information services strategy for hertsmere borough ... strategy appendix a.pdfthis document is...

1

Information Services Strategy for

Hertsmere Borough Council (Draft)

April 2008

Produced by Graeme Gunn-Roberts Chief Information Officer Version 0.07

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3

Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 4

Information Management Strategy Section - Introduction .......................................... 12

Information Management Strategy .............................................................................. 14

Knowledge Management Strategy .............................................................................. 17

Information Architecture ............................................................................................. 21

Technology Infrastructure ........................................................................................... 27

Appendix 01 – Risk and Project Management ............................................................ 34

Appendix 02 – Electronic Post Room (e-Post Room) ................................................. 35

Appendix 03 – GIS Strategy ....................................................................................... 38

Appendix 04 – Case Management ............................................................................... 41

Appendix 05 – ‘Managed’ IT Support Service ........................................................... 43

Appendix 06 – Guide to Knowledge Management ..................................................... 45

Appendix 07 – Glossary of terms ................................................................................ 53

Appendix 08 – IT portfolio management .................................................................... 55

3

Introduction

The role of the Information Services (IS) department is to support the organisation in achieving its corporate objective by enabling new ways of providing services and engaging with the community through the effective use of information and technology. Information management and information technology has an important role to play in helping the organisation design and prioritise efficient and effective services around the needs of its customers, and this Information Services Strategy outlines how the IS department intends to support Hertsmere Borough Council in achieving its agreed corporate goals:

• Create an even safer community for all • Sustain improvements in the quality of Hertsmere's environment • Continue to promote healthy living, leisure and cultural opportunities • Encourage economic prosperity • Work towards meeting local housing needs through our strategic housing role • Sustain organisational improvements to meet community needs

This document is broken into a number of sections: executive summary, information management, knowledge management, information architecture, technology infrastructure, and then Appendices on specific items including a guide to Knowledge Management.

4

Executive Summary

Context

Hertsmere Borough Council successfully appointed a new Chief Information Officer (CIO) in September 2007 and, following an Information Management Review in November 2007 as well as the CIO’s own observations, a number of recommendations have been made. These recommendations amount to a new approach to information management, systems development, deployment and integration that will better meet the organisation’s requirements for integration and flexibility and provide for improvements in the way information flows throughout the organisation.

There is a requirement for an Information Services Strategy that addresses the corporate requirement for information management, the business need for “joined-up” service delivery, and the organisational demand for efficiency and effectiveness whilst delivering the specific service requirements of individual departments - in short Transformational Government.

This strategy outlines the actions that the IS department will undertake in order to create a Knowledge Management culture and infrastructure within Hertsmere Borough Council (HBC). Crucial to this are the information management disciplines that currently are not in place but need to be implemented as a matter of urgency. To this end a new CIO has been appointed and has been vested with overall responsibility for information management throughout the whole council. Information Services Department The name of the department has been changed from ICT to Information Services (IS) to reflect the scope of what the department actually does and, more importantly, what it needs to do in the future. Furthermore there has been a realignment of the departmental management structure to make it more focussed and effective in order to achieve the ambitious plans outlined in this Strategy. Line management responsibility for those roles across the organisation that have been identified as relating to Information Management or Information Systems functionality will need to be consolidated into the Information Services Department. This is essential in order to put in place the Information Management disciplines and coordinated planning necessary to free up the flow of information across the organisation and also to allow for the efficient remodelling of tasks and skills to create departmental efficiencies that will go towards offsetting the revenue costs of a managed service. Changing low level ICT skills for focussed development capability in new technologies will free up resources to configure the new IS Architecture and to continuously improve Information provision across the service units – breaking down the silos as we build our single corporate information repository. The department is now split into 3 functional areas: • Overall responsibility for corporate information management and governance, service

provision, and strategic direction resides with the CIO • Responsibility for the management of all internally provided technical support services for

business systems and infrastructure (including the Help Desk) resides with the IS Service Manager

5

• Responsibility for Hertsmere's technical infrastructure resides with the IS Infrastructure Manager

• Responsibility for key corporate information and knowledge management functions resides with the IS Knowledge Manager

This restructure is designed to change the perception that the department is only about technology and to enable key team performance to be enhanced. Service Level Agreements are being put in place between the IS team and departments – starting with the Planning department, then via a rolling programme across the organisation. The Helpdesk is already more customer-focused with extended open hours to reflect the needs of the contact centre and the rollout of remote access software enabling many issues to be resolved without the Helpdesk staff leaving their desks. In addition the fixed projector project is also designed to reduce low level support tasks creating capacity for more fruitful work supporting the organisation in ensuring that the right information is available at the right time, in the right place and format and importantly at the right cost. This translates to:

High quality technical support, information reporting and analysis capacity Deployment of solutions to enable robust integrated governance processes and

procedures – rooting out the silos Focus on training a cohesive workforce competent in IT, information handling,

information security & data quality Business processes streamlined and informed by real-time information service

capability Information Governance Information governance can be described as the execution of effective authority over the creation, use and management of data. Effective information governance is depended upon effective information management (see below), and key to this is an effective data custodian / stewardship programme. Effective governance is possible once all data types are known, the processes for creating and using the data types are known, and these elements are effectively managed by different types of designated data custodians / stewards within a clearly defined and understood data stewardship structure. Information Management Overall, one of the key elements of this Information Services Strategy is to establish a single, succinct, and well understood Information Management Strategy (IM Strategy) that underpins the corporate objective of the Council. This in the past has been one of the biggest shortcomings of the Council with few discernible information management disciplines in place corporately. A fundamental goal of any IM Strategy is the sharing of data. To achieve this requires acceptance of the basic principle that all information is the property of the organisation as a whole and does not belong to individuals, discrete departments or business units. Unless this is accepted any attempt to improve organisation-wide effectiveness through better Information Management will be wasted effort. The Strategy is intended to create an authority wide acceptance of the importance of information management by:

6

• Encouraging the dissemination and interchange of information and good practice Between departments, agents and partners

