Issue - meetings

The Strata IT Director presented the Strata Solutions update report for the period 3 January 2019 to 1 May 2019 (presentation attached to minutes).

The Head of Business Systems & Business Intelligence commented that the convergence plan was progressing well although savings were limited due to the fact that in some instances there were three copies of a system across the Councils rather than one ‘shared platform’ that all three authorities were operating on, this limited the ability of the authorities to gain the financial benefit of true ‘shared services’. The aim with the installation of the new finance system was to have one shared system for all the Councils which would produce savings of about £250,000.

It was acknowledged that the global communications had the capacity to be developed to support communications with those public that had hearing difficulties. Currently web chat was not offered by any of the three authorities as a mechanism of communication, but it was not felt that it would be that difficult from a technology view point to open this communication channel

Strata Joint Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 30 May 2019.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

To consider the report of the Strata Head of Business Systems

The Strata Head of Business Systems and Business Intelligence referred to the report circulated with the agenda on a framework to deliver projects. The methodology is based on Prince 2 but streamlined to reflect how Strata and the Authorities can best work together to deliver the projects. The report detailed how each project would be prioritised and each stage in the completion of a project, and provided a more robust project management system. The proposed system was receiving good feedback.

Resolved

The report be received and supported.