Agenda item

This report sets out areas for investment in IT that have been identified and put forward by Directors and asks Members to review these proposals and decide which ones they wish to fund.

RESOLVED: (i)         That Option 2 be approved and that those bids with a Risk and Opportunity score of over 50 be funded and progressed, together with the time only projects, as set out in Annex A, subject to the total allocation given to this budget heading when the Council determines its overall budget for the forthcoming financial year in February 2009.

REASON:      To ensure delivery of those projects most likely to be of benefit to the Council and its customers, and to enable those projects that require time only and no investment to proceed.

                        (ii)        That it be noted that Bid no. 09CEX03 (Webcasting of Council Meetings) is subject to the decision made by Full Council on 25 September 2008 and thus should be dealt with in a further Officer report.

REASON:      In accordance with the decision of Full Council to ask for an Officer report on the contract negotiations for webcasting.

                        (iii)       That approval be given to release funds set aside to implement a replacement Home Care Monitoring System, as set out in paragraph 22 and Annex D.

                        (v)        That approval be given to release funds set aside to implement a replacement Performance Management System, as set out in paragraphs 23 and 24.

REASON:      To enable these two projects to be progressed without delay.

Members considered a report which set out areas of investment in IT that had been identified and put forward by Directors and sought a decision as to which of these proposals should be funded.

The bids had all been evaluated by the Corporate IT Strategy Group (CITSG) and were presented in priority order in Annex A to the report.  A revised version of Annex A, correcting some errors in the previous version, had been published with the on-line agenda and copies circulated to Members. A summary of each bid, with a breakdown of costs, was provided in Annex B.  The main benefits and efficiencies of each bid were summarised in Annex C and a summary of the bids rejected by CITSG was provided in Annex D. 

Members were invited to consider the following options:

Option 1 – to fund all the bids evaluated by the CITSG, as set out in Annex A.  This could deliver efficiencies of £703k per annum and would mean spending £3k less than had been allocated from the General Fund for 2009/10.

Option 2 – to fund only bids with a Risk and Opportunity score of over 50, as set out in Annex A.  This could deliver efficiencies of £687k per annum and would mean spending £41k less than the allocation for 2009/10.

Option 3 – to fund only bids with a Risk and Opportunity score of over 80, as set out in Annex A.  This could deliver efficiencies of £651k and would mean spending £58k less than the allocation for 2009/10.

Members were also asked to approve the release of funding set aside for the provision of an Electronic Homecare Monitoring System (as shown in the business case attached as Annex D) and for the replacement of the existing Performance Management System (PMS), as recommended by the Council’s Corporate Management Team.

Having noted the comments of the Shadow Executive on this item, it was

RESOLVED: (i)         That Option 2 be approved and that those bids with a Risk and Opportunity score of over 50 be funded and progressed, together with the time only projects, as set out in Annex A, subject to the total allocation given to this budget heading when the Council determines its overall budget for the forthcoming financial year in February 2009. ¹

REASON:      To ensure delivery of those projects most likely to be of benefit to the Council and its customers, and to enable those projects that require time only and no investment to proceed.

                        (ii)        That it be noted that Bid no. 09CEX03 (Webcasting of Council Meetings) is subject to the decision made by Full Council on 25 September 2008 and thus should be dealt with in a further Officer report. ²

REASON:      In accordance with the decision of Full Council to ask for an Officer report on the contract negotiations for webcasting.

                        (iii)       That approval be given to release funds set aside to implement a replacement Home Care Monitoring System, as set out in paragraph 22 and Annex D. ³

                        (v)        That approval be given to release funds set aside to implement a replacement Performance Management System, as set out in paragraphs 23 and 24. ⁴

REASON:      To enable these two projects to be progressed without delay.