IT & Digital
Strategy
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Contents
1.
Background
1
2.
IT
2
2.1: People and Skills
2
2.2: Data and Information Security Governance
2
2.3: IT Availability
4
2.4: Cloud Services
4
3.
Digital
6
3.1: Digital Economy
6
3.2: Digital Offer
6
3.3: Digital Workforce
7
4.
Principles in Delivery
9
5.
How will we deliver this strategy and ensure its lasting effects
9
6.
Digital Stories
9
6.1: Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
9
6.2: Machine Learning (a form of Artificial Intelligence AI)
9
6.3: Chatbots (a form of Artificial Intelligence AI))
10
6.4: Assistive Technology
10
1. Background
Where We Are Now
Swindon Borough Council has begun to rapidly evolve to meet the digital needs of it’s staff and
residents. In the last three years SBC has adopted more digital processes and services while
making significant financial savings. The IT team for Swindon has also stabilised the service
with a 75% reduction in major incidents, proving a platform for more digital improvements.
This IT and Digital strategy is intended to support the business through the next phase of it’s
development and has been formed by industry trends, best practice, feedback from the 2019
IT staff survey results and audit recommendations. Speed and agility are key in a digital world
and with emerging technologies being a core component of this strategy we do not want to
set a vision beyond 2022.
Where We Want to Be
Swindon will become a modern, efficient and effective organisation. This strategy details
targeted improvements that will enable us to:
· Update our aged hardware, from datacentre to staff computers
· Provide a future focused training plan for our staff
· Further improve our data and information security
· Embrace emerging technology to improve our internal and external facing services
What it Will Feel Like:
Our staff will feel ready and able to drive the business in a digitally focused direction, with the
right tools and skills to deliver. Our services will feel efficient and effective.
This strategy reflects the internal work that the Council needs to do to work effectively with its
major partners in the public and private sector and complements our key partners own IT and
Digital strategies.
1
2. IT
in both prevention and response. Governance
that works with the wider business is key and
an IT Steering Group will be formed to enable
The IT service has stabilised and it is now time
effective strategic partnering between IT and
to start building on this success and develop
the wider council.
the right skills to deploy the best software and
tools for the staff and residents of Swindon. We
Excellent cyber security is essential to all
will mature our performance management to
businesses and the responsibility of all staff.
better to deliver these services and make them
The risk is heightened in local government
even more available than before. Security will
by the valuable sensitive and personal data
become a greater focus as we look to future
that we hold. This type of data is frequently
proof our services with modern functionality.
targeted by hacktivists to then hold businesses
at ransom for money. Prevention is the first line
2.1 People and Skills
of defence. The global threat of Cyber Attacks
continue to rise each year, with Jan – Sept
Swindon IT has progressed immensely since
2019 seeing a record breaking 5,183 breaches,
in-sourcing IT Operations. This has seen us
exposing some 7.9 billion records.
overhaul major business systems, reduce major
incidents by 75% and increase our customer
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/11/14/
satisfaction score since 2015.
breaches-2019/
The people in IT are instrumental to this
a) Preventing a Cyber Attack:
success, and in order to stay ahead of the curve,
and attract and retain the skilled people we
The most common back door to any business’s
will invest in training and development. This
data and systems is its staff. We will reduce
will be a combination of cross training, good
this risk through education of staff and political
contract management to maximise benefits of
members to follow best practice when working
suppliers and their services, and investment
online and using email.
in training programmes to ensure IT staff are
skilled for the new technologies they will be
£20k LGA funding has been secured and will
implementing, supporting and using. This will
be used for members training as well as email
include mobile working platforms such as tablet phishing tests across the test and inform our
and hybrid devices.
user base. These phishing tests will be used
to educate the business on how to spot a
What we will do by 2022: We will review the
malicious email and what to do in the event
skills needed for the period of this strategy
of receiving one.
and ensure training and recruitment is
aligned to this.
Swindon Borough Council achieved PSN
compliance in 2018-19 and must retain
2.2 Data and Information Security Governance
this standard by demonstrating ongoing
conformance to ever changing threat landscapes.
