Angus Council Corporate IT Strategy November 2012

Transcription

1 Angus Council Corporate IT Strategy November 2012

2 Contributors: Neil Munro Hugh Robertson Craig Clement Alastair Wilson John Pearson Stewart Ball Les Hutchinson Gordon Fenton Steve Roud Corporate Services Chief Executive s Education Neighbourhood Services Corporate Services Infrastructure Services Social Work and Health Corporate Services Corporate Services

3 The council s Corporate Plan sets out our vision for Angus, a vision which we share with our community planning partners. It details five key priorities for the period against which we have identified desired outcomes, achievement of which will improve the quality of life for our citizens and communities. To deliver against these priorities and outcomes the plan also identifies, against each of the priorities, the key areas of work which we will focus on during To successfully deliver against our priorities it is essential that we continually seek to make more effective use of our resources and to improve the way we manage our business, particularly at a time of severe financial constraint. IT has a major role to play in this and this strategy details how we will use IT to provide a platform which will ensure we have: A working environment which supports agile working arrangements for our employees. Business processes and systems which improve productivity and provide value for money. Services which are accessible to, and responsive to the needs of, our customers. Against each of these three areas working environment, business processes and systems and services this strategy explains what we are aiming to achieve, what IT arrangements are currently in place and what IT initiatives are planned for the period of this strategy to support realisation of our aims. Page 1

4 Working Environment We aim to provide our employees with a working environment which offers them opportunities to adopt a more flexible approach to work reflecting modern lifestyles. We aim to have modern and flexible office accommodation which facilitates agile and flexible working arrangements with our employees being able to connect to the council s network from anywhere. This will improve employee satisfaction and productivity and will also enable us to rationalise our building assets and reduce costs. Business Processes and Systems We aim to improve our performance by seeking improvements to our business processes and systems. We aim, through the use of modern and flexible technologies, to streamline our processes and systems reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, improving value for money and making it easier to do business with the council. Services We aim to develop our channels of service delivery to reflect the modern day needs of our customers, providing more accessible and responsive services and improving the overall customer experience, informed by the channel migration strategy component of the Customer Services Strategy. We aim to develop our website to accommodate customer transactions and provide a 24/7 service for those who want it but also want to develop other electronic modes of delivery, such as use of social media, to improve customer choice in accessing services and to meet our customers and citizens preferred methods of communicating. We also aim to develop systems that will allow us to cross-reference data from all around the council. This will help avoid customers having to contact us more than once and help us identify when and where citizens want to contact us and where services are needed. Page 2

5 AIM A working environment which offers an opportunity to adopt a more flexible approach to work reflecting modern lifestyles OUTCOME Delivery of IT services is independent of location and user device Council data is protected in accordance with legislative requirements to allow secure access from the point of service regardless of location Council data is rationalised and stored in a way that allows access from the point of service regardless of location Telephony services are integrated and flexible in support of service delivery The core data network is robust and fit for purpose LINKS TO TECHNICAL STRATEGY Citrix Environment Consolidated Storage Infrastructure Development of mobile solutions Integrated telephony (VOIP) roll out Server Virtualisation Upgrade and expansion of the corporate network (Angus Net) Rural broadband Remote Access Capacity planning and data centre provision Disaster Recovery LINKS TO CORPORATE PLANS/ WORKING GROUPS Agile Working Programme Board Customer Services Programme Board IT Strategic Development Group CURRENT POSITION The Council infrastructure comprises multiple physical sites containing users, data sets, applications and network communications equipment. Some applications and services are hosted centrally and access to these is provided across Angus Net. The services delivered are specific to individual users working on individual machines and any movement between sites requires planning and intervention from IT resources and is constrained in some instances by network bandwidth and the location of users compared to the location of applications and data sets. Limited access is possible from external sites but this is constrained in terms of functionality and in the main does not replicate the experience enjoyed by a user at a corporate site. The core data network was upgraded in 2008/09 to be more resilient and faster than the previous wide area network; the core network is made up of the main links between council burghs and is in the main focused on the secondary schools as the point of presence. CURRENT/ FUTURE PROJECTS Establish a fit for purpose Datacentre Environment to host major information technology systems and services Establish a secondary Data/Communications Centre to provide resilient external communications and host resilient core services Page 3

6 Implement Service Replacement to provide an enhanced resilient service Develop the technology infrastructure to facilitate the drive towards a more Agile Workforce by: Enhance the central Citrix Environment Enhance the central Consolidated Storage Infrastructure Provide Thin Client Desktop Devices Enhance Mobile and Remote Access Enhance Voice over IP Telephony provision Sustain and develop the technology infrastructure by: Undertake Corporate Infrastructure Renewal Provide technology for Elected Members In 2013/14 in addition to further development of above projects, it is proposed to progress: Mobile Application Development Software Applications Transition / Replacement Information / Data Matching GIS Renewal / Replacement Internet Access Security Renewal Intranet Redevelopment Projects identified via the Corporate IT Strategic Development Group as part of the on-going process of project prioritisation will be shown in the Future Projects sections as part of the annual review of the strategy. Page 4

