REPORT TO:
Cabinet
MEETING DATE: 25 November 2003
BY:
Director of Corporate Finance & IT
SUBJECT:
e-Government
Update
1 PURPOSE
1.1 To update the Cabinet on progress of the various e-Government
initiatives including the Modernising Government Fund 2 (MGF2)
projects.
2 RECOMMENDATIONS
2.1 To note the ongoing progress and intention to publish a quarterly
newsletter for MGF2 for future updates.
3 BACKGROUND
3.1 The Council continues to operate within the overall policy context of the
E-Business Framework that was approved by Council in May 2002 and is
now moving forward with an investment programme that includes
significant resources allocated within the Council’s Capital Budget
supplemented by specific external funding through the Modernising
Government Fund.
3.2 The Council is part of four consortiums undertaking projects funded
directly through the Scottish Executive’s Modernising Government Fund.
The projects cover smartcard deployment, citizen’s account/contact
centre implementation, introduction of a master address database and
the roll out of dialogue youth. The total award from MGF2 is £1.710m.
The projects will run until March 2005.
3.3
Work has been ongoing for the last 6 months on the projects, a great deal
of which has been setting up the proper project management framework
to allow the projects to be managed using the PRINCE2 project
methodology as required as part of the award.
3.4 Previously,
updates
on progress of the various projects have been
reported on an ad-hoc basis to various Committees and using the Team
Briefing framework. In order to give a more regular and co-ordinated
progress report, it has been decided to publish a quarterly newsletter on
the Council intranet and internet sites.
3.5 A copy of the first MGF newsletter will be tabled for information and
noting.
3.6 In addition to those projects being delivered within the MGF Programme
the Council continues to progress a variety of other developments
involving greater use of new technologies and a selection of these are
detailed below.
3.7 A major redevelopment of the Council’s Corporate Website and Staff
Intranet is also underway. The implementation of a new Content
Management System to serve both sites is nearing completion and the
new site architecture and redesign is now in place. The new website is
currently being populated with content and will go ‘live’ within the next few
weeks.
3.8 We have recently upgraded the Committee Management System
(CMIS) and the new version (v.4) will go live on the intranet at the end of
this month. The new version will also be made available on the Council's
new website once it is up and running. In addition to this, the Members'
Library Service will be going online through CMIS over the winter period.
3.9 A
new
Resource Management System has been procured to allow the
electronic booking of meeting rooms, pool cars, projectors etc. via the
intranet. The system will be piloted within Finance & IT during December
before being rolled out to other resources within the Haddington campus.
3.10 Fixedline Remote Access for e-mail is now being rolled out to
Councillors to allow them to deal with their electronic mail from home.
Further development of the roaming remote access is still ongoing.
4 POLICY
IMPLICATIONS
4.1
As part of the citizen’s account/contact centre project but also recognising
an emerging find from am ongoing Best Value Service Review, a
Council-wide Customer Services strategy will be developed for approval and
implementation. The Head of Policy & Business Management will move
this work forward.
5 RESOURCE
IMPLICATIONS
5.1 Financial – The projects are funded 25% from the Council’s IT capital
programme and 75% from the MFG2 award.
5.2
Personnel - none
5.3 Other
-
none
6
BACKGROUND PAPERS
6.1
E-Business Framework Report 28/05/02
6.2
MGF2 Award letter
6.3
E-Business update report 18/02/03
6.4
Various team briefs.
AUTHOR’S NAME
Colin Shand
DESIGNATION
Head of Finance & IT
CONTACT INFO
01620 827321
cshand@eastlothian.gov.uk
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Welcome to the first edition of East Lothian Council's
Modernising Government
Fund (MGF2) Programme
Newsletter.
The MGF2 programme is underway,
with lots of activity taking place,
Stuart Gibb is coordinating business
input to the
project. The project is taking the opportunity to
consider what improvements
can belncorpqratoo
,
in addition
to thep~ical move
and1saimingtb
build in an eJe~entQffutureproofing...
