Agenda item

(To receive a report from John Wickens (Chief Digital Officer) which invites the Board to consider a report on the Continuation of Windows 10 Notebook and PC rollout which will be presented to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT between the 27 December and 8 January 2019.

The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive Councillor as part of part consideration of this item)

The Chief Digital Officer invited the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board to consider a report on the Continuation of the Windows 10 Notebook and PC rollout, which would be presented to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT between 27 December 2018 and 8 January 2019.

Members were referred to appendix A, which detailed the report and recommendations to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT.

It was noted that during 2017-18, there had been a project to deliver Windows 10 Notebooks and PCs to Lincolnshire County Council Network users, which had resulted in the deployment of new Hewlett-Packard (HP Notebooks, Tablets and PCs into social functions and also to start the replacement of the Windows 7 Notebooks and PCs in general corporate use.

It was highlighted that the end of support date for Windows 7 would be January 2020, meaning that the security of Windows 7 devices could not be assured after that date due to the discontinuation of security patches from the vendor. 

As the existing project to rollout the devices to social care workers was near completion, the IMT service sought to commission the completion of the rollout to replace the remainder of Windows 7 devices in general corporate use before the end of support date in January 2020.

Members were informed that the new HP devices had been well received and there had been a high level of satisfaction from users with a notable difference in speed and performance, as well as a financial saving compared to similar devices from other suppliers. There had been a high demand for the roll out of the new devices to the remaining users.

So far there had been 1200 devices rolled out, with 4600 still to be rolled out, which would include a mixture of notebooks and PC's.

A £5m budget had been allocated to cover the costs of the new devices.

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were raised:

• In relation to equality and diversity, it was confirmed that products were getting better at addressing disability requirements which has helped to reduce the costs of specialist accessibility. Software, peripherals or devices were still provided as required and were included within the budget.

• It was confirmed that currently there was no scheme in place to sell off old equipment. Cleansing and erasing data on old equipment for disposal often costs more than the potential resale price. Equipment was recycled internally when it was still fit for purpose.
• A breakdown of how the £5M would be spent and what the benefits of the rollout would be were requested.
• The enablement of biometrics for security purposes was supported. It was confirmed that the use of biometrics, which would include fingerprints and facial recognition, would be enabled once more notebooks had been rolled out.
• It was confirmed that there would be a four-year support package in place for each new device. A small number of notebooks would also be kept in reserve.
• Concern was raised that as the rollout would be completed in three tranches, there was a risk that the price of the devices could increase during the rollout. It was confirmed that there was the possibility of changing suppliers during the rollout, so long as the devices were functionally equivalent.
• There were mixed views regarding the IT equipment offered to councillors. Issues around iPad compatibility with Microsoft; linking HP tablets/iPads with councillors' phones; recycling of IT equipment from councillors not re-elected; and partnership working with district councils regarding IT equipment were raised.

RESOLVED:

1. That the recommendations to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT, as set out in the report, be supported.

2. That the relevant comments, as set out above, be put forward to the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT for his consideration.