Agenda item

The purpose of the report is to update the Committee on the transformation progress specifically from an IT/ digital perspective. Namely;

 

1.  The ‘My Tendring’ customer self-service portal.

2.  Cloud Migration, Business Continuity And Flexible Working

3.  The council’s Leisure and Tourism App.

4.  Re-Design of the Council’s Data (and voice) Network

5.  The Five9s contact centre application

6.  Councillors’ IT

 

 

 

 

1.          ‘My Tendring’ Customer Self-Service Portal

 

The Committee heard that the application (App) purchased to provision and deliver the Council’s My Tendring self-service offering was the Firmstep product. During 2019 the Firmstep product had been purchased by international application providers Grannicus.

 

The My Tendring portal works had been jointly developed and delivered through digital consultants Intergence and Amido, who had worked side-by-side with the Council’s Customer Services Team and IT Team members  - a mix of system support and website support IT specialists. From the outset of the Digital Transformation programme the adopted ethos had been one of external consultants working alongside and ‘up-skilling’ in-house IT specialists. However, as the programme had developed and evolved over time, likewise, the Council’s in-house application developer skills had matured.

 

It was reported to Members that the Council’s in-house Developer Team continued to go from strength to strength, in part due to hands-on engagement with the programme and direct consultant experience learning and in part due to benefiting from formal academic training through collaboration between the Head of IT & Resilience and the Human Resources Development Manager. By utilising the Government’s Modern Apprenticeship scheme: 1 fte IT Systems Specialist had achieved a part-time IT under graduate degree (with honours), 2 fte were in their final year  studying for a part-time IT under graduate degree (completion in 2020) and 1 fte had just  commenced an Open University programming under graduate degree.

 

Utilising that new in-house Developer resource and new ‘low code’ Microsoft Power Applications the ongoing My Tendring Portal works ethos had evolved to further optimise transformation efficiency and best use of resources, as followed:

 

1. Works undertaken solely by in-house Council App Developers and customer service experts working with relevant council service experts.
2. Works, as above, but with limited external consultant’s support utilising Intergence experts.
3. Works delivered predominantly through Intergence consultants based upon a ‘lift and shift then documented hand-over’ ethos.

 

The Committee was directed to the report written by the Head of Customer and Commercial Services, outlining the progress of the My Tendring Customer Access Portal from a customer services perspective.

 

The Members heard that the Council had approximately 198 different services to re-engineer and implement as fully self-service My Tendring portal solutions. That work was anticipated to be ongoing for the next 3-4 years.

 

However, the digital transformation work had already started to fundamentally change the way the Council delivered its services and was already starting to change council service structures internally. Online self-service was increasingly the service choice for residents and customers with online digital capabilities. For those who chose to contact the Council using more traditional methods telephony was their primary contact method.

 

The Committee heard that the Covid-19 pandemic was a major factor for change with respect to how our residents and customers (and councillors and staff) engaged with the Council and our online and telephony contact volumes reflected that ‘channel-shift’. It was not unreasonable to claim that the Council would have struggled to provide the level of services that it had continued to deliver throughout the COVID-19 pandemic had it not undertaken its Digital Transformation programme.  

 

The Digital Transformation resultant in-house Developer Team and their key digital contributions to council transformation and COVID-19 business continuity warranted a separate section, namely - 

1a) In-House IT Developer Team

 

Members heard that as the in-house IT Developer Team technical capabilities, knowledge and confidence had grown the Team were increasingly demonstrating their abilities in applying technology to transform Council services. The IT Developer Teams reputation for quickly providing in-house solutions to existing and newly emerging problems was growing.

 

Based around the Digital Transformation suite of services and related applications, the Developer Team’s digital transformational work had included:

 

ü  working with Human Resources to quickly develop COVID-19 databases to record and manage staff redeployment and staff shielding/ self-isolating – estimated cost avoidance £12,000.

ü  working with the Council’s COVID-19 Shielding Team to quickly create new applications to contact, record and manage (CRM) resident shielding support and connection with local volunteer services – estimated cost avoidance £8,000.