• Defining principles of good information management and encouraging staff to work towards implementing them

• Ensuring high levels of awareness and competency in information management skills • Establishing a robust corporate wide Information Governance regime

It is proposed that a new panel be established to replace the e-Government Project Board. This panel will be called the Transformational Government Programme Panel (please see appendix 01) and will have responsibility for ensuring that a Transformational Government Project Board be formed that will have, in addition to its transformational government responsibilities, the following duties and responsibilities:

• Monitor implementation of the Information Strategy at departmental and corporate levels

• Provide advice, guidance and support to departments in implementing the Information Strategy

• Develop robust corporate wide information governance processes • Approve supporting documentation required by the Information Strategy • Recommend revisions to the Information Strategy at agreed intervals • Ensure that the Strategy is linked to the corporate business planning process • Establish and monitor an Information Management Group (IMG) for HBC

Information Systems Architecture The CIO and the Council as a whole will be supported by an Information Systems Architecture that will consist of a master information repository powered by standardised Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technology with flexible access channels and rationalised business applications (please see figure 1). The information within the single information repository will contain two master data sets: a master property / geographic dataset and a master citizen dataset (client master index). This information will be accessed and maintained corporately in line with agreed information management disciplines and will be enabled by a secure and flexible technical infrastructure. Presently, much of the information used by Hertsmere Borough Council to carry out its business is contained within either:

• Specific departmental systems • Shared network drives • Paper records • Minds of employees (undocumented or unstructured knowledge)

The principles outlined in the information management and knowledge management strategies provide the context in which new systems can be introduced and current systems replaced. Of highest priority is the need to introduce the standards based Email and ECM technology that will allow improvements in collaboration capability and enable the single information repository and corporate file plan to be built. Additional line of business / departmental applications will be replaced in accordance with the above architecture as well as those of simplification, standardisation, consolidation and modernisation

7

The Information Systems Architecture section of this Strategy contains an Information Systems roadmap that addresses the rolling refresh of HBC’s Line of Business Systems / Information Systems. The aim of this roadmap is to highlight the existing service situation and plan for the simplification, standardisation, consolidation and modernisation of systems toward the new IS Architecture as outlined in this Strategy. The roadmap is a dynamic document and will also highlight costs and saving, identify gaps in service, and identify solutions. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) ECM systems are made up of the following modules: Web Content Management (WCM), Collaboration, Records Management (RM), Document Management (DM), Case Management (CM) and Workflow/Business Process Management. The ECM solution follows industry trends in e-business technology development, and offers to place HBC in the forefront of current business practice, where entities reach outside their organisational boundaries to tap into the value chains of citizens, suppliers and partners using Knowledge Management technologies.

The major benefits offered by such a solution lie in its ability to integrate and power applications, and to manage complex organisational wide processes offering new approaches to systems architecture and service delivery across departmental and organisational boundaries.

All records within the ECM will be linked to either, or both, master datasets allowing all relevant information concerning a particular individual or property / location to be assessed through any one of the multiple interfaces available - corporate intranet, corporate web site, corporate Geographic Information System (GIS), e-forms, mobile devices, and, depending on the level of integration, departmental applications as illustrated in the following diagram.

WebS iteWebS ite

E ‐F ormsE ‐F orms

L ine of Bus iness ApplicationsF inance, P lanning, R evenues and Benefits ,

etc.

G ISG IS

L L PGL L PGC itizen IndexC itizen Index

E nterprise S canningE nterprise S canning

E nterprise P rintE nterprise P rint

Mobile WorkingMobile Working

E CME CME CM

Web C ontentWeb C ontent

Figure 1.

8

Open Source Software

One of the primary recommendations from the review process is to consider the use of Open Source Software (OSS) over proprietary alternatives given its cost and interoperability advantages. This advice is consistent with official Cabinet Office advice on the growing use of OSS1 and is one of the adopted elements in this draft Information Services Strategy (particularly with regards to ECM software). The issue of ‘open source’ may appear to be a technical issue however it is a legal distinction with economic and political consequences. The key distinction between open source and proprietary software is that open source software is built using a ‘Public License’, which means the software is ‘owned’ by the public rather than any particular private company. This allows for partnership working in ways not possible with proprietary software systems and provides wider public benefits. The business model for open source software suppliers is based on the provision of technical support services and therefore no upfront license fees are charged, and because open source is not owned by the supplying company then OSS vendors are prevented from charging exorbitant rates based on vendor lock-in. In addition to this OSS is based on open standards meaning that it is much easier to integrate OSS based systems. The above factors equate to reduced total cost of ownership over the lifetime of an implementation, and this total cost of ownership reduction is in addition to upfront capital investment savings of between £450,000 and £750,000 in ECM license fees alone*. [* This estimate is based on the cost of proprietary ECM software for an organisation of comparable size to HBC] Alfresco

The Strategy advocates the use of Alfresco ECM software currently in use by London Borough of Islington and London Borough of Camden. Alfresco was founded in 2005 by John Newton, co-founder of Documentum® and John Powell, former COO of Business Objects®. Its investors include the leading investment firms Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund and SAP Ventures. Alfresco is the leading open source alternative for enterprise content management. It couples the innovation of open source with the stability of a true enterprise-class platform. The open source model allows Alfresco to use best-of-breed open source technologies and contributions from the open source community to get higher quality software produced more quickly and at much lower cost.

