Issue - meetings

This report presents a draft IT Strategy for the Council for the next five years, designed to link closely to the corporate strategy and the agenda for change over the coming years and to reflect IT’s role as an essential enabler of transformation in the future.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the five themes set out in paragraph 10 of the report be approved.

                        (ii)        That the IT Strategy attached at Annexes A and B to the report be agreed.

                        (iii)       That progress on delivering the Strategy be reviewed on a six-monthly basis.

                        (iv)       That the development of proposals for a three year IT Development Plan, as set out in paragraph 20 of the report, be agreed.

                        (v)        That the development of proposals for a self-funding central pool of Project Managers and Business Analysts, as set out in paragraph 23, be agreed.

REASON:      In order to establish an attainable yet challenging vision for future services and to ensure that its delivery is effectively monitored.

Members considered a report which presented a draft IT Strategy for the next five years.  The draft Strategy had been designed to link closely with the Council’s Corporate Strategy and the agenda for change over the coming years, and to reflect the role of IT as an essential enabler of transformation.

The draft Strategy, attached as Annex A to the report and summarised in Annex B, had been structured in accordance with the five themes agreed by the Executive last year, following the review of the 2002-2007 Strategy.  These themes, set out in paragraph 10 of the report, were the main drivers for further IT development.  Each theme was broken down into ‘technology blocks’ to enable achievement of the vision statement.  These included a series of objectives for implementation or further exploration.  The Strategy would remain a ‘live’ document, enabling objectives to be reviewed on a regular basis.

With regard to monitoring progress of the Strategy a broader reporting mechanism was needed, to ensure that Members received reports on the progress of key business led projects.  Members’ views were requested on this.  Approval was also sought for proposed new arrangements for delivering and resourcing the Strategy, as outlined in paragraphs 20 to 23.  These would involve creating a three-year rolling investment plan for IT and exploring the establishment of a central pool of Project Managers and Business Analysts in order to create capacity to deliver the Strategy on time without the need to recruit expensive consultancy support.

In response to the comments of the Shadow Executive on this item, Officers confirmed that the issue of accessibility had been addressed in the customer strategy and that the need to provide access to services in a variety of different ways, not just via IT, was accepted.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the five themes set out in paragraph 10 of the report be approved.

                        (ii)        That the IT Strategy attached at Annexes A and B to the report be agreed. ¹

                        (iii)       That progress on delivering the Strategy be reviewed on a six-monthly basis. ²

                        (iv)       That the development of proposals for a three year IT Development Plan, as set out in paragraph 20 of the report, be agreed. ³

                        (v)        That the development of proposals for a self-funding central pool of Project Managers and Business Analysts, as set out in paragraph 23, be agreed. ⁴

REASON:      In order to establish an attainable yet challenging vision for future services and to ensure that its delivery is effectively monitored.