13 Compliance with the law ICT systems, services and processes will be designed to comply with relevant legislation and regulation.

14 Ensure data is accessible and manage master data

ICT systems and services will have appropriate and controlled access to data. Key data types will be defined consistently throughout the organisation wherever possible and appropriate. Data definitions will be understandable to all users. Solutions should ideally expose data in open formats to encourage and simplify the analysis, exchange and use of data.

15 Maintain effective ICT supplier relationships

We will aim to foster “partnership” relationships with ICT suppliers whilst ensuring quality of service and value for money.

16 Enable effective partnership working

We will implement solutions and processes that enable other agencies including neighbouring authorities and other public sector organisations to work efficiently with the Council.

17 Provide easy to use systems

ICT systems will be designed and implemented with the needs of the user in mind so ICT systems are intuitive, meet usability and accessibility best practice.

18 Ensure environmental sustainability

ICT systems will minimise their environmental impact and consider low energy demands and the further reduction of our carbon footprint. Through procurement work to ensure our suppliers are adequately considering their own environmental responsibilities.

Table 2 - Architectural Principles


3.2 Developing the Business ICT Strategy

The Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 is supported by a comprehensive component based

assessment of 164 distinct Council business systems and the underlying enabling ICT infrastructure.

The component assessment provides the Council with insight into current capabilities and required

future capabilities and defines in some detail the business requirements and needs of the

organisation over the period 2013-2016. The assessment followed a structured repeatable approach

that allows for additional assessments in the future of capabilities as business requirements develop.

In addition to the component analysis a Council wide “Voice of the Customer” survey of staff was

conducted to seek staff views on current ICT service provision.

The component assessment was conducted by the business and ICT between August and October

2012. Each component was assessed against the Architectural Principles identified in Section 3.1

above, taking into consideration on-going projects, risks, issues and business challenges, and given

an overall RAG (Red, Amber or Green) rating.

The component assessment ratings were analysed against the Enterprise Architecture and a “Heat

Map” of current capabilities was compiled. The analysis was captured and analysed at a number of

levels of detail with level 1 presenting the highest level of aggregation of current capabilities.

The capability heat map supports the development of a portfolio of opportunities across the

following dimensions:

1. Corporate or departmental i.e. opportunities that will deliver business benefit to individual departments or functions;

2. Organisation-wide i.e. opportunities that will deliver benefits across the whole Council; and

3. Infrastructure i.e. enabling projects that will underpin the delivery of either service specific or Council wide capabilities.

Opportunities within the portfolio have been categorised as either Strategic or Tactical/Operational:

Strategic opportunities are defined as capabilities requiring significant attention and may require the development or delivery of a new system or significant effort to address issues with an existing set of capabilities. As a result Strategic opportunities may not have pre-existing funding in some cases, or the business case may be more complex or need to consider a longer time period when looking at whole life costs.

Tactical/Operational opportunities are defined as capabilities requiring a minor upgrade to an existing system or requiring business as usual support activities, and where funding for such initiatives is from existing business budgets.


The following table quantifies projects by category. Please Note: The numbers in ( ) show which of

the total in each group are already underway.

Table 3 - Categorised Projects

In addition details of IT projects already underway with allocated funding were captured; this was to

ensure that when planning the Business ICT Strategy delivery programme that a complete picture of

already committed resource was understood.

All opportunities, Strategic, Tactical and Operational have been assigned an initial priority of High,

Medium or Low by the Business and ICT. The prioritisation was used to guide the development of a

set of delivery recommendations focused initially on the high priority Strategic opportunities only.

The full portfolio of strategic, tactical and operational potential projects is not final and can be

adjusted through the proposed Business ICT Strategy governance process as business needs and

priorities evolve.

The prioritisation of projects will serve to guide the creation of outline business cases (OBC) and full

business cases to support individual initiatives. The Council will develop OBCs for each candidate

opportunity and assess both the financial and non-financial benefits. The OBCs must be approved

through the Business ICT Strategy governance process before any opportunity can be taken forward

and form part of an approved portfolio of projects.

Strategic Tactical / Operational

Project / Business priority High Medium Low High Medium Low

Infrastructure 5 1 - 6 (3) 3 2

Organisation-wide 9 (3) 7 9 (1) - - -

Corporate and departmental 6 (1) 5 2 20 (9) 4 1


3.3 Recommended strategic project portfolio

The tables in this section list all the strategic opportunities defined by the business. The scope of

the strategic recommendations is limited to the opportunities that were deemed to have a high

business priority.