7 AIM Improve our performance by seeking improvements to business processes and systems OUTCOME Business processes that respond to customer needs, maximise effectiveness and achieve value for money Systems that allow delivery of service at the point of contact Use of available data sets to map service need Development of shared services via a business case model LINKS TO TECHNICAL STRATEGY Agile working Geographical Information Systems development (GIS) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Provision of Corporate Content Management System (CMS) LINKS TO CORPORATE PLANS/ WORKING GROUPS IT Strategic Development Group Agile Working Programme Board Culture and Communications Group Customer Service Programme Board CURRENT POSITION Progress is being made through developments in CRM and GIS to help improve business processes and productivity. Development of the corporate Intranet is centred on providing greater functionality by improving - access to information resources, business processes, twoway communication and collaboration. The adoption of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement will underpin the intranet developments by ensuring up to date versions of supported product can be used to provide users with a consistent experience when accessing information resources and systems. Other initiatives are brought forward via the service planning process by departments on an annual basis. CURRENT/ FUTURE PROJECTS Further develop the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System to improve process integration Implement Service Replacement to provide an enhanced resilient service Develop the technology infrastructure to facilitate the drive towards a more Agile Workforce by: Enhance the central Citrix Environment Provide Thin Client Desktop Devices Enhance Mobile and Remote Access Enhance Voice over IP Telephony provision In 2013/14 in addition to further development of above projects, it is proposed to progress: Mobile Application Development Software Applications Transition / Replacement Information / Data Matching GIS Renewal / Replacement Page 5

8 Internet Access Security Renewal Projects identified via the Corporate IT Strategic Development Group as part of the on-going process of project prioritisation will be shown in the Future Projects sections as part of the annual review of the strategy. Page 6

9 AIM Develop our channels of service delivery to reflect the modern day needs of our customers, providing more accessible and responsive services and improving the overall customer experience OUTCOME Electronic services are made available to customers across multiple channels to allow more flexible service consumption Information is available to customers across multiple channels LINKS TO TECHNICAL STRATEGY Geographical Information Systems development (GIS) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Development of Social media and SMS services Provision of corporate content management system (CMS) Upgrade and expansion of the corporate network (Angus Net) Rural broadband Integrated telephony (VOIP) roll out LINKS TO CORPORATE PLANS/ WORKING GROUPS Customer Services Programme Board Culture and Communications Group IT Strategic Development Group Agile Working Programme Board CURRENT POSITION A number of high volume services have been enabled through the web site, these have not initiated channel migration but have been provided as additional channels to allow interaction with council services. Integration of some back office functions with CRM has taken place to allow these services to be delivered through the council s Access Services. CURRENT/ FUTURE PROJECTS Further develop the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System to support CMS outcomes and on-line service delivery via new angus.gov.uk and angusahead.com Undertake Education Infrastructure Renewal to sustain the technology infrastructure in schools Extend and develop the wireless system in schools Develop the technology infrastructure to facilitate the drive towards a more Agile Workforce by: Enhance Mobile and Remote Access Enhance Voice over IP Telephony provision In 2013/14 in addition to further development of above projects, it is proposed to progress: Mobile Application Development Information / Data Matching GIS Renewal / Replacement Redevelopment of the angus.gov.uk and angusahead.com websites Explore the potential of Bring You Own Device technology for schools Page 7

10 Projects identified via the Corporate IT Strategic Development Group as part of the ongoing process of project prioritisation will be shown in the Future Projects sections as part of the annual review of the strategy. Page 8

11 Glossary Agile working - enabling employees to work where, how and when required, maximising their productivity and delivering the greatest value to the service. Citrix leading provider of thin client technologies. Consolidated Storage Infrastructure - centralised storage of files and information, replacing both PC hard drives and discs on file servers. Content Management System (CMS) enables content to be entered into the system once, but be published to any or all of the Council run websites. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) internal application to record, progress and monitor customer service requests received by telephone, face-to-face, and the angus.gov.uk web site Information / Data Matching bringing together of disparate citizen information to provide a unified view to improve service provision at first point of contact. Integrated telephony (VOIP) telephone services delivered across the data network, removing the requirement for separate telephone wiring. Mobile access to back office systems for council officers at the point of service delivery to customers using mobile technology. Remote access secure access to applications, services and data from locations that are external to the Council infrastructure. Server Virtualisation technology to replacement a number of physical file servers with a single server to reduce space, power and costs. SMS short message service, the ability to send text messages to multiple users of a registered council service. Social media - the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Thin Client - technology to replace PC s on the desktop with a centrally provisioned working environment. Unified communications integration of real time services such as messaging, video, telephony, shared whiteboard, shared data and presence information to allow delivery of a single message across multiple channels and real time collaboration between people at different locations. Page 9