delivering the

Smart City & ICT Partnership

Six Monthly Performance Report

April 2008 - September 2008

Table of Contents

1. Delivering the Smart City Vision in 2007/08

Service performance in terms of desktop availability and delivery of basic service requests continues to be good. Generally systems availability across the 170 applications supported by the partnership has been good and significant improvements in the availability of the Council website have been made over the period. Contact Centre system performance has however deteriorated. Given the lack of success in resolving functionality and performace issues it has been jointly agreed to decommission the application. The Contact Centre are currently working without a customer contact system or the ability to produce robust management information.

Overall customer satisfaction with ICT has remained constant over the period, with average scores of 4.25 out of 5 being recorded. New ICT infrastructure and service processes have meant faults and basic requests are being resolved sooner. Concern remains regarding customer satisfaction with requests for more complex change which are still seen by the user community to take too long to deliver. The backlog of change has reduced over the period which provides a basis for improvement in this area in future periods.

Key projects have been completed in the period including the SEEMIS system which has now been rolled out to all schools and E-HR which is now operational across all departments. A range of activities are being taken forward in closure of these projects. The project to deliver a web-based stock management and ordering system to the Community Equipment Service and partner agencies has also been completed. Rollout of the National Entitlement Smart Card to the new intake of P7/S1 pupils was also completed during the period.

The Council agreed a significant new investment programme in Social Care systems during the period including the upgrade of the SWIFT application, rollout of a new rostering system for the Home Care service and integration of SWIFT with the national E-Care framework for information sharing. A new contract for the Council's telephony service was also agreed during the period which will deliver significant efficiency savings. A further set of innovative proposals are in various stages of development for Customer Services, Web Upgrade, Asset Management and Mobile Working.

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How are we doing?

A key objective of the Partnership is the delivery of excellent ICT services on a day to day basis across all Council services. Overall, in the last six months, service performance has improved both for corporate and schools users with improvements in the reliability of desktop services and time for fault resolution. Performance in the delivery of requests for change, and availability of critical business applications remains of concern particularly our contact centre system and internet site.

The top six commonly used requests from staff make up 80% of the total requests for change. Since the last reported 6 monthly period, improvements have been made and BT are now delivering these requests against the target delivery date 95% of the time.

Corporate requests for change remain at a steady trend with a slight dip in July and increase again in August. In overall terms, the backlog of change work in progress for the Corporate estate stood at 302 at the end of September compaed to 349 pieces of work at the end of March. This is encouraging and provides a good basis for improvement in future periods

The availability of critical ICT applications performance fell below expectations in two of the six reported months;

Stability of Contact Central, the application supporting the Council's contact centre, has deteriorated during the 6 month period and when the application was available its performance was poor. BT have focused resources onto fixing the functional problems, whilst improvements seemed initially to have worked problems have continued. Eventually the performance and availability of the application became so poor that it was jointly agreed not to undertake further work on the system from mid-September.

The Contact Centre are currently working without a contact management system, and relying on paper-based, spreadsheet and email processes along with entering information directly into back office systems. Plans are being prioritised to put in place replacement systems to support the contact centre operation. Workshops with the supplier of the hosted solution used by the HR service centre are planned in October. It is anticipated that an interim hosted solution will provide the ability to test further the potential of an integrated customer record between the contact centre and back office in a limited number of service areas. It should be noted that this will inform the design of a strategic .replacement which will require to be addressed as part of the budget process. Whilst every effort is being made by the Contact Centre to continue providing excellent customer service the current situation is unsustainable.

The availability of the Council web site www.Edinburgh.gov.uk  has improved since the last report with availability exceeding 99.5%. The intranet has however suffered from continued performance issues and was down for 11 short periods of time during the period. A range of options are being considered but the costs of a replacement platform and migration/change programme cannot be contained within existing budgets.

How are we doing?

A customer survey is sent out on resolution or completion of all incidents or requests for service. Over 3,000 questionnaires are issued each month with a response rate of 24%. The overall satisfaction is currently above the target of 4 out of a 5 point scale.  Satisfaction with incident resolution is also over the target of 4 out of 5. 100% of formal complaints raised have been resolved with users within one month.  User satisfaction with completion of more complex change requests continues to be below the required target.