High level cost estimates have been provided as a precursor to the development of outline business

cases, and where necessary full business cases. This information is supported by an indicative

programme plan. A full explanation of the project scope and benefits is also provided. Potential

projects marked * are already planned as part of the Council’s Transformation and Efficiency

programme.

3.3.1 Infrastructure opportunities

Six strategic projects in total were identified in the Infrastructure category. These are the high

priority recommendations.

Project Primary theme Status Recommendation

High business priority

Workspace Includes: Desktop, laptop, mobile devices. Shift to thin-client. Enable ‘bring your own device’. Operating system and Office suite and Email upgrade. Unstructured data access and management.


Potential Deliver in 2013-2014

Identity and access management Includes: Common repository for security and identity information. Enabling technology for greater self-service and portals, mobile data services, single authoritative phonebook service, integration to HR data.


Potential Proceed to business case for delivery project

Strategic Network Provision Includes: Consolidating all current networks. Removing single points of failure. Enabling prioritisation of types of traffic to ensure quality of service. Improving options for disaster recovery services. Unified communications.



Strategic supplier sourcing Includes: Optimise the current portfolio of over 1000 external suppliers.



Data loss prevention Includes: Review and improvement of data backup, data security and disaster recovery technology.



Table 4 – High priority strategic Infrastructure recommendations


3.3.2 Organisation-wide opportunities

Twenty five strategic projects in total were identified in the Organisation-wide category. These are

the high priority recommendations.



Intranet and enterprise search Includes: Modern intranet and collaborative working platform. Unified search of pages, unstructured data and people information

Collaboration Potential Proceed to business case for delivery project

Enterprise GIS Includes: Rationalisation of GIS technology. Enable enhanced mapping and spatial services to staff and the public.



Document and records management * Includes: Review existing process and provision for document management and scanning across the organisation. Consider technology consolidation. Implement robust records management.


Potential Proceed to analysis based on T+E programme, business case as initial output

Performance management * Includes: Review processes and need for specific technology.


Potential Proceed to analysis based on T+E programme, business case as initial output

Data interoperability and integration Includes: Developing standards, processes and technologies, enabling effective integration.



Appointment booking * Includes: Implement technology for enabling self-service and mediated appointment booking services.

Customer service Potential Proceed to delivery based on T+E and Customer First programme

Table 5 – High priority strategic organisation-wide recommendations


3.3.3 Corporate and departmental opportunities

Thirteen strategic projects in total were identified in the Organisation-wide category. These are the

high priority recommendations.



Child social care and education (CYP) Includes: technology procurement in the context of Capita ONE contract expiry and CCH/CYP department merger.


Potential Proceed to business case for analysis project

Children’s preventative services (CYP) Includes: Review of technology supporting processes in Youth Offending service and other areas.



Adult social care financial assessment/invoicing (CCH) * Includes: Review of technology supporting these business processes.



ECS core systems (ECS) Includes: General review of functional overlap between Uniform, Flare, Mayrise, Kirona Job Manager and Bartec solutions. Online provision for Building Control. Data structures and interoperability. Ability to integrate with Northgate FrontOffice technology in support of the Customer First programme. Support for mobile staff.



Housing accommodation procurement (CCH) Includes: Rent accounting process and technology requirements. Data duplication between HomeChoice and Flare. Current effort associated with housing benefit payments (Flare and Civica).



Table 6 – High priority strategic corporate and departmental recommendations


4

4.1 Strategic alignment

The Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016, the strategic project recommendations, and the supporting

analysis provides stakeholders across the council with greater transparency over the provision and

delivery of ICT services, enabling the closer collaboration required to embed the Business ICT

Strategy within the Council’s overall planning processes.

A Business ICT Strategy team will be drawn from across the business and aligned with departmental

priorities utilising business partners and enhanced ICT governance arrangements. Updates to the

Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 will be approved annually at the Business ICT Strategy board, with a

full strategy being submitted to committee on a rolling three year basis.

4.2 ICT Target Operating Model (TOM)

Delivering the vision of a high quality ICT service demands a new ICT delivery model (structure,

processes, tools, governance and contractual arrangements). The current ICT operating model will

be further enhanced to support the delivery of the Business ICT Strategy. Particular focus will be

given to:

Delivering service excellence across ICT services with high levels of customer satisfaction;

Closely aligning IT decision-making, business objectives and customer needs;

Delivering transparent and demonstrable value for money; and

Underpinning ICT services with a clear set of ICT policies and processes.

We will deliver an annual ICT Operations plan that will underpin the delivery of the Business ICT

Strategy and will be reviewed annually in line with the strategy. This process will include

measurement and reporting of what has been achieved against the plan.

