ICT Strategy 2013 - Hays

2.7 ICT strategic themes
Theme
Information
management
Efficiency and
effectiveness
Collaboration
Customer
service
External
partnerships
Protecting the
environment
Description
The Business ICT Strategy recognises the need to drive up customer satisfaction
through consistent, common standards and effective front-line activities, whilst
also reducing corporate overheads on services. Through this theme, focus will be
given to customer records in departmental systems which underpin almost all
Council service delivery. Improved governance and tools will be developed, and
further use made of document and records management to provide an evidence
base for Council decision-making.
The ICT Transformation programme which commenced in 2011 highlighted a
proliferation of technologies, systems and applications across the various
directorates that appear to carry out similar and/or overlapping functions.
Through this theme, focus will be given to consolidating the various systems in use
and rationalise the technologies deployed across the Council.
The theme of collaboration is one that resonates with the wider Council Strategy
2013-2016 and is a key element to the Council’s vision and core values. The
technologies to support collaboration across the Council will be addressed as part
of the Workplace Environment opportunity (Table 4 – High priority strategic
Infrastructure recommendations) which also supports the environmental theme
by looking at the greater use of conferencing technology for meetings to reduce
staff travel.
The theme of customer service is one that is particularly emphasised in the wider
Council Strategy 2013-2016 and is also a key element to the Council’s vision and
core values. All the opportunities set out in the strategy must consider whether
they enhance customer service as part of assessing the potential benefits.
However, the Appointments Booking opportunity (Table 5 – High priority
strategic organisation-wide recommendations) was identified as offering
particular benefits with regard to customer service.
The theme of improving our interaction with external partners is another key
element of the wider Council Strategy 2013-2016. The technologies to support
interactions with external partners will be considered in all ICT initiatives and in
particular development of standard extranet technologies, collaboration spaces
and processes.
The theme of protecting the environment is one of particular importance to the
Council and will be considered when formulating the delivery of ICT projects. The
Workplace Environment and Single Integrated Network opportunities (Table 4 –
High priority strategic Infrastructure recommendations) both have the potential to
deliver a cost effective and energy efficient ICT estate that delivers reduced
environmental impact and enables new and sustainable ways of working for the
Council.
Table 1 - ICT Strategic Themes
South Gloucestershire Council Business ICT Strategy 2013-2016 Page 12 of 30