Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Chief Operating Officer.

The report of the Chief Operating Officer was submitted advising Members on the progress of Strata implementation during 2015/16, including a project outturn assessment against the savings set out in the Business Plan. 

Members were advised that the implementation of the new IT infrastructure to provide the Global Desktop for all Councils continued to be a central theme within Strata and the majority of staff were now users of the system within Exeter City Council. There had been good feedback from Exeter City about the installation of Global Desktop. The system was now starting to be rolled out within East Devon District Council.

The next phase in the Business case was the convergence projects whilst the current requests could be delivered there were a number of opportunistic projects that had arisen from new work being requested by councils, where contracts were being renewed or demand from external agencies. The resources of the Business Systems Team were limited on what they could deliver and, in due course, Members would be asked to consider the options.

Executive Members recognised that there were limited resources and that Members would need to consider what additional projects could be taken forward and the resource implications of these projects.

In response to the a question from the Leader of Exeter City Council, the Chief Operating Officer clarified the position with regards to the problems with Airwatch and confirmed that these were being actively pursed with the company.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee considered the report at its meeting on 7 June 2016 and its comments were reported.

RESOLVED that the progress of the Implementation Plan be noted.

To consider the report of the Chief Operating Officer.

The report of the Chief Operating Officer was submitted advising Members on the progress of Strata implementation during 2015/16, including a project outturn assessment against the savings set out in the Business Plan. 

Implementing the new IT infrastructure to provide the Global Desktop for all Councils continued to be a central theme within Strata and there were now 569 users of the system within Exeter City Council. There had been good feedback from Exeter City about the installation of Global Desktop. It was now planned to begin the roll out within East Devon District Council. However, there were two software bugs that needed to be fixed before the roll out. It was anticipated that the supplier would be fixing these on the 16 June. The main risk at present was to the telephony project where the key resource was off sick. Strata may need to buy in external resource to ensure this objective was met.

Councillor Prowse reported on the IT problem experienced by Teignbridge DC at the Police Commissioner election count and asked what actions were being taken to overcome these problems. The Chief Operating Officer reported that this had been caused by a mixture of problems which had now all been tested and dealt with and should not reoccur for the EU Referendum count.

The Chief Operating Officer provided details of a number of security attacks on the systems which were being defended but emphasised the importance of not being complacent. He reported on his concerns that Strata may need additional assistance in dealing with future attacks as they were getting more sophisticated and questioned whether there was sufficient in-house expertise to deal with these in the future.

The revenue costs had come in better than forecast with £230,000 saved against and original target of £262,000. Members requested that a traffic light system for issues contained in the report be reinstated for the next meeting. It was noted that there would also be a more detailed report on convergence and other business systems at the next meeting.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee noted the report.