4.3 ICT skills and staff development

During 2012, a major reorganisation of ICT was undertaken to provide the Council with clearer ICT

accountability and access to the analytical, strategy and service delivery skills required to develop

and deliver the Business ICT Strategy. The new ICT organisation includes three senior IT business

partner roles to act as the liaison between ICT and Council departments and they will form part of

the Business ICT Strategy team going forward.


An industry-recognised skills framework such as SFIA (Skills for the Information Age) will be

introduced to develop staff, with stronger performance management practices underpinned by a

performance framework. We will continue to invest in developing the service oriented culture that

recognises the customer at the core of the strategy and invest in our people to deliver the culture

change required.

We will explore opportunities to enhance further the ICT delivery model through a review of ICT

resources across the Council in partnership with service departments. We will seek to engender a

customer centric culture in the delivery of South Gloucestershire Council ICT and encourage teams

to pursue industry awards and professional development.

More widely the Council will broaden its ICT skills base across all of its employees. Significant

investment is made in technology and we must ensure our staffs have the capability to make the

best use of it. We will work with our Human Resources to establish core competencies around ICT

and develop a corporate training programme to ensure staffs are skilled up to use business and

corporate technology platforms. This will improve productivity, drive up the return on investment in

business systems and encourage ICT enabled change to take place, improving the customer

experience and service delivery.

4.4 Service management framework

During 2012 a new ICT service management framework was implemented to ensure performance

and strategic alignment for all future ICT projects, systems and services. Based on the industry-

standard “ITIL v3” service lifecycle it incorporates quality gates to ensure alignment with core

principals of ownership, contract/procurement, lifecycle costing and recharges, resilience and

configuration management

We will introduce key performance indicators for the ICT service, based on ITIL best practice, and

embed these in the delivery of operational and project services as part of our performance

management framework. Such a framework will assure and enable high quality delivery standards

for software upgrades, a comprehensive hardware maintenance programme and effective service

desk operations.


4.5 Information and security management

With the need for increasingly distributed and remote ICT services, strong Information and security

management frameworks, enshrined in service contract and operational processes will be essential

to ensure service/customer insight and compliance is maintained.

As part of the development of the ICT service, fragmented ICT security, information management

and acceptable use policies will be consolidated and updated, and sustainable governance

established through ICT reorganisation. This will ensure compliance with government guidance on

ICT security. Specifically it is of critical priority that our obligations are met around Government

Connect CoCo compliance and NHSIG compliance.

4.6 Vendor management

There are mixed sourcing arrangements for services within the Council including a number of major

relationships:

Customer Management System with Northgate;

Finance systems with Civica;

Revenues and benefits systems with Northgate;

Social care systems with Northgate;

Environmental systems with Civica;

Planning and Building Control with Civica

Education and children’s social care systems with Capita

During 2012, a review of performance against contracted obligations and the business needs of the

Council commenced for key 3rd party suppliers, seeking to address any areas of non-compliance.

Going forward, ICT will focus on achieving contracted performance levels, not “filling the gaps” with

ad-hoc and reactive solutions, and developing services as part of a clear migration path aligned to

this strategy. In particular the current ICT supplier base will be consolidated extensively, reducing

the large number of discrete suppliers. All contracts will be robustly managed to ensure high quality

delivery and value for money for the organisation. The renewals process will always test the market

to assure we achieve best value.


4.7 Business ICT Strategy governance

A tiered structure will govern the commissioning and delivery of ICT Change. The processes will be

centred around a clearly defined portfolio management approach.

Business ICT Strategy Board – The Business ICT Strategy Board (Strategy Board) will meet quarterly

to review formally submitted Outline Business Cases against the Business ICT Strategy, current year

investment plan, the current approved portfolio of projects and current business priorities. The

Strategy Board will also monitor and review progress on the Business ICT Strategy Implementation

programme for the current year.

Technology Advisory Board (TAB) – The Technology Advisory Board will meet monthly or on

demand as needs require reviewing technology assistance requests from the business, and providing

advice and guidance to the business for projects at the ‘concept’ or feasibility stage. The TIB may

recommend projects are further developed to Outline Business Case stage and submitted to the

Business ICT Strategy Board for assessment. The TAB may also recommend projects are passed

directly to ICT for development and implementation governed by the ICT Change Board. The

Technology Innovation Board will also, as part of its core remit, provide a key focus on application

rationalisation. It will also be responsible for evaluating new technologies that may have potential

corporate applications for the council in the future, to help inform the on-going development of the

strategy.

