Decision details

To Allow the Joint ICT service to appoint to an additional fixed 12-month ServiceDesk Technician Post.

This post will be funded by utilising some of the underspend from last year (2021/22 or 22/23) Joint ICT revenues budget which was carried over to a reserve to be used to assist with additional resources required to tackle a backlog of incidents and service requests and to provide additional resource to assist with the transition to new technology such as within the M365 environment.

To reduce the backlog of outstanding calls, and to assist with the additional workloads created by the Joint ICT Service to implement and adapt to Microsoft 365 technologies to all three authorities.

The service have been failing the SLA targets for fixes within target time several times at NEDDC and intermittently at the other authorities, this is likely due to the additional workloads and demands placed on the service since the pandemic, an increase in reliance on ICT, an increase in the number of staff being supported, major changes brought about during the transition to M365, long term sick and vacancies whilst completing recruitment process.

The 12 month temporary Servicedesk technician post will provide additional resource to help address these issues

The current SLA agreed at all three authorities is likely to continue to fail due to reasons highlighted above.

A review of the temporary resource and service position will need to be completed at the end of the 12 months.

We are currently in the process of recruiting to existing posts and this may provide alternative opportunities to be explored once complete, we are hopeful that this temporary post may assist us to secure resource quickly.