Agenda item

SOCIAL NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION REVIEW

The panel will receive an update from the Assistant Director for ICT on social networking and communication.

Minutes:

Councillor Richard Ball, Cabinet Member for Customer Services and Neville Cannon, Assistant Director for ICT gave a presentation reviewing social networking and communication. Members were invited to watch two videos, which provided a context into modern technology and how it could be transformed in the future. A demonstration on current ICT software that was currently being integrated across the Council was also provided. Members were then informed that –

 

(a)

the council was currently undertaking the biggest implementation of ICT anywhere in the world outside of the USA. The ICT package being incorporated across the council was inspiring Devon local authorities to improve ICT;

 

(b)

the council had delivered many improvements to ICT including –

 

 
  •  

a fully functional data centre, which had improved the council’s reliability;

 

 
  •  

a virtual desktop, which had enabled hot-desking;

 

 
  •  

a Lync package, which had improved the council’s telephony system and further enabled hot-desking;

 

 
  •  

service specific software improvements such as Microsoft Dynamics, which had improved management of data and the customers’ experience;

 

 
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share point, which had improved the customers’ experience and improved data sharing internally and with partners;

 

(c)

the above ICT improvements had delivered enhanced visual and audio quality for users;

 

(d)

implementing the ICT software had realised further benefits including reducing staff travel costs and improved data sharing and collaboration with partners;

 

(e)

the main difficulty in delivering the ICT software was the speed of integrating the technology in line with the Accommodation Strategy.

 

Councillors were provided with an update on social networking and informed that –

 

(f)

 

the council used social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook in a controlled manner, for example libraries and museums promoted news and events;

 

(g)

 

the council currently experienced more logs on its Facebook pages than on its website;

 

(h)

the council was becoming a more dynamic authority in terms of its use of social networking sites, however, it was still necessary for the council to continue to move forward to improve communication activities and become a modern council.

 

Following questions from councillors it was reported that –

 

(i)

 

the council took ICT security extremely seriously and utilised one of the best firewalls to secure its information;

 

(j)

the council complied with all security standards, monitored its networks and penetration tested all ICT software implemented to ensure that the potential of hacking was mitigated;

 

(k)

the council’s security policy had been used in national standard policy guidelines and the council’s Information Security Officer sat on a national security body;

 

(l)

YouTube would be enabled corporately for a trial period to see how it impacted on services;

 

(m)

the council was trying to promote business led change through more effective communication with businesses, customers and partners and ICT was seen to be a major enabler of this and was a key element in sharing information with partners whilst keeping information secure.

 

The Chair, on behalf of the committee, thanked Councillor Richard Ball, Cabinet Member for Customer Services and Neville Cannon, Assistant Director for ICT for an interesting presentation and congratulated Neville Cannon on his contribution to ICT in the past and wished him luck in his new role.