Digital Platform budget and costs

Roedd y cais yn llwyddiannus.

Dear Bristol City Council,

Please could you provide me with the following information about your Digital Platform project?

The original budget for the project.

Copies of the documents used to propose the project and provide justification for its initial funding. I would expect these to contain some indication of what the project was at the time expected to achieve.

The total cost of the project to May 2014, including all contractors' fees, software licences, hardware, and (if accounted for) Council employees' time. If possible this should include a coarse breakdown of where the money went.

What functionality the project has delivered that can now be used by Bristol residents.

Thanks in advance.

Ben Harris

Freedom of Information, Bristol City Council

Thank you for your request for information. You should expect to receive a
response within the 20 day working limit.

Dear Bristol City Council,

On 15th May, I sent you a request for some information regarding the Digital Platform project. You replied saying I should expect to receive a response within 20 working days. Those 20 working days have now passed and I have not had a response. When should I now expect one?

Yours faithfully,

Ben Harris

Freedom of Information, Bristol City Council

Dear Requester

We write in response to your requests for information received here on 15
May 2014. For your reference your requests for information are in bold
below and our responses follow.

Please could you provide me with the following information about your
Digital Platform project?

1.      The original budget for the project.

The Customer and Process Programme Business Case identified an investment
of £3.1m required to deliver Tranche 1 of the programme.  The Cabinet
Report identifies that “Tranche 1 will design a set of common processes to
be used in processes redesign; develop a set of common IT solutions to
support the delivery of common processes (build once, use many times &
used at lower cost each time) and deliver improved channel infrastructure
with a focus on our digital platform”.

 

2.      Copies of the documents used to propose the project and provide
justification for its initial funding. I would expect these to contain
some indication of what the project was at the time expected to achieve.

 

June 2013 - The Cabinet Report detailing the Customer & Process Business
Case

 

3.      The total cost of the project to May 2014, including all
contractors' fees, software licences, hardware, and (if accounted for)
Council employees' time. If possible this should include a coarse
breakdown of where the money went.

 

The 13/14 spend for the Digital Platform project was £1.34m with a further
£340k incurred April – May 2014.

·        This includes

o   £1.28m on services and contractors’ fees

o   £55k software licence/maintenance costs

o   If backfill has been necessary, then Bristol City Council employee
time is included (otherwise this is an opportunity cost and has not been
included within these figures).

 

4.      What functionality the project has delivered that can now be used
by Bristol residents.

 

The projects objective was to design and construct the infrastructure
required to provide digital services “so good that people prefer to use
them” – inspired by the vision of the Government Digital Service (GDS) and
their approach to GOV.UK. These digital services will be created by a
series of redesign projects, using the output of the Digital Platform
project, including:

a.      Online forms designed to meet user needs, based on user research
and testing

b.      A new citizen’s account that will enable people to see all of the
services they have applied for and receive in one place

c.      A common way to identify, authenticate, authorise and store the
record of people’s entitlement for services

d.      Integration of requests for service with backoffice systems within
the council and those managed by contractors

e.      Integrated online payments

These features are not visible to the public yet, because the first two
projects using the digital infrastructure are due to deliver their first
public releases in July and August

f.       A first iteration of the digital Apply for Residents Parking
Permits service will be available in early July

g.      A first iteration of the digital “Enquiries, FOI and Complaints”
service will be available towards the end of July/early August.

A number of other projects will follow that build on and re-use the
digital infrastructure that has been invested in by the Digital Platform
project, and new digital services will be subsequently released.

 

 

On behalf of
Freedom of Information Team

This response should answer your request in full, however if you are not
satisfied with this response or wish to lodge an appeal against any
exemptions that may have been applied, you can do so by writing to the
Data Protection Officer at Bristol City Council Legal Services, City Hall,
College Green, Bristol, or [1][Bristol City Council request email]. Details of the
complaints procedure can be found at
[2]http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/complaints

 

If, after you have exhausted the council’s complaints procedure, you are
still not satisfied with the response you have received you have the right
to complain to the Information Commissioner, details of your right to
complain can be found at [3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

 

Copyright notice

The provision of information by Bristol City Council under this scheme
does not imply a right to reproduce or commercially exploit such
information without the Council's express prior written permission.

Reproduction or commercial exploitation of materials supplied under this
scheme without the express permission of Bristol City Council may be an
infringement of copyright.

