Issue - meetings

(To receive a report by the Executive Director – Resources which seeks approval for the mix of insourced and outsourced services as part of the future delivery of IMT services)

1.    That the future IMT services design and sourcing approach be approved as follows:

a)    The implementation of a multi-supplier IMT service delivery model involving external suppliers who are specialists in specific areas of IMT service delivery, supplemented by some in-house delivery.

b)    The outsourcing of the following IMT services to external suppliers:

                                          i.         Support Desk and Operations (including end user device management and device security services)

                                         ii.         Managed Cloud Services and Enhanced Security Services

c)    The insourcing of the following IMT services:

                                          i.         Service Integration and Management (SIaM

                                         ii.         Application Support

                                        iii.         VIP Support

                                       iv.         Technical Operations (data centres)

                                         v.         Vendor and Licence Management

2.    That the carrying out of the necessary procurement processes to secure the services of external suppliers referred to in 1b be approved.

3.    That authority be delegated to the Executive Director responsible for Commercial, in consultation with the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT, to take all necessary decisions and steps to progress the in-sourcings referred to in 1c and to progress the procurements referred to in 2 up to and including the award of contracts.

The Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT introduced a report which sought a decision on the best way forward for the future delivery of IMT services as well as approval from the Executive for the mix of insourced and outsourced services as part of the future model of delivery and authority to commence a procurement for the proposed approach.  It was reported that this was a move to a different model of procurement which recognised the changes to the market and demonstrated a radical shift towards cloud technology.

The Assistant Director IMT & Enterprise Architecture guided the Executive through the report and advised that a review of the services and a soft market engagement had allowed for a simplification of the contract with fewer providers than initially expected due to an ability to combine services, with specialist providers being used to provide specialist services.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board presented the comments of the Board following its consideration of this item at its meeting on 28 April 2022.  The Executive was advised that the Board unanimously supported the recommendations, however some of the key points highlighted during the discussion included the importance of good governance to avoid the duplication of could services; recognition of the improved security that accompanied cloud systems; support for the procurement exercise which would be designed to enable the Council to create a range of options and procure specialisms independently when required; the possibility of recruitment challenges was also highlighted, however, this was not seen as a substantial risk.  It was also highlighted that it had been requested that a report on the governance arrangements should be brought back to the Board before the Service Integration and Management (SIaM) service was fully developed.

During discussion by the Executive, the following points were noted:

·       It was queried whether there were risks in relation to not being able to recruit and retain the staff that were needed.  It was acknowledged that there could be issues as the authority moved through the contract, however, there was a plan in place to ensure that the Council was seen as an employer of choice, and an attraction and retention framework was being developed.  It was also noted that in the medium term, the use of cloud services would remove the requirement for specialist technical staff.

·       An additional issue was there were a number of unsupported IT systems which were within individual service areas, and information was being sought from IMT and service areas around the risks to the Council of leaving these systems unsupported.  The task was to reduce the number of individual bespoke systems and move to more resilient systems.  However, it was noted that this work was in its very early stages and it was hoped that there could be a direction of travel by the end of summer 2022.

·       Reassurance was sought regarding resilience in the event that one of the large technology companies (Google/Amazon/Microsoft) went down, and the Executive was advised that these  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85