Contact Centre/CRM/Citizens
Account
Examples
are proVision
of faci I itjes to allow
expansion of the contact centre in future.,
expansion of the CCJ:Vfacilities
and potentially a
move froman~J~U$~odigital technology. Much oftheprdjectd~i1 has still to be discussed and agreed and itlsexpected that the new facility will be available around the end of 2004.
Infrastructure
and security
This project is being undertaken by Newell and Budge and is mapping out how the various elements of technology should be linked to ensure that our systems and data are kept secure and that we are able to develop e-services as and when required. Specific items being investigated
include:
.
the optimum approach to linking the pro~ CRM system to other ElC systems and data security measures required to safely allow citizens to access council servJcesvia the. internet site.
how citizens should be authenticated when they use ElC services via the ELC internet site.
how 3rd party internet facilities (e.g. the Talis library system) should be integrated and made available to citizens via the ELC internet site.
how ElC employees at remote locations might use the internet to access information on the ElC intranetCRM (Customer Relationship Management) I Citizens Account
Following a consultation ex~rcise, the Scottish Executive has approved the basic data to be used in the citizens account. Hardware and software tools have been delivered to ELC in preparation for the project. Some early scoping work has been carried out in regard to the transactions to be CRM'd. The Council's customer service strategy is to be developed/confirmed. prior to the project kicking off in earnest. In the meantime, we are looking at the practicality of undertaking a pilot or proving exercise, which would aim to demonstrate the potential of a CRM system and prove that the various components can be successfully linked together.
Contact Centre
This project has commenced and is to relocate and the existing Community Alarm. CCTV Monitoring and Housing Repairs call centres into a new combined contact centre at Macmerry. Mike Archibald is managing this project and
2003
I Issue-OO1
councils who have undertaken
similar projects
to learn fromtheir experiences
and we are talking
to various suppliers about how they may be able to assist us. There is a lot of potential to use a DNA database with specialist GIS/mapping software to provide useful and exciting facilities to citizens in future.
.
Business Process Re-EngineeringNewell and Budge is assisting us in reviewing and improving our business processes, primarily within the Housing Repairs area. Council staff are actively contributing to the project. which is due to
complete by the end of this year. In keeping with best practise, we believe that it is important that we streamline processes. before we apply technology, such as CRM to them.
Smartcards
Dunbarsecondary school is to be the first to receive smartcards. The cards will be initially used to access Young Scot
entitlements and catering/vending facilities. Smartcards will then be rolled out to the other secondary schools and additional services will be enabled. Plans have been drawn up forthe Dunbar implementation and these are to be reviewed with alfconcerned.Card designs have been developed for young people (in the secondary schools). citizens (initially library members) and East Lothian Council staff (initially teachers and schoolstaff};1he EtG card designs
Century
Govern ments~t!on.. Dialogue
Youth
Many activities aimed at engaging East Lothian young people are underway and planning is well
--
advanced
for the Resource
Base
in
Musselburgh. Dialogue Youth featured as a key theme in East Lothian Learning Partnerships's
.Youth Daze" event. Youth Daze was a major event for young people held at Musselburgh racecourse
on Nov 1.
The event featured Beat 106 DJ Paul Harper and the Young Scot .Space" van amongst a host of other varied attractions and activities all specifically targeting young peoples interests. Caroline Davis (Dialogue Youth Coordinator) .is a member of the smartcardproject team and is providing an important link to young people and
the Young Scot organisation. WeareusiH9 the services of ESP Systex. a specialist smartcard company. based in Hull. ESP has many years of experience in this field and has recentlysuPPQrtoo Dundee City Council, Dumfries and Galloway and others on similar projects. We will have theoptio(! of encoding and printing smartcards at ESP's facility and also on our own in-house machine in John Muir House. The ELC card type is the same as those that are being used by at least four other Scottish Councils.
By cooperating with the other councils. we are minimising development costs and timescales and benefiting from their experience.
DNA Scotland
This project. managed by Stuart Duncan. is creating a definitive address database for all properties within East Lothian. An up to date street gazetteer. which holds data on all East Lothian roads and footpaths will also be created. The address information will eventually be used across the Council. by the Scottish Executive and by a host of other partner organisations such as the emergency services. We have visited other