ü  the development of a COVID-19 vulnerable persons mapping tool – estimated cost avoidance £17,500.

ü  the creation of a new council enforcement application to better record and manage enforcement case actions and provide a ‘single council view’ of enforcement – estimated cost avoidance £1,100 per on boarded service.

ü  the development of a Northgate compatible replacement electronic document records management system - Northgate had quoted £110,650 capital and £34,500 revenue costs.

ü  on-going development of an IDOX replacement corporate electronic document records management system that will reduce corporate costs by £24,000 per annum.

ü  the development of a new application for scanning/ stock taking for engineering services - estimated cost avoidance of £17,500.

ü  the development of a new Tree Preservation application – estimated cost avoidance £8,000.

ü  the development of a Memorial bench and Play Areas fault management application – estimated cost avoidance £6,000.

 

2.   Cloud Migration

 

It was reported to Members that throughout each of the Council’s two Digital Transformation programmes of works (2013 – 2017 and the current 2017 – 2020 programme) a key strategic digital design thematic had been that of delivering/ further enhancing council digital business continuity.

 

A key strand of that work had been the migration of council applications from ageing on-site hardware to ‘pay as you go’ hardware in a Microsoft data centre(s) called the Microsoft Azure Platform. The Azure Platform was the platform of choice for a range of government sectors and partners that included the Ministry of Defence, a number of NHS bodies and at a more local level all of the Essex local authorities.

 

Members heard that the Council had evolved its systems architecture to reflect staff and councillors accessing Apps and data ‘in the Cloud’. The Cloud also gave significant additional cyber security functionality which had further strengthened our cyber security defences.

 

That had been first put to the test when Tendring had been snowbound for 48 hours during the ‘Beast from the East’ in March 2018 when around 290 officers had been forced to work remotely from home.

 

The Committee was aware that nobody could have predicted COVID-19 nor the effective closure of all council offices and a forced shift from “work flexibly from home or office” to a UK wide lock-down and “Work from home if you can”. It was undeniable that the Digital Transformation Cloud-first and Cloud-migration strategy had significantly enhanced the Council’s business continuity and had enabled the Council to deliver services throughout COVID-19 without any significant IT service outages.

 

The Council’s Cloud migration programme was predicted to take 2 years and over the period this had extended by around 10-12 weeks with an estimated completion date of June 2020. However, COVID-19 demands had required an urgent and sustained re-prioritisation of resources resulting in migration delays to the final 10% of applications.

 

The Committee was also informed that whilst the programme was on track from a budget perspective it was significantly behind schedule from a final completion perspective. The migration of the last few applications would not be complete until early in 2021.

 

That delay had not caused any operational issues of note with the last 10% of applications and the Council was benefiting significantly from having 90% of its applications in the Cloud, those included:

 

ü  Enhanced business continuity, resilience and data backup e.g. seamlessly moving from supporting office-based staff to staff operating effectively and efficiently from home during the pandemic.

ü  Using cloud-based Microsoft Skype and Teams to maintain operations and quickly introduce new ones e.g. virtual video staff meetings, committee and full council meetings.

ü  A move from periodic large capital IT server hardware outlay to more manageable ‘pay as you go’ monthly hardware revenue rental charges.

ü  A significant ‘carbon neutral’ reduction in on-site IT hardware power usage.

ü  The real-time ability to flexibly and quickly ‘spin-up’ additional Cloud hardware to deliver new services e.g. a new server for the Council’s COVID-19 activities; HR databases, Shielding databases and reactively in-house developed applications.

ü  Cloud efficiencies estimated at between 1 and 1.5fte with these resources re-deployed in supporting Members’ IT related works, additional remote worker support requirements and in Developer Team activities.

 

3.   Tendring Leisure and Tourism App

 

The Committee was informed that the Leisure and Tourism App had been delivered in 2019 slightly under budget and with both the Prince’s Theatre and wider Tendring activities being promoted. The App had only just started to positively benefit our leisure and tourism industry (Theatre income was up and growing) before COVID-19 hit.