Electronic post room and thin client In addition to the ECM, an electronic post room and a ‘thin client’ client access interface will remove the need for knowledge workers to be in one specific physical location in order to carry out their duties. When combined with an ECM, an electronic post room allows all incoming mail to be scanned and authoritatively stored within the ECM and therefore accessible from wherever a secure interface is made available. It is proposed that one of the key secure interfaces to be made available will be the ‘thin client’ interface which will allow new types of worker flexibility and thereby open up the possibility of home working and property rationalisation. This is made possible because a knowledge worker’s working environment (all of the information they need as well as their applications, their desktop and other personal configurations) are held on a server

9

and is delivered to standardised terminals rather than being tied to a particular machine at a particular location. Case Management The Case Management element of the ECM solution provides for the tracking of an issue or enquiry from beginning to end, in a scalable, accurate and timely manner. It ensures that all documents associated with a case are accessible on-line and directly from the case. The Case Management provides integrated case flow thereby allowing Customer Services the ability to effectively manage an increasing number of enquires at first point of contact (please see appendix 04). Infrastructure Today, Local Government desktops are ruled by the de-facto standard of the PC. However Workplace Transformation and Shared Services are driving innovation in delivering applications to users and Citizens in more flexible forms to enable more effective use and greatly reduced impact on the environment via Virtualisation and “thin client”. Existing PC-based architectures cannot continue due to their high running costs, environmental impacts, and the time required deploying, updating and refreshing such implementations. The adoption of virtualisation and thin client technology will result in savings on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) as these are vastly more efficient than current technologies. There is a growing demand for telecommunication services given that such endeavours as mobile and flexible working and new public communication options such as text message communication are dependent upon new telecommunications technology. A particular new regulatory relaxation has now enable a technology is called a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) gateway to be offered as a service. This new service involves consolidating all our communications (mobile, landlines, etc.) with a single service provider who in turn interfaces with our telephone system and allows all our telecoms provider services to be delivered with a single billing system. This will result in a minimum of 25% saving over our current costs and will result in an increased range of services and less administrative overhead. The estimated revenue savings to HBC over 5 years have been quoted by Qubic Ltd at £152,661 These services include:

• Fax to email • Personal Fax • Voicemail • Improved offsite disaster recovery telecommunication services • Resilient links for voice and data for key remote sites (Meadow Park and Cranbourne)

Managed Service It is proposed that all of the technical support for key aspects of this proposed knowledge infrastructure be provided by an external organisation in a partnership arrangement. This method of technical support is referred to as a ‘managed service’ and will allow existing IS staff the time needed to focus on assisting the organisation to implement the information management disciplines required for success. This therefore allows the IS department to focus on the uses of technology that add strategic value to Hertsmere Borough Council and enable all staff to focus on their core objectives.

10

The future revenue funding necessary to support this managed service approach is expected to come from a mixture of rental and revenue income from Hertsmere’s proposed data centre project, and other change projects that are enabled by the ECM technology. Efficiency savings will also be made from the simplification, standardisation, consolidation and modernisation of systems as we move towards the new IS Architecture. Freeing information flows and creating a single Information Repository will enable the Council to start to realise the benefits from its considerable investment in the Contact Centre as more and more traffic can be driven through this access channel. The adoption of virtualisation and thin client technology will result in savings on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) as these are vastly more efficient than current technologies. In addition there are the savings that can be made in our telecoms spend using GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) gateway identified above. For the reasons outlined in the first phase business cases, the technology for the ECM (Intranet & WCM) and Microsoft Exchange Server (Email) needs to be in place as a matter of urgency, however, due to possible ongoing revenue funding issues the Intranet and web content management (WCM) phase will be contracted in such a way that the Council can review the process after 9 months. HBC need to demonstrate best value in terms of costs - the intermediate managed service would provide proof of concept of the value and reality of such a managed service. It will also provide the necessary information to create the specification / requirement documentation needed to run an open tendering process for the future provision of a fully managed ICT service for the Council. For further details please see appendix 05. Joint Venture There have been initial discussions between interested private sector companies and HBC with regards to a proposed Joint Venture partnership. A major component of the proposed joint venture partnership is a data centre to be built within the main HBC building and which will offer managed services and data centre solutions to local authorities and commercial organisations. Key elements of this will be to showcase both “managed services” as part of the Transformational Government initiative such as a shared electronic document and records management solutions and a shared e-post room for use by multiple councils and a model architecture for District Councils as an exemplar site. A major consideration for this is to enable HBC to operate effectively in a highly challenging environment and become a leader of local authorities as opposed to the risk of being merged into other Borough councils. There would also be the potential of rental and operating income to HBC Further to this discussions have also been held with other potential partners including Centre of Excellence East who are now actively engaged with this project. The Regional Centres of Excellence (RCEs) were established by CLG, (then ODPM) in partnership with the LGA in late 2003. Originally set up as Centres of Procurement Excellence to support local authorities to deliver the milestones laid out in the Gershon Report, the introduction of efficiency targets of £6.45 billion by 2007/08 for local government quickly led to the RCEs having their remit widened to act as the lead change agents for local government efficiency. Service based IS Cost Management

11

It is proposed that the council adopts a Service Based IS Cost Management methodology. A Service Based IS Cost Management methodology provides organisations with an efficient way to manage their IS costs through a combination of detailed unit cost calculations and distributed accountability for service consumption (customer) and service unit costs (provider). In other words, IS service providers become responsible for providing the demanded services at a competitive price, while IS service consumers are more accountable for the types and quantities of services that they demand, creating a customer-focused internal market place. This is of particular importance if the organization is considering the benefits of a managed service. The IS departments need to understand the cost of delivering services to its customer so it can benchmark and trend their performance against industry standards. Without accurate unit costs, it is impossible for management to determine if IS cost increases are due to increased delivery costs, or the increases in the demand for IS services. By establishing unit cost per service, forecasting future service demand, communicating price to the consumer, and tracking cost trends and consumption metrics, IS decision makers can arm themselves with the information they need to make strategic decisions around service provision and the use of managed services. Please see Appendix 08 for more details.

