Agenda and minutes

Councillor Gary Purdy (DDDC). The Joint Head of Transformation and Partnerships (BDC / NEDDC) had also indicated that he could not attend the meeting.

Members are requested to declare the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interest and/or other interests, not already on their register of interests, in any item on the agenda and withdraw from the meeting at the appropriate time.

No Declarations of Interest were submitted.

To approve as a correct record and the Chair to sign the attached Minutes of the Joint ICT Committee meeting held on 1 June 2020.                

The minutes of the Annual Meeting, held on 1 June 2020 were agreed as a true record, subject to clarification on Minute JIC/2/20-21 that Councillor N Whitehead was a Member of North East Derbyshire District Council (NEDDC).

Report of the Joint ICT Service Delivery Manager.

Joint ICT Committee considered the Service Report. This covered the first two quarters of the financial year - April to June 2020 and July to September 2020.  Member were assisted in this by the Joint ICT Service Delivery Manager, who explained the performance information.

The Joint ICT Service Delivery Manager began by pointing out that there had been a significant increase in service requests during the previous six months. These requests, it was explained, mainly involved remote working. Members heard that remote working had grown substantially across all of the Partner Councils since the start of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, in March 2020 and that this was likely to continue.

Joint ICT Committee was informed that the number of outstanding calls, that is un-met requests for service, had remained consistently high across the two quarters. This backlog would not fall significantly in the near future, as the Service would have to continue prioritising remote working and business continuity for the Partner Councils, which would reduce the amount of project and other work that it could then carry out.

Joint ICT Committee considered the ‘Loss of Service’ incidents that had taken place.  In this context, Members heard about the one ‘Priority One’ incident, or an incident which had either affected a service delivered to customers or impacted on staff from across a number of service areas, that had occurred.  They also learned how there had been fewer than expected incidents affecting multiple users of a single system or service area, during the first quarter (April-June 2020), but that the number of these had increased during the second quarter (July – September 2020).

Joint ICT Committee considered the project work which had taken place and the progress made on specific initiatives. In particular, Members learned that the Bolsover District Council (BDC) Open Housing Project went live in mid-September 2020 and that the Derbyshire Dales District Council (DDDC) Meritec Corporate Records Management system was also now operational. In addition, work was progressing on the ‘Info@work’ system upgrade for North East Derbyshire District Council (NEDDC). 

Members thanked the Joint ICT Service Delivery Manager for her contribution. Joint ICT Committee then discussed the performance report. As part of this, Members considered the schedule of projects which the Service was due to carry out. Joint ICT Committee asked that additional information, to help explain the scope and scale of specific projects, be included in future Quarterly Performance Reports.

Members then considered the Joint ICT Service Budget. They noted the greater than expected employment costs, which were primarily the result of the staffing restructure which had taken place. They also heard that expenditure on travel costs had so far been under-budget. This was because the Joint ICT Service staff had made fewer journeys as a result of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. Joint ICT Committee then heard about progress on re-profiling internal recharges and the internal recharges that needed to be made.

Joint ICT Committee discussed the emerging cost saving plan for the Service. In particular,  ...  view the full minutes text for item JIC/17/20-21

Presentation from the Joint ICT Service Delivery Manager.

Members were reminded that from 2023 the current Office based systems, used by the Partner Councils would progressively cease to be supported by the software manufacturers. The Service had carried out extensive work to assess possible alternatives to them. It had concluded and advised that the Microsoft 365 system would be the most appropriate choice.

Members received a presentation on the potential benefits of the new system. These included far greater functionality than the existing Office based systems, an opportunity to use this functionality to promote new and more collaborative ways of working and greater organisational resilience, through the use of ‘Cloud’ technology for storing data. 

Joint ICT Committee thanked the Joint ICT Service Delivery Manager for her presentation. Members then discussed the points which had been raised. There was general support for the new system and the additional functionality it would offer.   Members recognised that the Coronavirus (Covid-10) outbreak had created new challenges for the Partner Councils, which had required to them adapt and to work differently. The new system, it was felt, would enable them to meet these challenges and to develop new ways of working, both now and in the future.

Members also discussed the detailed work that would now have be carried out to enable the use of the new system and what the costs were likely to be. In this context, Joint ICT Committee concluded that much still need to be done and so asked to be kept informed of future progress against the key milestones to be achieved.

RESOLVED

(1)       That the Committee noted the presentation and welcomed the work to date on identifying the potential benefits of the Microsoft 365 system to Partner Councils.

(2)       That the Committee receive further reports explaining the progress on the implementation of the Microsoft 365 system, as appropriate.

To consider any matter that the Chair of the Committee considers should be taken as Urgent Business.

There was no urgent business for the Joint ICT Committee to consider.

The next meeting of the Joint ICT Committee will be held at 2.00 pm on Monday, 8 February 2021.

The next meeting of the Joint ICT Committee will be held on Monday, 8 February 2021 at 2.00 pm.