Swindon needs excellent data and information
security standards which ensure best practice
A capital bid for £50,000 has been raised to
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help invest in new tools like Privileged Access
There will be a Cyber-Response plan and
Management (PAM), essential for modern
Business Continuity Plans will be prepared
management of IT admin rights which, if
and rehearsed to build staff confidence and
breached, would allow an attacker significant
competence to keep the business running in
access. The use of a PAM tool will allow us to
the event of a total IT outage.
better facilitate appropriate Identity and Access
Management rights as and when needed,
Swindon will learn from victims of cyber-crime
rather than the old fashioned way of IT admins
crime like Copeland Borough Council, who saw
having access by default. The bid will also
their systems compromised by a brand new
support the ongoing maintenance of key tools
threat that their up to date anti-virus could
like our remote access solutions, firewalls and
not prevent.
VPN, all of these tools are integral in keeping
our cyber defences up to date and reduce the
https://www.local.gov.uk/copeland-borough-
chances of a breach.
council-managing-cyber-attack
Mobile Device Management (MDM) will be a
When planning and building a cyber-response
key PSN factor for 2020-21 and will deliver the
plan Swindon will use expertise from areas like
Windows InTune Platform to secure mobile
the Nation Cyber Security Centre.
phones and tablet devices. This will allow
us to publish trusted Apps and block Apps
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/
that are known to use data in a non GDPR
advice-guidance/all-topics?topics=cyber
compliant manner. It will also allow us to block
strategy&sort=date%2Bdesc&start=0&rows=20
and wipe these devices remotely, offering
enhanced security of lost or stolen devices.
c) Responding to a Cyber Attack:
Finally, MDM will also allow us to roll out Multi
Restoring IT Services
Factor Authentication to enable National Cyber
Security Centre approved levels of security
In the event of a breach, IT will ensure services
for internet based access for Microsoft 365.
are restored as quickly as possible.
This will also bring productivity improvements
by providing our staff with 24/7 self-service
Backups and the ability to easily restore
password resets.
services and data is key to resilience. Swindon’s
investment in its in-house datacentre
b) Responding to a Cyber Attack:
improvements have seen us out grow the
Cyber Response Plan
current backup solution. We are investing in
a modern backup solution with greater ability
Cyber security is the responsibility of all staff
to restore, archive and de-duplicate our data.
and not just an IT exercise.
This smart management of data will also help
reduce the risk of an ever expanding need for
In preparation for a cyber-attack Swindon
expensive storage. This will move us forwards
Borough Council will build a Cyber-Response
on our objective to have a resilient link
team that can assess the scale, duration and
between our two Swindon datacentres with
impact of any event. This team will have key
stretch clustering to enable services to be live
players from across the business as well as key
in either datacentre in the event of an outage.
suppliers and partners.
3
Training exercises will be run within IT using the
home capacity in the migration to the modern
National Cyber Security Centre Exercise in a Box Always on VPN solution.
tools to help develop, test and practice our IT
specific cyber-attack response processes.
We will explore the option of having Wi-Fi as
our primary network to further increase the
What we will do by 2022: Form a Cyber
availability of services to staff who work on a
Response Team and rehearse our Cyber
mobile basis.
Response Plan. Use this focus to mature
the businesses Business Continuity Plans.
We will deliver annual refresh programmes
Implement a new backup system with
which ensure our computers are replaced
overhauled processes.
every 5 years so that the age of our hardware
is not a cause of staff downtime.
2.3 IT Availability
What we will do by 2022: Complete stretch
a) Further improve IT availability
clustering work between Swindon’s two data
centres to enable resilience between both sites.
Our user base consistently rate the availability
Use new reporting methods to better manage
of IT systems as important to them. With a
IT availability.
75% reduction in major incidents from 2015
we now need to continually improve on
2.4 Cloud Services
this by focusing on the uptime of our core
applications and infrastructure. We will:
a) Choosing the Right Platform
· Agree the business’s most critical of
As the cost for cloud services continues to
applications with the support of the IT
fall it is important for Swindon to have a clear
Steering Group
methodology for selecting the best hosting
· Confirm the fastest achievable restoration
platform for its services. Swindon IT completed
time of these apps
the in-sourcing of servers from the Capita
· We will publish an up to date list of approved
Private Cloud in December 2019, this achieved
and supported systems by way of an online
significant system performance improvements
Service Catalogue following established
and cost savings for the business. It also means
industry principles.
that Swindon is able to control what it does
next with these platforms.