12

Information Management Strategy Section - Introduction

The CIO and the Council as a whole will be supported by an information and knowledge management infrastructure that will consist of a master information repository powered by standardised Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technology with flexible access channels and rationalised business applications. The information within the single information repository will contain two master data sets: a master property / geographic dataset and a master citizen dataset (client master index). This information will be accessed and maintained corporately in line with agreed information management disciplines and will be enabled by a secure and flexible technical infrastructure. Overall, one of the key elements of this Information Services Strategy is to establish a single, succinct, and well understood Information Management (IM) Strategy that underpins the corporate objective of the Council. This in the past has been one of the biggest shortcomings of the Council with few discernible information disciplines in place corporately. A fundamental goal of any IM Strategy is the sharing of data. To achieve this requires acceptance of the basic principle that all information is the property of the organisation as a whole and does not belong to individuals, discrete departments or business units. Unless this is accepted any attempt to improve organisation-wide effectiveness through better Information Management will be wasted effort. The Strategy is intended to create an authority wide acceptance of the importance of information management by:

• Encouraging the dissemination and interchange of information and good practice between departments, agents and partners;

• Defining principles of good information management and encouraging staff to work towards implementing them;


It is proposed that a new panel be established to replace the e-Government Project Board. This Panel will be called the Transformational Government Programme Panel (see appendix 01) and will have responsibility for ensuring that a Transformational Government Project Board is formed. In addition to its transformational government responsibilities the panel will have the following duties and responsibilities:



• Develop robust corporate wide information governance processes • approve supporting documentation required by the Information Strategy • Recommend revisions to the Information Strategy at agreed intervals • Ensure that the Strategy is linked to the corporate business planning process; • Establish and monitor an Information Management Group (IMG) for HBC

The following IM Strategy embraces all types of information including paper-based systems and electronically networked information. The IM Strategy will enable the services provided to the

13

public by Hertsmere Borough Council and its Partner organisations to be managed effectively and efficiently by:

• Recognising the direct and indirect costs associated with lack of information, unnecessary duplication and incompatibility of information systems

• Ensuring that all information needed to support services is readily available through a PC or other mechanisms (but moving away from paper)

• Ensuring that all information is sufficient, appropriate, timely, and of a defined quality • Establishing a process for regularly appraising the appropriateness and quality of the

information sets we maintain • Ensuring that information management requirements and processes are included in the

design of new information systems • Having an annual cycle of business and information planning and reviews that

informs the IS planning process

14

Information Management Strategy (A declaration of how all information is going to be stored, managed and made available throughout the organisation, to external partners and the public.) 1. Aims Overall, the aim is to establish a single, succinct, and well understood Information Management Strategy that underpins the business strategy and is a key part of the authority’s IS Strategy. The Information Management Strategy embraces all types of information including paper-based systems and electronically networked information. The strategy will enable the services provided to the public by Hertsmere Borough Council and its Partner organisations to be managed effectively and efficiently by:

• Recognising the direct and indirect costs associated with lack of information, unnecessary duplication and incompatibility of information systems

• Ensuring that all information needed to support services is readily available through a PC or other mechanisms (but moving away from paper)

• Ensuring that all information is sufficient, appropriate, timely, and of a defined quality • Establishing a process for regularly appraising the appropriateness and quality of the

information sets we maintain • Ensuring that information management requirements and processes are included in the

design of new information systems • Having an annual cycle of business and information planning and reviews that

informs the IS planning process The Strategy is intended to create an authority wide acceptance of the importance of information management by:

• Encouraging the dissemination and interchange of information and good practice between departments, agents and partners

• Defining principles of good information management and encouraging staff to work towards implementing them


2. The Principles The focus of the Information Management Strategy is a set of 9 high level principles from which a series of actions will flow. PRINCIPLE 1: Information is a shared corporate resource. A fundamental goal of any Information Management Strategy is the sharing of data. To achieve this requires acceptance of the basic principle that all information is the property of the organisation as a whole and does not belong to individuals, discrete departments or business units. Unless this is accepted any attempt to improve organisation-wide effectiveness through better Information Management will be wasted effort.

15

PRINCIPLE 2: Creator / custodian maintains the information. Whilst information “ownership” must be accepted as being at an organisational level, the responsibility and authority over the use of the data should be delegated as far down the organisation as is necessary to ensure the maximum efficiency and quality of the updating and publishing processes, i.e., information should be managed by those closest to it. For each ‘information set’ it will be necessary therefore to determine who is authorised or best placed to:

• Agree/authorise access privileges (confidentiality issues etc) • Define the data ( i.e., the metadata ) • Decide why, how and by whom the data can be changed or deleted • Act as the “custodian”, i.e., the person/unit responsible for its business continuity,

including safe storage and recovery of the data, and for ensuring it is available for publishing when required

PRINCIPLE 3: Ensure all information is fit for purpose. The quality of information should be fit for purpose. Information should be sufficiently accurate, current, relevant and complete for the intended purpose. Those producing information should understand the requirements of those who need it and the wider benefits to Hertsmere Borough Council arising from its use. PRINCIPLE 4: An overall framework of standards. The creation, storage and use of information must comply with all legal and regulatory requirements, Hertsmere Borough Council guidelines and policies and, where appropriate, conform to national data format standards. Mechanisms should be established to ensure and monitor compliance with these standards. Success will be measured by our ability to provide access and reliable information to the public, our partners, and our staff to meet constantly evolving information needs. PRINCIPLE 5: Information to be organised, stored and retained in a consistent way. A data register (or metadata database) should be established as the definitive register that describes all the information assets of the organisation. The overall responsibility for the administration of this register should lie with the Chief Information Officer. Operational systems hold huge volumes of data, which is not always easily accessible to answer ad-hoc management enquiries for supporting decision-making. Organisation-wide Information Management systems need to be developed to enable staff and partners (Principle 8) to have quick and easy access to information and to be able to find documents and files through full text and keyword searching techniques using a web based system. PRINCIPLE 6: File once for the whole organisation. The same data should be held in as few computer systems and locations as possible and ideally in a single system/location. Where this is inappropriate then one source should be agreed as the definitive copy where all changes are made. This should then be used to produce copies for the other systems. The corporate approval process for the development of new applications should endeavour to identify opportunities for data sharing between systems.