The Council is unable to grant permission to reproduce or re-use any
material accessed through this scheme that is the property of third
parties. Permission to reproduce or re-use such material must be obtained
from the copyright holders.

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Council services online: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/service

Keep up to date with the latest council news and sign up to our monthly
email newsletter: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ournews

Have your say on consultations and view our webcasts:
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/consult

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Bristol City Council request email]
2. http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/complaints
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

Freedom of Information, Bristol City Council

1 Atodiad

Dear requester

 

Please find missed file attached.

 

On behalf of

Freedom Of Information team

 

From: Freedom of Information
Sent: 17 June 2014 14:16
To: '[FOI #211708 email]'
Subject: response to request

 

Dear Requester

We write in response to your requests for information received here on 15
May 2014. For your reference your requests for information are in bold
below and our responses follow.

Please could you provide me with the following information about your
Digital Platform project?

1.      The original budget for the project.

The Customer and Process Programme Business Case identified an investment
of £3.1m required to deliver Tranche 1 of the programme.  The Cabinet
Report identifies that “Tranche 1 will design a set of common processes to
be used in processes redesign; develop a set of common IT solutions to
support the delivery of common processes (build once, use many times &
used at lower cost each time) and deliver improved channel infrastructure
with a focus on our digital platform”.

 

2.      Copies of the documents used to propose the project and provide
justification for its initial funding. I would expect these to contain
some indication of what the project was at the time expected to achieve.

 

June 2013 - The Cabinet Report detailing the Customer & Process Business
Case

 

3.      The total cost of the project to May 2014, including all
contractors' fees, software licences, hardware, and (if accounted for)
Council employees' time. If possible this should include a coarse
breakdown of where the money went.

 

The 13/14 spend for the Digital Platform project was £1.34m with a further
£340k incurred April – May 2014.

·        This includes

o   £1.28m on services and contractors’ fees

o   £55k software licence/maintenance costs

o   If backfill has been necessary, then Bristol City Council employee
time is included (otherwise this is an opportunity cost and has not been
included within these figures).

 

4.      What functionality the project has delivered that can now be used
by Bristol residents.

 

The projects objective was to design and construct the infrastructure
required to provide digital services “so good that people prefer to use
them” – inspired by the vision of the Government Digital Service (GDS) and
their approach to GOV.UK. These digital services will be created by a
series of redesign projects, using the output of the Digital Platform
project, including:

a.      Online forms designed to meet user needs, based on user research
and testing

b.      A new citizen’s account that will enable people to see all of the
services they have applied for and receive in one place

c.      A common way to identify, authenticate, authorise and store the
record of people’s entitlement for services

d.      Integration of requests for service with backoffice systems within
the council and those managed by contractors

e.      Integrated online payments

These features are not visible to the public yet, because the first two
projects using the digital infrastructure are due to deliver their first
public releases in July and August

f.       A first iteration of the digital Apply for Residents Parking
Permits service will be available in early July

g.      A first iteration of the digital “Enquiries, FOI and Complaints”
service will be available towards the end of July/early August.

A number of other projects will follow that build on and re-use the
digital infrastructure that has been invested in by the Digital Platform
project, and new digital services will be subsequently released.

 

 

On behalf of
Freedom of Information Team

This response should answer your request in full, however if you are not
satisfied with this response or wish to lodge an appeal against any
exemptions that may have been applied, you can do so by writing to the
Data Protection Officer at Bristol City Council Legal Services, City Hall,
College Green, Bristol, or [1][Bristol City Council request email]. Details of the
complaints procedure can be found at
[2]http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/complaints

 

If, after you have exhausted the council’s complaints procedure, you are
still not satisfied with the response you have received you have the right
to complain to the Information Commissioner, details of your right to
complain can be found at [3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

 

Copyright notice

The provision of information by Bristol City Council under this scheme
does not imply a right to reproduce or commercially exploit such
information without the Council's express prior written permission.

Reproduction or commercial exploitation of materials supplied under this
scheme without the express permission of Bristol City Council may be an
infringement of copyright.

The Council is unable to grant permission to reproduce or re-use any
material accessed through this scheme that is the property of third
parties. Permission to reproduce or re-use such material must be obtained
from the copyright holders.

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Council services online: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/service

Keep up to date with the latest council news and sign up to our monthly
email newsletter: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ournews

Have your say on consultations and view our webcasts:
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/consult

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Bristol City Council request email]
2. http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/complaints
3. http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx