Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Strata IT Director.

The Strata IT Director presented his report to update Members on the progress within Strata.

The Strata IT Director presented his comprehensive report providing an update on the function of the Strata organisation, the aim being to provide background to the core areas of specialisation within Strata and identifying key activities, successes and areas for improvement. He detailed a SWOT analysis developed in conjunction with the Strata Board and Strata staff and highlighted the following key areas:-

·         Internal and External Communication – the first edition of the Strata Newsletter was tabled

·         Supplier Management

·         Projects and Business Change Requests - Workload

·         Security including Cyber Threats

The Strata IT Director advised that improved management was now in place to give realistic timescales for business change requests (BCR) which would aid with the management of BCR’s and the Councils would also know what they could expect.

In response to Members, the Strata IT Director clarified that the majority of issues with the Global Desk Top had been identified and that a recent survey of all Council staff had raised 11 factors including printing, taking a long time to log on, and problems with Microsoft Outlook. These issues were currently being investigated and a Global Desktop Improvement Plan had been compiled to ensure that resolutions were being worked on in a structured fashion.

Members discussed the need to ensure there was capacity to undertake BCR’s and that Strata would not need to come back to the Council’s for extra resources to take these forward.

The Chief Executive, East Devon District Council, raised concerns regarding the IT installation at Exmouth and that if it would be installed on time and fit for purpose.

Individual mangers presented their respective areas as set out below:-

Infrastructure Projects - Adrian Smith

The Infrastructure and Support Manger advised that the issues with the data centre at Oakwood House in Marsh Barton, Exeter had been address by the installation of a new air conditioning system although a review would be undertaken of Oakwood House regarding its suitability as the location of the backup data centre.

As a result of the introduction of an external organisation at Teignbridge, refurbishment including IT systems was progressing rapidly and it was anticipated that Global Communication installation at Exmouth, as part of the overall relocation of the Council offices, would commence in Exmouth in late August.

Strata were currently undertaking a review of the Global Desktop environment (Global Desktop Improvement Programme) and looking at a number of issues that had been reported. The most pressing current problem with the Global Desktop was outlook crashing, other issues including wrong printer settings, blank screens, slow login and specific applications slowness including Excel. He assured Members that the problems encountered were being addressed. The current feedback satisfaction rate for the service desk was 97%. Strata was now working closely with students from Exeter College who had recently undertaken a project to redesign the Strata web site.

Strata officers clarified that the Housing and Benefits server had already been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20

To consider the report of the Strata IT Director.

The Strata IT Director presented his comprehensive report providing an update on the function of the Strata organisation, the aim being to provide background to the core areas of specialisation within Strata and identifying key activities, successes and areas for improvement. He detailed a SWOT analysis developed in conjunction with the Strata Board and Strata staff and highlighted the following key areas:-

Improved communication

A number of activities had been undertaken both internally within Strata and externally with the three authorities including their respective management teams, major suppliers and Exeter College and he tabled the first edition of the Strata Newsletter.

The HR Lead for Strata emphasised the value of the new approach to communication and welcomed the newsletter. Members asked that the newsletter be distributed wider including all Councillors of the three authorities.

Supplier Management

Suppliers were being categorised as either key, strategic or business and there was focus on VMWare (Global Desktop), VMB, Virgin Media Business (performance), Nexus (Global Communications), Midlands HR (HR and Payroll) and Redcentric (credits).

Project and Business Change Request -Workload

A review and analysis of workload had shown a lack of progress in some areas including Business Change Requests and problem management and work was continuing in this area. Work over the last two years had been mapped against available staff time identifying issues relating to the management of workload and associated work related stress.

Members noted that the introduction of the Global Desktop project had been a significant contributory factor. Although introduced as a one year project, it had become apparent that a two year implementation period would have been more realistic. A software problem had also proved a major stumbling block. Referring to this and the new data centre as the two major initial projects, the Teignbridge Members were particularly concerned regarding the slowness of the global desktop widely reported at their Council and reference was made to Excel spreadsheets - Excel and other issues were common across the three councils with outlook crashes being a recent phenomena. Members noted that the newly implemented Global Desktop Improvement Programme would seek to progress the project and all migrated users had been surveyed, issues had been categorised and a programme of work underway to address the problems.

Security – Cyber threats

Following significant global cyber-attacks in May that had affected, amongst others, the NHS (and with reports of attacks to BA and University College London on this day), Strata had put in place precautions which had protected the three authorities and extra vigilance was being applied. An East Devon Councillor asked how, given the global communications project involved the incorporation of the telephony service into the Global Desktop, could breakdowns be reported by telephone. It was explained that, although telephony was part of the same system, there was inherent resilience in the overall system which prevented total breakdown as a result of a cyber-attack.

Individual mangers presented their respective areas as set out below:-

Compliance and Security – Robin Barlow

The Compliance and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30