16

The strategy will seek to reduce duplication of computerised information systems. It will also seek to reduce the costs of developing new and maintaining and enhancing current systems. The implementation of technologies such as ECM utilising an effective indexing/filing regime is an important first step in achieving this high level principle for all paper based and electronically stored information. A Corporate File Plan will be produced which will be the standard for use across the organisation. The Strategy will therefore play a major role in moving the organisation to a ‘paper less’ office based upon electronic record keeping by seeking to share all information electronically (in line with DPA, confidentiality and copyright security constraints). PRINCIPLE 7: Location independence. This principle seeks to ensure that suitable systems are in place to enable staff and partner organisations to create, manage, store, access and transmit information from every location in which they are required or expected to work. PRINCIPLE 8: Enable sharing of information with partner organisations. An effective and complete Information Management Strategy cannot be contemplated without the involvement of the authority’s key information providers and users. The strategy will seek opportunities for joint working to define and agree information standards and to promote an information sharing culture. PRINCIPLE 9: Monitor and Review. A mechanism is required for ensuring the implementation and review of an Information Management Strategy. It is proposed that a new panel be formed to replace the e-Government Project Board. This Panel will be called the Transformational Government Programme Panel (see appendix 01) and will have responsibility for ensuring that a Transformational Government Project Board be formed that will have, in addition to its transformational government responsibilities, the following duties and responsibilities:



• Develop robust corporate wide information governance processes • Approve supporting documentation required by the Information Strategy • Recommend revisions to the Information Strategy at agreed intervals • Ensure that the Strategy is linked to the corporate business planning process

17

Knowledge Management Strategy

Knowledge Management (KM) can be regarded as the next level up from information management and can be described as a way of mobilising knowledge for the benefit of the Council and its ‘customers’ (citizens, businesses, other institutions etc.). It is important to be realistic about the organisation’s capacity to change and this KM strategy is pitched accordingly. It outlines achievable steps that can be taken to move the organisation towards developing a knowledge management culture. Throughout this strategy the term ‘content’ refers to all information objects including whether they be Word documents, paper records, web pages, application data or GIS data etc. Content location Hidden away = bad, accessible by all authorised users = good. We can use the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) to shine a light on our own internal procedures. FoIA says that all material must be published unless it has to be kept private, i.e. it is exempt. Why not adopt the same approach internally? This isn’t to say that anyone can change content – just that they should be able to find it and view it by default. This means that the vast majority of content will need to be stored on shared systems, with read-only permissions for most staff. Exceptional content will require exceptional storage, still on shared systems, but secured appropriately. Content organisation Although most information sits on servers, the organisation of that material is sub-optimal. Even within a small section like Information Services, information can be surprisingly difficult to find, which is why we need to be experimenting with new ways of organising our Knowledge. We need to agree a structure or file plan, in other words agree at corporate level what information should go where. This file plan will organise information according to the broad functional purpose of the information and is a major piece of work. As well as a topic-oriented structure, the content organisation needs to take into account security. This includes exceptional situations where most staff should not have any access at all. The structure also needs to take into account which staff can actually update what. FoIA has led to Hertsmere publishing far more material on the web, and Knowledge Management will result in us publishing far more material internally. This will lead us to re-think our intranet. The web site has undergone development to help us meet our priority outcomes and comply with accessibility requirements, and our intranet will now need to be looked at to ensure that it can satisfy the demands of Knowledge Management without placing an extra burden on staff. Content publishing and versioning Content has a life cycle. Typically a document will go through these stages:

• Roughs – often being worked on by only 1 person

18

• Drafts – typically being consulted on, with possibly several people collaborating on the document

• Final – ready to publish as a record • Historic – ready to archive (much content doesn’t need archiving though) • Dead – ready to delete

At the rough stage it matters less where content is stored however as soon as anyone else needs to see it, Knowledge should be published. Publishing is the act of making it visible to others. It may be that the content has to become a draft that others need to review, or it may go straight to the final version. The content should be moved to the appropriate location in the file plan. If this is a draft then staff who need to review the draft should be sent a link to it. Note that this is different from sending staff a copy as all staff will be seeing a single copy of the document. A document may go through several draft versions before it is ready to be published as a finished item. Version control is part of document management software that can be used to assist this process. Content retrieval Once we have this particular subset of content organised (with documents stored in the right place and organised into an understandable structure with appropriate permissions etc), the next step is to focus on how we retrieve the information. There are five main approaches that can make things easier:

• Make the structure of the file plan intuitive • Provide a front-end to the file plan that can be personalised. This will ensure that each

individual can, for example, include hot links to the most-used parts of the file plan • Provide search tools that work well and return sensible results. The search tools

should allow the user to set up specific search ‘scopes’, e.g. to search all areas that may have something to do with e-government stored within them. Such search tools will also provide, for example, the ability to search across both the intranet and the Hertsmere website in a single search, returning results from both locations.

• Providing indexing that allows the creation of multiple different ways to access the same information. For example, one index may generate an A to Z of services. If we choose ‘A’ and then ‘Abandoned vehicles’ we will find the same content as if we followed a different route.

• Provide access to Knowledge through maps (GIS) by making use of web-based mapping. For example if a contact centre operative were to be asked ‘Where is the nearest paper recycling centre to Radlett?’ then clearly a map with the relevant information overlaid would make this process very efficient.

Content is stored in only one place, but may be found by many different means. This is in stark contrast to having a single, fixed hierarchy where you have to navigate a proscribed path to the relevant information. Content retention and destruction Electronic records management systems allow you to:

• Specify a retention policy • Identify at content creation time which category (retention span) that content belongs to • Have content deleted automatically when the retention period has expired

19

This capability alone makes such systems worth investing in, and of course helps a great deal with the Data Protection Act. The trick is to ensure that people know and understand the retention policy, so that documents can be categorised correctly when they are created. Content format Beyond the content stored in our business applications, most content we create is either an Office document (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc), an Adobe PDF, or a web page. These formats have different strengths and weaknesses, and fulfil different roles:

• Office documents are the format of choice for internal content. Everyone is familiar with Office, and there is a plethora of editing tools built into the software. Every employee has a copy of Office on their PC, so there are no document exchange problems. Tools like Word include many useful features such as tracking changes, adding comments, spelling and grammar checking and so on. However, not all members of the public have Office, and so this isn’t a terribly suitable format for publishing material onto the web.