Following feedback from service users, the customer survey method has been refined to allow for a `non applicable' option for each question. This has resulted in more accurate analysis of the returned questionnaires being possible.

What are we doing?

The improvements introduced last year to the change process have delivered significant benefits in both a faster turnaround of simple change requests and a reduction in the cost of delivering these changes. Further work has been identified and a further improvement programme agreed particularly to address delivery times for complex change.

Regular forums have been held for staff both in corporate and school setting and are attended by senior members of the partnership management team. A pilot Walking the Floor session has been held, where members of the Council and BT could meet to find out more about each others roles and get an understanding of the issues we each face. This was well received and we plan to have more sessions in the near future.

* No returns received

How are we doing?

Key business transformation programmes secured through the Smart City Partnership are set to drive over £24m of cash-releasing efficiency savings for departments by 2011. These include the Enterprise Finance project which enabled the Integrating Finance and the Corporate Procurement programmes, E-HR and the Modernising Childrens' Information projects.

During the period:

What are we doing?

The Customer Services workstream has completed an outline programme design which has involved significant consultation across Council departments. This programme design includes proposals to replace the current web platforms and upgrade the Council's telephony infrastructure.

Significant progress has also been made on developing a proposal for business change programmes to support asset and major project management and mobile working.

How are we doing?

A risk register for the Council's ICT services has been created, identifying the top risks and mitigating actions and is reviewed regularly by the e-Government Management Team. This is fed from detailed risk registers covering Service, Programme and Operations which are reviewed by managers on a monthly basis.

There have been a number of recent, well-publicised, security breaches by external organisations and these have focussed a great deal of attention on the protection of client information. The Council Management Team has established a working group led by e-Government and Internal Audit to develop an `Information Asset Register'. This will ultimately lead to a better understanding of Council information systems, more informed security policies and guidance, improved information management and governance, and a more focused audit programme.

The first version of the Information Asset Register has been produced, although work is ongoing in improving the quality and scope of the data. It is planned to have the first version fully operational by the end of December. Policy amendments have also been approved by the Audit Committee and Council Management Team in support of this initiative.

The e-Government Division is currently preparing costed proposals to provide a control framework for the use of devices such as `USB memory sticks' which are in widespread use across the Council. These devices are small and easily portable, but can hold large amounts of data. Proposals for the introduction of technology to encrypt Council laptops are also being considered.

As part of an ongoing Security Awareness Programme, we are updating the Intranet and developing posters and guidance literature. A series of `face to face' lunchtime meetings with senior managers from across the Council have been planned for October and November 2008. Proposals for the introduction of online, computer-based training in Information Security and Data Protection for all staff are being developed.

How are we doing?

The partnership participated in the annual SOCITM (Society of Local Authority IT Directors) benchmarking survey in June this year. The results of the survey are due to be published late-October and will be reported in the next performance report.

Further to the independent benchmarking study last year undertaken by Equaterra an improvement plan is being designed to take forward recommended improvements. Significant work has been undertaken to identify potential efficiencies from print services and these will be reported shortly to the Council Management Team.

The Partnership has taken advantage of an offer from the Scottish Government to join a national User Licence Agreement (ULA) for Oracle software for Social Care services. For Edinburgh, engagement with the ULA will provide estimated annual net savings of:

2008/09                                         £25,296

2009/10                                         £58,336

* Do not have information on 07/08 organisational running costs yet ** Have increased number of desktops, and incurred additional running costs (FFF) but reduced number of staff

How are we doing?

What are we doing?