This will enable us to better manage the
support of any new or retiring services while
We will continue our hybrid model of on
maintaining the Service Catalogue. Once
premise and cloud services to further enable
formalised we will produce focused monthly
high resilience in the event of a disaster
reports that will help to monitor, and further
situation, as well as optimum performance
improve the availability of these systems.
and cost. Starting with procurement exercises,
we will produce a model to ensure the right
We will further improve our in-house data
platform is chosen. Swindon will work with
centre resilience with stretch clustering
industry experts including SOCTIM to build a
between sites and add additional working from
model that outlines the required criteria of
4
hosting a service in the Swindon datacentre vs the Cloud. This model will then be applied by the
business after Soft Market Testing before we go out to tender. This will enable better business
decisions and reduce risk of suppliers or staff taking Swindon onto a platform that does not
serve our best interests. Swindon will need to be open to use of any supplier platform within the
framework of the model to be defined.
The model will ensure we are making decisions that allow the best achievable outcomes
that enable a fit for purpose, affordable, flexible, secure, compliant outcome with good user
experience which is future proofed to business needs and industry standards. Carbon neutrality
will also be key to choosing future platforms.
This model will drive more adoption of cloud services as the market price for these services
continue to decrease. The net revenue change will be determined by how many systems are
tendered over the strategy period. The majority of our major applications will still be in contract
as they have been implemented over the last 2 years. An application strategy will be developed
during 2020 to inform, what happens at the end of those contract periods.
What we will do by 2022
Produce a model which enables the business to be decide what platform is best for each system
tender. Taking into account factors like cost, benefits, carbon footprint amd support.
Cloud
Services
5
3. Digital
· A digital cluster of business units have taken
up residence at the Workshed
· An increase in digital SME’s in the borough
The Council needs to embrace modern digital
· A renewed focus on the part of STEM
technology to meet the expectations of its
education across all age ranges
residents in interacting with the Council and to
maintain services to a good standard within our
What will we do by 2022
funding envelope. We will use digital tools and
skills to drive down operational costs for the
· Work with the private sector to enable
Council making our services more cost effective. high-speed internet connectivity and the
We are currently operating from a reasonable
latest mobile communications including 5G
base as a result of our journey so far, but we
for businesses, residents and utilisation by
must continue to grow our capabilities at a
the council
faster rate. The success of the digital element
· Deliver a low-frequency WAN across the
of this strategy will be measured by whether
entire borough for residents and businesses
we have the utilities in place to enable a smart
to utilise
cities plan to be produced in 2022, achieving
· Deliver public Wi-Fi in the town centre
85% take-up of our digital offer and by
to promote public planning, safety and
increasing the productivity of our staff who
encourage growth. This will be funded
will use the tools at their disposal effectively
by grants.
in the delivery of their roles.
· Explore Smart Cities and Assistive Technology
market capabilities to deliver some Proof of
3.1 Digital Economy
Concept projects and provide a detailed plan
based on a range of data sets for
consideration in 2022
‘Delivery against the ambition
for Swindon to compete at the
3.2 Digital Offer
forefront of digital innovation with
a commitment to using technology
for positive change.’
‘To provide efficient customer-
As part of the delivery of pledge #1.
centric access to services for those
residents who can do so and wish
to do so through digital platforms
We aim to build a digital utility with industry
in alignment with the Customer
4.0 principles (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Access Strategy’.
Industry_4.0). This will encourage businesses
to come to Swindon to increase employment
in this sector.
This means making sure that Council services
can be accessed via the internet, and are user-
Our Journey so far
friendly by designing services, end-to-end, with,
and for, the customer and service users.
· Superfast Broadband services (>24mpbs)
are available to 99.83% of premises in
the borough
6
Our journey so far
3.3 Digital Workforce
· We have had over 60,000 citizens register
for our My Account citizen portal.