• Adobe PDF can be used to ‘freeze’ the layout of an Office document so that it can’t be tampered with easily. Adobe provides a free and easily downloadable viewer for PDF documents, and so this makes it suitable for publishing static content to the web. PDF documents are also smaller than their Office equivalents thereby reducing download time.

• Web pages are very well suited for publishing dynamic content both internally using an intranet and externally using the internet. They are therefore very well suited to making information available to both staff and the public.

Content management and control At the moment, most document control comes into effect at or near the point of publishing something as a final version. The questions that are usually asked are:

• Is this document really finished – accurate, no typos etc? • Who should I send the document to?

In addition, these questions may sometimes be asked:

• Should it go on the web – and if so, where? • What about putting it on the intranet?

Adopting Knowledge Management will require us to have a more disciplined approach, with content management and control starting earlier and finishing later. As a minimum:

• When creating Word documents, we’ll need to use approved templates and styles, to ensure easy transition into the content management system

• When creating any content, we’ll need to apply a retention category. We’ll also need to supply additional metadata, unless we use a software tool to do this automatically

• We’ll need to publish content to the right place, rather than sending out copies, and use versioning tools where appropriate

Content communication Content is of little use if the right people don’t know that it is there. It isn’t enough to just publish knowledge – we also have to communicate the existence of that knowledge. Alerting people to the presence of something, rather than expecting them to go and find it, is a huge step towards making life easier. Of course we can email people with a link when we publish something, which would be better than emailing them a copy, however we can also set up a system whereby people

20

can request alerts. For example you could say ‘if anything is added to this folder, let me know’, or ‘if anything is added, changed or deleted in this folder or any subfolders, let me know’. Then when a document is added, for example, you automatically get an email telling you that the document has been added, and the email would contain a link to the document. Content roles & responsibilities A significant amount of work will be going into identifying and training data custodians, authors, editors and publishers (‘approvers’) for the proposed corporate wide content management system. Every functional dataset used within the council will have a responsible owner. Content tools The key technologies to be used to make this Knowledge Management strategy achievable are as follows:

1. Enterprise Content Management 2. Portals and personalisation 3. Collaboration tools 4. Case Management 5. Automatic metadata management 6. Document management 7. Records management 8. GIS software

Preparing staff for new ways of working In many ways this is an area that fits best with the Hertsmere’s Contact Centre project. It is easy to think that the only staff to be substantially affected by the Contact Centre project are those that are actually manning the Contact Centre however the stark reality is that the entire organisation faces major culture change with regards to the new working practices required to support the Contact Centre. This is because in order to enable people within the Contact Centre to respond effectively to a wide range of queries they will need to have all sorts of information easily accessible to them, directly from their PCs. Achieving this is dependent upon all of the content creators adhering to rules regarding what to put where and what metadata to provide for searching. Using collaborative technologies and changes in working practice will mean that people throughout the organisation will need not only to make the information easily accessible but also to mobilise knowledge through new ways of explaining how to make sense of HBC’s information assets through the use of collaborative tools.

21

Information Architecture

Information Systems Architecture The CIO and the Council as a whole will be supported by an Information and Knowledge Management Architecture that will consist of a master information repository powered by standardised Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technology with flexible access channels and rationalised business applications. The information within the single information repository will contain two master data sets: a master property / geographic dataset and a master citizen dataset (client master index). This information will be accessed and maintained corporately in line with agreed information management disciplines and will be enabled by a secure and flexible technical infrastructure. Presently, much of the information used by Hertsmere Borough Council to carry out its business is contained within either:

• specific departmental systems • shared network drives • paper records • minds of employees (undocumented or unstructured knowledge)

The principles outlined in the information management and knowledge management strategies provide a context in which new systems can be introduced and current systems replaced. Of highest priority is the need to introduce the standards based Email and ECM technology that will allow improvements in collaboration capability and allow the single information repository and corporate file plan to be built. Additional line of business / departmental applications will be replaced in accordance with the above architecture as well as those of simplification, standardisation, consolidation and modernisation This section of the Strategy contains an Information Systems Roadmap that addresses the rolling refresh of HBC’s Line of Business Systems / Information Systems. The aim of this roadmap is to highlight the existing service situation and plan for the simplification, standardisation, consolidation and modernisation of systems toward the new IS Architecture as outlined in this Strategy. The roadmap is a dynamic document and will also highlight costs and saving, identify gaps in service, and identify solutions. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) ECM systems are made up of the following modules: Web Content Management (WCM), Collaboration, Records Management (RM), Document Management (DM), Case Management (CM) and Workflow / Business Process Management. The ECM solution follows industry trends in e-business technology development, and offers to place HBC in the forefront of current business practice, where entities reach outside their organisational boundaries to tap into the value chains of citizens, suppliers and partners using Knowledge Management technologies.

The major benefits offered by such a solution lie in its ability to integrate and power applications, and to manage complex organisational wide processes offering new approaches to systems architecture and service delivery across departmental and organisational boundaries.

All records within the ECM will be linked to either, or both, master datasets allowing all relevant information concerning a particular individual or property / location to be assessed through any

22

one of the multiple interfaces available - corporate intranet, corporate web site, corporate Geographic Information System (GIS), e-forms, mobile devices, and, depending on the level of integration, departmental applications as illustrated in the following diagram.

WebS iteWebS ite

E ‐F ormsE ‐F orms

L ine of Bus iness ApplicationsF inance, P lanning, R evenues and Benefits ,

etc.