ICT Change Advisory Board (CAB) – The ICT Change Advisory Board will meet weekly to plan and

manage the delivery of ICT change requests that originate from the business or from ICT. Change

requests may be received from the TIB or the Strategy Board to the ICT CAB. The ICT CAB will report

back formally to both the Business ICT Strategy Board and the TAB on a regular basis to inform on

progress and provide insight on issues and further opportunities.

Technology Advisory Board

(TAB) - Monthly

(Monthly) IT Strategy Board

Quarterly

IT Change Advisory Board

(CAB) - Weekly

(Weekly)

Suitable Business

Case


4.8 Transparent cost of technology services

During 2012 ICT services costs were base-lined and indicative costs for the Business ICT Strategy

projects are being sought, to inform the outline business cases for the new Business ICT Strategy,

and the attached medium term financial plan. As the strategy moves forward, ICT will look to revise

the existing recharging model to provide stakeholders with greater visibility and control over their

technology costs, and an overall reduction in Total Cost of Ownership.


5 -

A number of key initial priorities have been identified for 2013-2014 that will deliver a set of

enabling IT capabilities to underpin the ICT Strategy over the coming years. These include:

Enhancing the ICT relationship with the wider business through greater engagement in

business planning and enhanced ICT Governance.

Deliver the target IT Savings Plan in 2013-2104 through a detailed ICT Procurement Plan:

1. Procurement of a Strategic Network Provider

2. Enhance and replace key ICT technologies and services

3. ICT Contract Optimisation

Continue to rationalise the ICT Supplier base, and engage more deeply with the business in

the management of indirect ICT Suppliers.

Deliver high quality IT services based on Key Performance Indicators.

Enhance relationship with partner organisations including Health, Justice and Police and

neighbouring councils.

Deliver IT enabling technology to support the rollout of the ICT Strategy

1. Deliver a significantly enhanced E-mail Communications platform with a significant

increase in e-mail capacity, performance and usability

2. Deliver an enhanced thin client computing experience through a Citrix upgrade for

onsite and remote working including delivering a Windows 7 and Office 2013 user

experience

3. Enhance the underlying Server Virtualisation platform to increase stability and

performance of Council systems

4. Continue to drive to a common technical platform model across server, storage and

network domains to maximise existing investments and deliver further consolidation

and virtualisation opportunities

5. Commence the rollout of new desktop devices, moving to a mainly thin client delivery

model and deploying Windows 8 touch devices and Windows 7 for legacy laptops and

desktops with Office 2013 for increased staff usability and productivity

6. Deploy a Mobile Device Management Platform to deliver a secure mobile and BYOD

platform for all staff

7. Deliver enhancements to the IT Security Policy

8. Enhance Intranet technologies to improve collaboration and efficient information

sharing

9. Rollout Enterprise GIS platform


Deliver IT support to core organisation change projects including Streetcare, Customer First,

Directorate specific business change projects, external collaboration and Public Website

enhancements

Continue the work delivered in the IT Transformation programme to drive Continuous

Improvement across IT Services:

1. Service Desk Process Enhancements

2. Enhancements to IT Change and Problem Management

3. Deployment of disruptive technologies to deliver new and innovative citizen focused

services


6

The Business ICT Strategy and the supporting medium term financial plan outline how we will

transform our ICT service delivery model through:

Aligning business needs and requirements with ICT plans and roadmaps

Delivery of an enhanced end-user computing experience at a much reduced Total Cost of Ownership which was highlighted across the business as the single most important project;

Delivery of a new operating model for core ICT services, involving converged network provision

Migration to a more common use services and systems across the Council functions leading to a significantly reduced software application footprint ;

Delivery of an ICT Governance model for all ICT Change requirements.

A consolidated ICT capital investment plan, with supporting development programme has been

developed to deliver these projects over 2013-2016, ensuring that business as usual is maintained or

improved as service transformation takes place.

The indicative costs outlined in medium term financial plan will need to be validated through a

business case process however the following conclusions can be drawn from the analysis:

i. A number of opportunities have the potential to deliver significant tangible financial savings over the four year period

ii. A number of the opportunities recognise the need to update or replace legacy or end of life systems and platforms

iii. Whilst savings and consolidation are key benefits, many of the opportunities also deliver significant improvements for internal or external users.

iv. There is a need for some upfront additional investment required in the majority of opportunities to enable the financial savings to be realised over the four year period

v. A number of opportunities may deliver intangible savings i.e. savings in terms of staff time, productivity and effectiveness that can be used to enhance customer service

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