 

The in-house IT Developer Team were re-using the existing application code whilst re-engineering the App in readiness for the 2021 season in order to not only promote leisure events but to create a more holistic suite of Tendring visitor information linked to digital mapping functionality, including:

 

ü  Car Park locations.

ü  Public toilet locations.

ü  Hospitals and public service delivery points.

ü  Linking real-time Council Beach Patrol visitor advice regarding beach crowd numbers and to generate a COVID-19 RAG beach visitor number status.

ü  As the App evolved further looking at the potential to add an area for businesses to advertise and promote themselves and any special offers etc.

 

 

The App would be supported in-house by the Council’s IT Developer Team.

 

4.   Re-Design of the Council’s Data (and voice) Network

 

The Committee heard that office transformation works were at an advanced stage. From a digital perspective the Council had taken the opportunity to completely re-cable the Council’s offices and further improve the office network resilience by creating a ‘fibre ring’ around the Town Hall (as opposed to areas served by separate cables).

 

At the same time the Council had further optimised its WiFi network and adopted a ‘staff working wirelessly at all times’ strategy. That had enabled staff (and councillors) to seamlessly move between locations with their devices. It had further enhanced staff and Councillors access to digital information at all times with a step-change reduction in reliance upon paper and printing.

 

It was reported to Members that the Council had also worked through an Essex Online Partnership (EOLP) joint initiative to roll-out GovRoam to each of the Council’s offices. That meant that as and when things returned to a more normal working situation, officers and councillors would be able to use their Tendring user ID and password to log into any participating GovRoam partner’s WiFi network just as if they worked at home or at a Tendring office location. Almost all of the EOLP partners intended to roll-out GovRoam and it was already available at Essex County Council and Thurrock, Maldon and Basildon council offices.

 

5.   New Contact Centre Application (Five9s Application)

 

Members heard that as briefly outlined previously, Mitel had decided to stop supporting their contact centre’s integration with Microsoft Skype (& Teams) telephony. With the Council’s unified communications strategy (voice & voice recording/ video calling & virtual meetings/ email, instant messaging/ calendar/ availability & presence) firmly embedded and mature around Microsoft products the Council had had to replace its Mitel contact centre.

 

Based upon the Council’s customer service team’s functionality specifications, available budget and Cloud-first strategy, the FIVE9s product had been selected and purchased. The product had an excellent reputation for service, reliability and value for money and was completely Cloud-based.

 

The product was a relatively new one from a Council perspective and Officers were still learning about its functionality and architecture. Shortly after it became operational (February 2020) the COVID-19 pandemic situation had gripped the UK with resultant IT and information governance resourcing pressures across a whole range of existing, new, emergency and urgent Council activities. 

 

The Committee was informed that the Council’s contact centre had experienced a significant increase in call volumes that had resulted in an uncharacteristic drop in  levels of customer service, caused by call congestion e.g. insufficient telephone lines to cope with escalating demand together with insufficient staff resources. Reactive remedial action had been taken and the situation had been resolved. Additionally, the Council was gaining a better understanding of the Five9s infrastructure and reporting and  was moving from a position of reactive to pro-active reporting/ understanding.

 

It was noted that Essex County Council had just committed to migrating from their Mitel contact centre to emulate the same FIVE9s technology as Tendring. TDC Officers were assisting them through that process.

 

It was also noted that the Council currently had a hybrid application mix whereby the majority of officers and all Councillors were using Microsoft Skype and a minority of officers using (or testing) Microsoft Teams.

 

This hybrid mix was making fault-resolution extremely complex and there had been reports of some calls not properly transferring to/ from the contact centre. It was therefore imperative that the Council moved from that hybrid situation and migrate fully to Microsoft Teams as quickly as could be achieved and in any event by late January 2021 in order to avoid a large and unnecessary license renewal cost.

 

6.   Members’ IT

 

It was reported to the Committee that with Councillors having varying degrees of IT expertise the Council had identified an emerging picture whereby:

 

û  Some councillors were increasingly becoming disengaged - losing the ability to fully/ effectively engage with the range of digital information and services that the council operated.

