Agenda item

This report covers the following two key strands:

1.       A review of the digital transformation phase two programme and report the deliverables, outturn and analysis; and

2.    To set out potential further investment opportunities for consideration via the Corporate Investment Plan.

That Cabinet -

(a)  notes the outcomes of the digital transformation (phase two) programme within the context of timescales, costs and outcomes; and

(b)  request Officers, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance, to develop the projects, as set out within Appendix B to item A.2 of the Report of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder, for  further consideration as part of the Corporate Investment Plan.

Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder (A.2) which:-

1.      reviewed the outcome of the digital transformation phase two programme and reported the deliverables, outturn and analysis; and

2.      set out potential further investment opportunities for consideration via the Corporate Investment Plan.

Cabinet recalled that, at its meeting held on 16 February 2018, it had approved a Digital Transformation programme of works with estimated capital one-off costs of £865,200 and ongoing revenue costs of £220,500 per annum. That programme had comprised three key strands of investment, as follows:

1)      a new MyTendring council self-service web portal providing services 24/7;

2)      a Cloud Migration Strategy, migrating IT systems and data storage from Council-owned/ maintained hardware to rented pay-as-you-go Microsoft Azure platform resources; and

3)      a new Council smartphoneLoveTendring ‘Tourism and Events’ App to promote tourism events. This was a new technology opportunity trial for the Council. 

Performance details of the digital transformation programme were provided in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report. A summary of the key programme performance and deliverables was as follows:

·      From a programme time perspective the deliverables had been severely delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to divert limited resources to support higher council priorities e.g. IT enabled council business continuity and local economy supporting business grants enablement.

·      From a cost perspective the original / scoped programme had been delivered within budget.

·      From a deliverable quality perspective 19,382 registered subscribers used the MyTendring service - more than one in four Tendring households. Growth forecasts suggested 24,000 subscribers by June 2022 - one in three Tendring households. Promotional marketing was planned throughout 2022.

·      MyTendring service users rated their service satisfaction at 4.6 stars out of 5 stars average or 92% very satisfied and had raised 19,400 customer self-service requests during the last 12 months.

·      19,400 self-service requests equated to a council average resource saving of £59,173 per annum or 10.5% ROI per annum based upon the capital investment.

·      MyTendring self-service was a key local economy COVID business grant supporting access channel - 4,686 MyTendring self-service grant applications had been processed, and growing.

·      The adopted Cloud migration strategy had enabled seamless council business continuity during the COVID pandemic – TDC’s aging on-premises infrastructure simply could not have supported the necessary overnight switch to remote working and self-service. TDC’s disaster recovery response position was also greatly strengthened.

·      The Council’s cybersecurity had been significantly strengthened through Microsoft’s £5 billion investments in cloud-only cybersecurity protective services.

·      The re-engineered/ re-launched LoveTendring App had achieved 1,351 downloads between July and August 2021 - promoting leisure and tourism events and real-time District-wide beach crowding (social-distancing) information. Rated third overall in the Google Appstore ‘events App category’ ratings (September 2021) further enhancements were planned for 2022.

·      The programme had facilitated the development of an in-house digital developer skills resource delivering ongoing and new service efficiencies, cost savings, cost avoidances, innovative support applications, partner working opportunities.

In addition to the above, Cabinet was informed that a number of essential cyber security initiatives were now underway following a collaborative approach taken with the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) who had also provided associated funding of £150,000. The threat from cyber security was steadily growing and if an attack on the Council was successful, recovery / remedial actions could cost several millions of pounds, as unfortunately had been experienced by other Local Authorities elsewhere in the country.

It was highlighted to Members that the delivery of a digital transformation project that spanned several years would introduce a number of risks that had required additional / unavoidable costs to be recognised that were to a large extent outside of the direct / estimated initial project costs e.g. Microsoft licensing costs and other changes to the wider digital environment.

It was felt that the impact of a strong digital transformation approach was essential in any modern forward thinking organisation, which also provided a significant level of resilience. A good example being how this had underpinned the various successful activities that had been undertaken at the start of, and throughout, the Covid-19 pandemic, to ensure that the Council could function and provide its essential services as seamlessly as possible. This ethos had had a major impact looking back but would equally have a major impact looking ahead to 2022/23 and beyond.

With the above in mind, and against the context of the need to continue to reflect the ever-changing digital environment, further investment opportunities had been explored, which were set out within Appendix B to the Portfolio Holder’s report. Those would be considered further as part of the new Corporate Investment Plan approach.

Having duly considered all of the information, proposals and advice contained in the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder’s report:-

It was moved by Councillor Stock OBE, seconded by Councillor McWilliams and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

(a)  notes the outcomes of the digital transformation (phase two) programme within the context of timescales, costs and outcomes; and

(b)  request Officers, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance and Governance, to develop the projects, as set out within Appendix B to item A.2 of the Report of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder, for  further consideration as part of the Corporate Investment Plan.