‘To provide Swindon Borough
· 95% of all customer facing processes are
Council employees and volunteers
available in forms through the website
with the technology and skills
· A new self-service reception has been
they need to undertake their role
created within Customer Services to
in a more modern, efficient and
provide face to face support to those
effective way.’
residents who need it.
· We have worked towards our goal of 85%
The work in this theme is aligned with the Council
take-up of our online offering. Starting at
Plan and will improve productivity.
10% in April 2018, we are currently at 64%
of transactions taking place online.
Our journey so far
What will we do by 2022
· The Council has reduced the number of
printed copies from 15M per annum to 6M
· Digital assistance will be provided to
per annum in 3 years making our processes
ensure that customers can access services
more efficient, saving costs and reducing our
for themselves. This includes at our Customer environmental impact
Services Reception and also digital tools
· We have refreshed over half of all desktops
across other locations such as libraries.
and laptops through the Windows10 project
· Live Chat, Chatbots and other forms of
· We have invested in Office365, are utilising
Artificial Intelligence will be available on our
a number of the applications within the suite
websites to help residents find content more
including Exchange, Yammer, SharePoint,
easily and interact with the council at times
Skype for Business and some basic elements
that suit them.
of Power Bi
· We will develop smart speaker skills for
council services to make it easier for
What will we do by 2022
residents to access information from home.
· Continuous improvement of our website
· Increase the ease of internal and external
process to provide the best possible user
collaboration by using additional Microsoft
experience that meets the most recent
Office365 tools including Microsoft Teams
accessibility and design standards.
and extended use of SharePoint Online for
· Digital skills for residents will be addressed
document repositories
in a published document later this year.
· Invest in data and analytics capabilities to
Whilst digital skills and inclusion are
turn data into insights that enable us to deliver
recognised dependencies on the success
services more effectively and target resources in
of this strategy they do not form part of the
the areas of most need. We will utilise datasets
delivery of the strategy.
from across Housing, Childrens and Adults with
Power BI to give more Management Information
Customer Access Strategy:
and Business Intelligence to inform evidence
http://sbcvpwmmgv02:9070/ieListDocuments.
based decisions. A new data ethics advisory
aspx?CId=285&MId=9460&Ver=4
group will support this work.
7
· Put in a modern telephony solution for Council employees with soft-phone functionality
· Build a new fit-for-purpose intranet with updated content to support the internal use
of self-service, knowledge bases and digital interaction with enabling functions
· Deliver both Proof of Concepts and Full-Scale projects in Emerging Technology tools including
Chatbots, Robotic Process Automation, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence to
automate repeatable processes and integrate systems which will reduce revenue costs
· Investigate the use of drone technology to deliver efficient services
· Offer an increase in IT drop-ins and training opportunities for Councillors
· Work with HROD and the Workforce Modernisation Board on technical capabilities
training for staff and volunteers. Providing the right tools and training to more staff outside
of IT will create digital capacity across the organisation in developing solutions and
ensure digital leadership and maturity becomes part of our organisational culture
· Continue our journey of print reduction until we reach 1M copies per annum by digitalising
our internal processes
· Invest in more mobile and remote working for staff to increase the amount of time they can
spend in the field. This will be targeted through role profiling and will result in an additional
400 tablet and hybrids for front-line staff
· Expand on the use of the latest assistive technology for social care to support independent
living and to reduce the demand on check-in support
· Continue to take the opportunity when available to remove legacy software on the IT estate
Council Plan:
https://www.swindon.gov.uk/downloads/file/5156/council_plan_2016-20
8
4. Principles in Delivery for licences will be required in 2021/22. Each
project will have to ensure that they can more
than meet their revenue and borrowing costs
We are looking for candidate projects and
through cashable savings. This strategy will be
technologies that are solution agnostic,
delivered as a programme.
adaptable, scalable, provide longevity through
a fully developed roadmap that is well funded
The IT department underwent a restructure
and provide cost-effective proof of concepts to
in March 2020. The current Target Operating
provide evidence for formed business cases.
