(a)

the ICT Strategy had three key strands which were –

·         

the Digital Plymouth project, which aimed to provide a city wide modern communication system to improve connection within Plymouth;

·         

the Corporate Accommodation Strategy, which aimed to join up processes and change the way the council worked to improve efficiencies;

·         

Corporate Applications, which looked into standardising ICT systems with the use of Microsoft products;

(b)

the main objectives of the ICT Strategy were to –

·         

deliver value for money;

·         

join up Plymouth City Council and its partners;

·         

ensure assets were reused and shared;

·         

fully exploit all information;

·         

drive compliance and reduce risk;

(c)

the ICT Strategy aimed to reduce the number of IT systems in operation across the council into one easy to use system as presently there were over 90 data bases operating across the council.

(d)

Plymouth City Council was obliged to share data with its partners and good progress was being made with improving data sharing with processes on how to share data being agreed with partners;

(e)

a new telephone communication system called ‘Lync’ was to be piloted in May 2011;

(f)

work on developing a new data centre was being undertaken and had recently been released for tender.

(g)

invest to save project suggestions for ICT software and products had been submitted to the Corporate Management Team;

(h)

a Microsoft Enterprise system was being proposed to improve data collection and data sharing;

(i)

the ICT Strategy was a three year programme and was key to delivering both the Accommodation Strategy and the People’s Strategy.

(j)

the Accommodation Strategy aimed to –

·         

create a cultural change in the way staff work through hot-desking and a reduction of corporate buildings to improve working environments for staff and customers;

·         

incorporate a more modernised IT infrastructure;

·         

achieve revenue savings of £1.5M per annum;

(k)

in order to achieve financial savings and a reduction in carbon emissions the council had withdrawn from or planned to withdraw from the following buildings –

·         

Dean Hill on 30 September 2010 which would achieve savings of £30K for 2010/11 and £60K for 2011/12;

·         

Fairburn House on 24 March 2011 which would achieve a saving of £42K for 2011/12;

·         

Chaucer House on 15 April 2011 which would achieve a saving of £65K for 2011/12;

·         

FormerSouthway Community College in July 2011 which would achieve an estimated saving of £150K for 2011/12;

·         

a building in Mainstone Avenue, which would achieve a saving of approximately £20K for 2011/12;

·         

Ballard House and Pearl Assurance House once the future of the Civic Centre had been decided;

(l)

the results of the staff survey had been a major driver in creating a working environment that was fair and fit for purpose;

(m)

the visual identity of the council had been implemented and all council documents and buildings would be standardised;

(n)

a cultural change was required across the whole authority, with staff engagement sessions, change champions and a people’s panel being set up to ensure that communication and delivery of change was managed effectively;

(o)

on Floor 11, Civic Centre there was a show room for staff to see the layout of new office environments with pilot IT projects installed on the PCs;

(p)

changes to staff working hours in the shape of compressed hours and casual home working were being trialled within the HR department to support hot-desking and a more flexible working environment to be delivered. From May there will be seven desks to every ten staff within the department, which would deliver future savings on both maintenance and accommodation costs;

(q)

the ICT Strategy had planned to deliver the following elements which were required to progress the accommodation strategy into its second phase;

·         

Windows 7 by May 2011;

·         

a virtual desktop by May 2011, which will assist with hot-desking;

·         

a modern telephone system by May 2011;

·         

a network upgrade and new data centre were both out for tender with the award of contract and evaluation processes being set for May 2011;

(r)

delivering all the strategies in conjunction with one another was important in helping the council achieve reduced maintenance costs, revenue savings, a reduction in its carbon footprint, a cultural change and an improved working environment for staff and customers.

(s)

an invest to save project had to be an additional project to a business as usual item which could not be funded from current budgets and must deliver on-going revenue savings which would be subject to six monthly reviews;

(t)

only projects over £50K were considered and projects that delivered value and savings quickly were prioritised over other projects with Cabinet making the final approval on whether to deliver the suggested projects;

(u)

the only invest to save project that was currently being delivered was the Accommodation Strategy Phase 1 but other projects would be submitted to Cabinet in the near future.