A key element of the partnership's strategy is to capture and implement new ideas. This includes ideas on management, new ways of working and technology. Innovation show cases have been held where senior business users are invited to presentations by research experts from BT's Research Centre at Adastral Park. Three of these sessions have been held in the period including;

Departments have established ICT steering groups and work plans which allow the capture the majority of ideas and manages them through a defined business case process. As well as identifying innovative opportunities the partnership also looks at new ways of developing better partnership relationships;

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Smart City & ICT Partnership Performance Report October 2007 - March 2008

Double checking the gigabyte figures

Waiting on confirmation from Martin Docherty on number of corporate and learning and teaching user accounts

Smart City Vision

"The Council is recognised as a UK leader in the delivery of modern, integrated and interactive public service through the intelligent application of technology"

Smart City Strategy, 2003

Keeping the customer satisfied…

13,915 calls to the helpdesk resolved in the period

9,914 service requests delivered in the period

18,553 customer satisfaction questionnaires sent out in the period

4.25 out of 5 average customer satisfaction

61 % of complaints resolved within one month

The Partnership is committed to delivering excellent customer service to the Council. To measure this, we send out customer satisfaction questionnaires with every helpdesk call and service/change request as well as regularly surveying senior managers.

Responding to customer feedback:

Delivering innovative business transformation is at the heart of the Smart City Strategy and the Partnership. Our programme of delivery projects aligns to the Council's Corporate Plan and Service Plans.

Our aim is to improve the way the Council does business through the intelligent application of technology and the simplification and standardisation of business processes. We add value by enabling staff to deliver better services to our customers and to work smarter and more efficiently.

The Council is heavily dependent on ICT to deliver its services. Over 13,000 staff depend on ICT systems to do their job and deliver front-line services. ICT-enabled business change projects are complex and involve significant risk, requiring careful project management.

The security of our information systems is critical to the continuity of our business. It is essential that the right information is available to the right people, at the right time. The Partnership provides a `layered' approach to security, relying on a range of controls to protect our network, servers, workstations, staff and information systems.

Hoping for the best, planning for the worst…

100% of projects maintain up to date risk registers

32 average risk rating for risks in the Partnership risk register

Keeping safe…

39 security investigations during the period

4 million spam emails blocked every month

Delivering ICT services that provide value for money for the Council is a key focus of the Partnership. We strive to identify and take advantage of the opportunities from new technologies and approaches to service provision to improve the quality and reduce the cost of ICT services to departments. Regular industry surveys and spot checks by independent experts provide assurance that the services provided are competitively priced.

How do partnership costs measure up?

Keeping the costs down…

£2,268 (07/08) ICT spend per employee v. an average for English and Scottish Unitary authorities of £1,908 per employee (06/07)

£4m of savings per annum saved from core service costs per annum

Every day we support…

81,928 page views on www.edinburgh.gov.uk

191 helpcalls to get people working again

38,900 corporate emails sent & delivered

538 gigabytes of data traffic sent across the network

The City of Edinburgh Council's ICT estate is one of the largest and most complex in Scotland. Delivering enhanced service support levels is a specific objective of our Partnership with BT.

Our ICT estate

Who do we support?

Exploring new ideas…

250 projects identified

by the partnership

50 part of the Smart City Programme

75 linked to the single programme of work

3 Innovation sessions held

A key objective of the Smart City Partnership is to develop innovation in service delivery. Departmental ICT strategy groups have been formed across the Council and a Single Programme of Work has been developed to capture ideas from staff in the Council and BT and to assess opportunities where ICT investment could deliver improved services and a more efficient operation. Business cases will be developed to ensure we target and prioritise resources available for ICT investment towards areas of greatest benefit.

Modernising the Council…

3 major  projects  
completed in period

Around 15,000 staff benefited from new  services delivered through projects

53% project  delivery against  plan for full year 

Delivering innovative ICT projects on schedule, to specification and to cost is at the heart of the Smart City Strategy. Our programme of delivery projects aims to add business value enabling staff to work smarter and deliver excellent customer service.

During the reporting period,  projects designed to improve the efficiency of the Council telephony network and print production have commenced. In addition, a significant project to upgrade the core Social Care application (Swift) has been approved by the Council.

The Joint Programme Management Office (PMO) has continued to develop with standards for project management, documentation and control being emebedded in practice.  The agreed performance indicators for the partnership continue to be collected and analysed and form the basis of performance reporting for the partnership.