Model is still valid, but in order to enable this
work to happen an Emerging Technologies
They must have practical application for
team within the IT Change function will need
delivering capabilities that will increase
to be created with new roles.
efficiency and/or bring about additional
positive service impacts that have extensibility
6. Digital Stories
across the business.
We will not be afraid to ‘win or fail fast’ in order
6.1 Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
to gain insight and learning.
All of SBC’s free school meal eligibility checks
Change management and user adoption are
are managed manually; an officer completes
key to realising the potential benefits of this
the checks by copying and pasting information
strategy. We will use ADKAR methodology to
between multiple systems, sending letters
ensure that new tools are effectively used and
and emails to schools and parents. Each check
embedded in the way we work.
takes 5 minutes, with 6,500 annually, that’s 542
hours of officer time per year. Virtual robots
5. How wil we deliver
can effectively complete repetitive tasks around
this strategy and ensure 6 times faster than an officer; they can work
24hours a day, 365 days a year. Robots emulate
its lasting effects
the actions of an officer interacting with
systems to complete business processes to the
rules we set and if the rule is not met then this
Funding to deliver this strategy will come
work goes to the officer for review. This leaves
from a combination of capital and revenue.
our officers time to focus on resolving complex
Approximately £6.0m of capital funding
enquiries and serving the public.
will be required, of which £920k is already
allocated through previous capital bids and
6.2 Chatbots (a form of Artificial
the remainder is on the Capital forward plan.
Intelligence AI)
Most of the remaining capital funding will be
for the data and analytics capabilities that are
A high proportion of calls into the Council
key enablers for our services and smart cities
relate to requesting basic information or are
provisions. A bid for this will come forward on
task-based enquiries suitable for handling
the completion of Proof of Concept(s). We also
by a Chatbot – an automated assistant that
estimate that an additional £500k of revenue
can interact with Citizens to help resolve
9
their enquiries, for example, “when is my
within the photo, we can analyse the image to
bin collection over Christmas?” (for Waste &
automatically detect the ‘type’ of material e.g.
Recycling 80% of enquiries fall into 3 reasons
fridge, tyre, needles, we can get the quantity
for contact). With an average phone call costing
of items e.g. 50 and the estimated dimensions
c. £3.23 vs. a web self-service with a Chatbot
and weight. Gathering all the info from a photo
costing c.£0.48, there’s a potential saving of
can help the team respond appropriately to
£2.75 for each situation where the citizen could
the incident.
satisfactorily complete their intended task
through online self-service. Local governments
6.4 Assistive Technology
are using Chatbots to engage citizens, make
services more accessible, reduce response
Over the last year Adult Social Care have been
times, and enable better management of
using Amazon Echo assist (Alexa) in residential
operational administrative officers time so
homes to support independent living. This
they can focus on serving the public who need
technology can be used for raise an alarm,
the most assistance and the most complex
call friends and family, provide advice for safe
enquiries. SBC has the knowledge to power a
living and set important reminders for things
Chatbot capable of answering queries because
like medicines.
we know why people call, which services are
most commonly called and how to respond to
questions and/or how to direct citizens to an
officer when needed.
6.3 Machine Learning (a form of Artificial
Intelligence AI)
The Streetsmart team deal with more than
300 fly-tipping cases a month. When a citizen
reports fly-tipping of tyres on the Ridgeway
to the Council, the Streetsmart team don’t
always have all the information they need.
For example, is there 1 car tyre or 50 tractor
tyres and whereabouts on the Ridgeway are
they? The lack of detail often results in being
unable to locate the items, and taking the
wrong vehicle leading to multiple attempts
to complete the same task. Similarly, when
prioritising fly-tipping cases an instance of
graffiti that contains offensive language or the
presence of discarded hypodermic needles can
affect the target response time. By applying
Machine Learning to a single photograph of the
incident we can ascertain the precise location
from the longitude and latitude data contained
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Digital Strategy on a Page
Digital Offer
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Information and Technology
Swindon Borough Council
Wat Tyler House
Beckhampton Street
Swindon
SN1 2JH
xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
www.swindon.gov.uk
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