G ISG IS

L L PGL L PGC itizen IndexC itizen Index

E nterprise S canningE nterprise S canning

E nterprise P rintE nterprise P rint

Mobile WorkingMobile Working

E CME CM

Web C ontentWeb C ontent

E CM

The access channels (the interfaces for either extracting or entering data) will be based on standardised web services technology and will include the following:

• corporate intranet • corporate web site • corporate Geographic Information System (GIS) • e-forms • mobile devices • departmental applications (depending on the level of integration)

Additionally, workflow capability within an ECM allow for the automation of business processes by allowing electronic records to be routed in a consistent way from one user, team or system to another. This will allow performance, both at an individual, team and corporate level to be managed much more effectively.

Open Source Software

One of the primary recommendations from the review process is to consider the use of Open Source Software (OSS) over proprietary alternatives given its cost and interoperability advantages. This advice is consistent with official Cabinet Office advice on the growing use of

23

OSS1 and is one of the adopted elements in this draft Information Services Strategy (particularly with regards to ECM software). The issue of ‘open source’ may appear to be a technical issue however it is a legal distinction with economic and political consequences. The key distinction between open source and proprietary software is that open source software is built using a ‘Public License’, which means the software is ‘owned’ by the public rather than any particular private company. This allows for partnership working in ways not possible with proprietary software systems and provides wider public benefits. The business model for open source software suppliers is based on the provision of technical support services and therefore no upfront license fees are charged, and because open source is not owned by the supplying company then OSS vendors are prevented from charging exorbitant rates based on vendor lock-in. In addition to this OSS is based on open standards meaning that it is much easier to integrate OSS based systems. The above factors equate to reduced total cost of ownership over the lifetime of an implementation, and this total cost of ownership reduction is in addition to upfront capital investment savings of between £450,000 and £750,000 in ECM license fees alone*. [* This estimate is based on the cost of proprietary ECM software for an organisation of comparable size to HBC]

Alfresco

The Strategy advocates the use of Alfresco ECM software currently in use by London Borough of Islington and London Borough of Camden. Alfresco was founded in 2005 by John Newton, co-founder of Documentum® and John Powell, former COO of Business Objects®. Its investors include the leading investment firms Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund and SAP Ventures. Alfresco is the leading open source alternative for enterprise content management. It couples the innovation of open source with the stability of a true enterprise-class platform. The open source model allows Alfresco to use best-of-breed open source technologies and contributions from the open source community to get higher quality software produced more quickly and at much lower cost.

The track record of the Alfresco team has enabled Alfresco to rapidly become the leading open source enterprise content management system. This has enabled it to communicate with governments and corporations at a high-level to help shape corporate strategies.

Information Systems Roadmap The principles outlined in the information management and knowledge management sections of the IS Strategy provide a context in which new systems can be introduced and current systems replaced. Of high priority is the need to introduce the standards based ECM technology that will allow the single information repository and corporate file plan to be built. It is proposed that this technology be procured as a ‘managed service’ (described elsewhere) through OGC Buying Solutions as a Catalyst product (see separate outline business case). Additional line of business / departmental applications will be replaced in accordance with the above principles as well as those of simplification, standardisation, consolidation and modernisation. The following ‘roadmap’ for system replacement is proposed.

24

Priority One Email System Web Content Management (the website) Intranet Civica Revenues and Benefits Civica Powersolve Information Systems Belfast (CRM system) Civica Fraud Management Civica ARMS Legal Debt Recovery Civica Authority Bank Reconciliation Civica Authority Icon (Cash Collection) Rent Collection Priority Two Swift LG (Environmental Health system) Albany Software AlBacsIp (BACS Transmission) and E-Connect (electronic remittance delivery) Logotech (Treasury Management system) Priority Three Civica Parking Numara (Helpdesk system) Halarose (Election Management system) Priority Four Frontier Software (Payroll and Human Resources system) NTE (Committee Management system) Estateman (Property Assets and Maintenance system) Priority Five Plantech (Planning Development Control and Building Control system) Scout Solutions (Homelessness and Waiting List system)

25

Service Area Current

System Description Priority Reason for

Change Possible replacement Candidates

Corporate

Postfix Email 1 Standardisation Lack of functionality

Microsoft exchange

Hyperwave

Website Intranet

1 Consolidation of platform

Alfresco ECM

Health and Housing

Swift

Environmental Health

2

Support issues plus supplier consolidation.

Plantech

Scout Solutions

Homelessness and Waiting List

5 Review in 5 years

Planning and Building Control and Parking Operations

Plantech

Planning Development Control Building Control

5

Review in 5 years

Civica Parking

Parking Administration

3 Review in 3 years

Langdale Compex Traffic

Human Resources and Customer Services

Frontier Software

Personnel

4

Review in 4 years

Northgate Midland Software SAP

Information Systems Belfast

CRM 1

Difficult to integrate

Alfresco

Finance, Revenue, Benefits and IS

Civica

Council Tax, NNDR and Housing Benefits

1

Unix platform, system over 10 years old.

Capita Academy North Gate IBS

Civica

Citizens Account Fraud Management

2

Closely linked to Housing Benefits system.

Capita Academy North Gate IBS

26

Civica Powersolve

1

Unix platform, system over 10 years old

Agresso Cedar SAP

Civica Authority Bank Reconciliation

FIS Bank Reconciliation

2

Closely linked to FIS system

Civica Authority Icon (Cash Collection)

Cash Collection and Management


Civica Authority Purchasing

E-Procurement

2

Closely linked to FIS system Closely linked to FIS system

Albany Software AlbacsIp E-Connect

BACS management Electronic remittance delivery

2


Logotech Treasury Management

2

Review in 3 years

Numara IS Help Desk 3

Review in 3 years

Touchpaper Sunrise

Legal and Democratic Services

Halarose Election Management

3 Review in 3 years

Strand Northgate

NTE

Committee Management

4

Review in 3 years

Alfesco Ringwood

Estateman Property Assets

4 Review in 4 years

SAP

27

Technology Infrastructure

Improve alignment between technology development and strategy. Roadmapping the technology infrastructure fosters better alignment between high-level directives and ongoing technology investments, and the aim of this roadmap is to highlight the existing service situation and plan for new technology introductions. The roadmap will also highlight costs and saving, identify gaps in service, and identify solutions. The Infrastructure roadmap is in five parts:

