Agenda item

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 Security Manger enlarged on the recent cyber-attacks explaining that hackers were constantly probing systems for weaknesses with up to a million probes a day common and with 20,000 attacks since March. A table detailed the source of attacks by nation. Extra vigilance was therefore vital.

The Compliance and Security team were analysing the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations which would need to be complied with by May 2018. Strata had agreed a new Public Services Network contract and delivered a saving of £20,000 over a two year term.

The Public Services Network Code of Connection remediation works continued with a number of servers fixed.

Infrastructure Projects - Adrian Smith

The Infrastructure and Support Manger provided further detail on the Global Desktop implentation, the 15 staff remaining to be incorporated being on long term sick. A significant cause of the delay in the deployment of the Global Desktop project was down to software bugs within the VMWare product

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 service desk was performing well in supporting both business as usual activities and the Global Desktop roll out. There was a high end user satisfaction.

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, Virgin Business Media having completed the survey for the fibre links with confirmed delivery dates awaited. A review would be undertaken of Oakwood House in Marsh Barton, Exeter, the location of the backup data centre, with options including:-.

·         upgrade of current site;

·         re-location to another site; or

·         move to a cloud system

Document Centres - Martin Millmow

The Document Centre Manager reported that new printing devices would be rolled out, Ricoh having been the successful of seven tenderers and with the existing 80 printers to be reduced to 53 new devices equipped to cope with recent system upgrades. The Strata web design team had worked on a wide range of communication materials to support the second phase of the new East Devon District Council Waste and Re-cycling scheme.

Programme and Resources – Steve Gammon

The Programme and Resources Manager detailed the 16 systems convergence projects being undertaken as requested by Council service mangers and as agreed by the partner Councils and in the annual Strata Business Plan.

He referred to the increase in the cost of the Car Park system which, nevertheless, had been put back by the delay in the system’s implementation and to the increase in cost (£13,000) of a new HR and Payroll system at Teignbridge to bring it in line with legislative changes.

He provided a detailed explanation of the new street naming and numbering system which Strata was implementing for the three councils and explained how this would co-ordinate with common systems within the authorities. For the future there was scope to link major property systems such as planning, housing, council tax, environmental health and licensing to the national Unique Property Reference Number.

Business Systems – Dave Sercombe

The Business Systems Manager reported that Strata were continuing to deliver the 70 plus system implementation and business case projects currently in progress, such a high demand placing pressure on business change requests. Some of the main projects were HR and Payroll and Garden Waste Renewals for Teignbridge, Firmstep digital transformation and UNIform Planning and Building Control implementation for Exeter, Document Management and Waste and Recycling rollouts for East Devon and Car Parks for East Devon and Teignbridge but not Exeter who were working with Devon County Council. The Strata IT Director would be examining governance including relationships with the respective Council senior management teams.

He provided an update on staff changes.

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee noted the report, the Chair thanking the IT Director for a comprehensive update.