Issue - meetings

Question from Members of the Councils under Procedure Rules

Meeting: 08/09/2020 - Strata - Joint Scrutiny Committee (Item 16)

16 Question from Members of the Councils under Procedure Rules pdf icon PDF 156 KB

To receive questions from Members of the Councils.

 

Where a question does not relate to an agenda item details of questions should be notified to the Proper Officer of the Relevant Council at least two working days prior to the meeting.

Minutes:

The following questions have been submitted by Councillor Millar of East Devon District Council. Answers were provided and circulated prior to the meeting.

 

Question 1

To ask the Committee, to confirm the total cost of purchasing Member iPads at East Devon District Council including maintenance and repairs, and to share all relevant papers containing the business case with Councillors.

 

Answer

In March 2018, Strata submitted a discussion document to the three authorities to present options for the support of councillor IT (attached).

 

Previously councillors provided their own IT, and there was an expectation that Strata would be able to support this privately owned IT.

 

One option that was presented was for the authority to provide councillors with a portable device enabling councillors to access emails, calendars, documents and the Modern Gov environment in a more consistent and supported manner. This enabled TDC and EDDC councillors to operate in a similar way to ECC councillors who had been using authority provisioned tablet devices for five years.

 

After internal debate within EDDC and TDC, Strata were advised to proceed with the purchase of portable devices for councillors and a project was initiated to procure, build, test and deploy Apple iPad devices to councillors.

 

EDDC made a decision to purchase the Apple iPad 12.9 inch Pro WiFi 64Gb for each councillor (see attached invoice)

 

TDC decided to purchase a smaller iPad device for each councillor, at a cheaper price.

 

The total cost for EDDC based on a five year usage of the Apple iPad devices is :

 

Total five year cost = £ 48,104

 

This cost is made up of :

·       Application licensing included in Strata Core Licensing and base budgets.

·       Councillor support provided as part of the Strata Service Desk service

·       Councillor training provided as part of the Strata IT Training service.

·       Initial iPad cost £ 47,089

·       Current repair costs of £1,015

 

The costs for the devices were included and approved in the 2019/2020 budget process, ultimately by council in February 2019.

 

After deployment of the devices some councillors raised concern that they needed to be able to access emails, calendars from private devices (in addition to the iPad devices provide by the authority). To provide this functionality and to deliver access in a secure manner, Strata needed to purchase additional Microsoft O365 licences and Mimecast email security filtering.

 

The cost of this additional functionality over five years for the councillors who requested (36) this level of access is:

 

Total five year cost = £ 40,960

 

·       EMS E3 Add-on (EDDC Cllrs) = £42.00 per user per year

 

·       Mimecast Additional Email Security Filter (1st year free)  £8,350 per Annum

 

These figures were presented to EDDC and they authorised Strata to proceed.

 

Strata believe that the provision of iPads to the councillors across all three authorities has:

 

·       Enabled the authorities to provide a consistent delivery of Cllr content via a single supported device

·       Helped to reduce print and paper usage, which has had a positive impact on the environment and costs.

·       Provided improved  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16