Issue - meetings

To receive a presentation from the ICT Manager

The Committee received a presentation from John Barrett, ICT Manager on the harmonisation of ICT systems in Cheshire East.

The Council had inherited a number of ICT systems which involved a number of tasks to rationalise systems .

The network and data centre infrastructure was expensive to split – both in terms of capital investment and running costs and it was therefore currently  being run on a shared basis through a partnership with Cheshire West and Chester Council. The plan was to extend the partnerships to include the rest of the public sector.  Discussions were at an advanced stage with the Fire Service and the NHS.

A number of initiatives were underway to effect the harmonisation  including:

• Engaging with Local Strategic Partnership (LSP)
• Establishing a collaborative website
• Joint review of the future ICT requirements of each organisation in order to assess more fully, potential partnership projects.

An ICT partnership day had been held on the 26 November 2009, which had attracted over 40 IT professionals from 16 organisations. Agreement had been reached that the greatest return on Investment on undertaking Partnership working would be achieved by:

• Network Sharing and Data Centre Provision
• Procurement for ICT goods and services
• Pooling of skills and knowledge to enable improved service delivery.

An action Plan had been drawn up as follows:

·        A joint Member/Officer board to report on Development Management issues had been established.

• Formal mechanisms had been established, escalation process around problem management. Named individuals identified as first point of contact.
• Initial meetings had taken place with suppliers to discuss short term issues plus longer term strategies around the IT infrastructure to support Development Management. ICT Strategic recommendation is likely to be a full system rebuild in parallel to existing system to minimise disruption to business operation.
• Following recommendations from suppliers, design/document the architecture to support Development Management.
• Work with the ICT Shared Service to ensure the appropriate SLA’s are in place for agreed architecture.
• Ensure appropriate release management procedures are in place for Development Management applications.
• Project commissioned in ICT Shared Service to undertake above work. ICT Strategy will oversee the project throughout the full project lifecycle.
• Detailed Project Plan available mid December.
• Project commissioned in ICT Shared Service to undertake above work. ICT Strategy will oversee the project throughout the full project lifecycle.
• Detailed Project Plan available mid December.