û  Some councillors were struggling with their IT and asking Council Officers to fix their personal equipment – potentially creating an insurance liability issue.

û  The diversity of different Councillor Applications, all at different versions, was causing Councillors to experience different IT problems causing unnecessary stress and pressures for all concerned.

 

The emerging digital picture was therefore perceived as an opportunity to assist councillors in their community leadership role. Through providing each councillor with a standard, managed device backed up by IT training and supported via the Council’s IT service desk intended benefits and improvements were, and remain, as followed:

 

ü  To assist Councillors to improve their efficiency and access to stored digital information.

ü  Strengthen cybersecurity (and cybersecurity awareness) and further reduce any possibility of a data breach and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) data loss.

ü  Enhance Councillors’ digital engagement.

ü  Enhance mobile working and flexible working capabilities and thereby work/ life balance

ü  Further reduce reliance (and the costs) of printed information.

ü  Councillor IT equipment standardisation would in turn enable officers council-wide to standardise the range services that they provide which would achieve efficiency savings for both Councillors and Officers. 

 

Members heard how the strategy had been to purchase high quality Microsoft Surface Go tablets during 2019 and at the beginning of 2020 for Councillors to undertake their council-related duties. With some Councillors struggling with the tablet screen size Officers had additionally offered Councillors: connection hubs, full size keyboards, 24” screens, cabled mouse. This gave Councillors a blend of home-based digital access with the ability to go mobile with their tablets when required.

 

As a result of COVID-19 and an emerging understanding as to its longevity, officers had become conversant with new face-to-face restrictive working arrangements and the use of virtual Microsoft Skype meetings had become a key ‘new working norm’. Likewise, virtual meeting MS Skype capabilities had needed to be extended to Councillors to enable them to perform their duties, which was not an intended original use of the previously purchased tablets.

 

The Committee was informed that the Council now had a pressing financial, technological and support need to migrate fully from Microsoft Skype to Microsoft Teams. Teams offered a range of additional meeting business functionality benefits over Skype but it was far more demanding in terms of computing processing power. As such, it was close to the limit and was very likely to become beyond the processing capabilities of councillor tablets as Microsoft invested in further enhancing Teams functionality.

 

With a view to giving Councillors the very best experience possible during multi-party video conference calls, the decision had now been taken to allocate funding to quickly replace Councillors’ tablets with the same Lenovo laptops that officers used. Those laptops were tried and tested, high specification devices that had enabled officers to perform the full range of council business demands.

 

The Committee was also informed in addition, and based upon approaches from several senior Councillors, that providing  Members with a council tablet had unintentionally been seen as an ‘imposition’ by some Councillors, despite Officers’ best intentions. Likewise, Officers had now acknowledged Councillors’ desire to be increasingly involved in their use of digital technology and how they worked and engaged with council business.

 

With engagement firmly in mind but reflecting the need to standardise equipment across Officers and Councillors as far as was possible, Councillors would now be asked on an individual basis whether they would benefit more from having a smaller, lighter more portable 13” council laptop, or a larger 15” laptop with a bigger screen and near full-size keyboard. Council provided ancillary devices – keyboards, screens, mice, hubs – would continue to be offered to Councillors and those who already had them would be able to connect and continue to use them with their replacement laptops.

It was the intention to engage with Councillors and roll-out the new laptops during December and early January. Following a period of Microsoft Teams training on virtual meetings the Council would migrate to Microsoft Teams on or around January 18^th 2020.

 

6a. Members’ Tablets and ‘Laptops for Children’ Re-use

 

The Committee heard that once returned to the Council, the tablets would be donated to the ‘Laptops for Children’ re-use programme to benefit local Tendring school children without access to IT.

 

After some discussion it was moved by Councillor M E Stephenson, seconded by Councillor Scott andRESOLVEDthat the Cabinet be informed that this Committee endorses the principle that Councillors be consulted on the IT kit that is to be provided to them to fulfil their roles as Members.