• Servers • Workstations • Laptops • Network Infrastructure • Telecoms Infrastructure • Additional Components • Proposed Time Line

A survey of the existing hardware estate, including warranty lifecycles for the current and future financial period, is at the end each of the roadmap sections. This is then costed on a like-for-like replacement basis - i.e. the cost of standing still. Servers The way forward is to have the servers in a “Virtual” environment: this means most of the existing servers will be migrated to virtual devices held on a series of physical servers. This environment provides many benefits including reduced cost (approximately half of the replacement value over the next two years) and improved business continuity both within operational and Disaster Recovery environments. Advantages of Virtualisation

• Server Consolidation and Infrastructure Optimization: virtualisation makes it possible to achieve significantly higher resource utilization by pooling common infrastructure resources and breaking the legacy “one application to one server” model.

• Physical Infrastructure Cost Reduction: with virtualization you can reduce the number of servers and related IT hardware in the data centre. This leads to reductions in real estate, power and cooling requirements resulting in lower IT costs.

• Improved Operational Flexibility and Responsiveness: virtualisation offers a new way of managing IT infrastructure and can help IT administrators spend less time on repetitive tasks such as provisioning, configuration, monitoring and maintenance.

• Increased Application Availability and Improved Business Continuity: eliminate planned downtime and recover quickly from unplanned outages with the ability to securely backup and migrate entire virtual environments with no interruption in service.

• Improved Desktop Manageability and Security: deploy, manage and monitor secure desktop environments that end users can access locally or remotely, with or without a network connection, on almost any standard desktop, laptop or tablet PC.

Existing Server Estate

28

Servers are generally purchased with a 3 year warranty and extended to 5 years. There are 39 servers covered in this way. Due to organisational change there has been a hold on some server replacements for the past year, which has resulted in some of the estate being out of warranty. Out of

warranty Now

out of warranty by

31/03/09

out of warranty by

31/03/10

out of warranty by

31/03/11

out of warranty by

31/03/12 No. of Servers

14 9 9 4 3

Replacement cost

£60,000 £36,000 £36,000 £16,000 £16,000

The cumulative like-for-like replacement cost over the next 2 years would be £132,000, the price is estimated as the size and function would vary the cost. The strategy (as recommended in the review document, please see the separate Information Management and Technology Review document) would see most servers virtualised in the way described above however some servers would need to remain on dedicated hardware. Workstations

It is proposed that workstations will change to a virtualised or thin client environment in order to increase flexibility, mobility and improve desktop security. Using the VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution to host desktop environments inside virtual machines that are running in the data center enables end-users to gain remote access from a PC or thin client terminal (this will be determined on the status of the existing warranty and age of workstation – if obsolete the choice would be for a thin client terminal device).

With VDI, users access their complete desktop environment in a virtual machine located in a secure data center. The desktop virtual machine running on a server in the data center is an image of a complete PC – operating system, applications and configurations as illustrated in the following diagrame.

Client Virtualisation therefore offers the following advantages:

29

• Secure remote access for staff, elected members and third party suppliers (for technical

support purposes). • The ability to securely take your workstation with you enables flexible working (including

mobile working) • Simpler migration to new desktop standards

Existing Workstation Estate Workstations were originally purchased with a 3 year warranty with an expected working life of 5 years (with the IS department maintaining them over the additional 2 years). Workstations have more recently been purchasing with a 5 year warranty as a result of a value review, and this is reflected in the roadmap with half of the estate being out of technical warranty but being less 5 years old. As can be seen by the number of PCs going out of warranty in 2008/9, the change in warranty period extended the equipment replacement timeframe thereby saving £50,000. Out of

warranty Now

out of warranty by

31/03/09

out of warranty by

31/03/10

out of warranty by

31/03/11

out of warranty by

31/03/12

No. of Workstations

152 3 83 48 8

Replacement Cost

£52,000 £2,000 £55,000 £32,000 £5,500

Within the 152 there are some at the end of 5 years life and some at the end of 3 years. The cumulative like-for-like replacement cost over the next 2 years would be £109,000 (£150,000 over 5years) however the price is an estimated as the size and function would vary the cost. If replaced with Thin Client devices there would be an estimated 1/3 saving. Laptops Laptop use is expected to remain fairly constant however this is dependent upon the new rules for elected members and the take up of new mobile and flexible working projects. In this area there are many changes occurring which will change the use of laptops

• Mobile working devices (Handheld, PDA phones etc.) • Secure remote access thin client devices or software for home PCs • Tablet PCs • Improved mobile communications. • Improved performance • Laptop security (encryption)

Existing Laptop Estate Out of

warranty Now

out of warranty by

31/03/09

out of warranty by

31/03/10

out of warranty by

31/03/11

out of warranty by

31/03/12

No. of Laptops

43 12 16 8 0

Replacement Cost

£52,000 £15,000 £20,000 £10,000

30

Network Infrastructure The existing core network is due for replacement as a result of the age of the equipment. It is now “end of life” for the manufacturer and no longer meets the capacity needs of the organisation. This is also the situation with some of our switches directly connecting to users. The demands of user devices are also requiring a new form of connection managed within the switches in the form of Power over Ethernet (PoE) and wireless access. Replacement equipment will provided a more resilient infrastructure (as the result of developments in this product type), provide more services and offer some greener credentials (for example for Voice of Internet Protocol – VoIP). The core network which manages traffic flow would be configured for failover connectivity to the Edge switches (those that connect the users), and by using a single brand of equipment the interactivity between the switches will allow for increased functionality and intelligence by, for example, recognising the type of equipment and associating it automatically with the correct internal network. Existing switch configuration

Switch Qty Warranty Status

Port speed

Port Qty 1GB ports

link port

speed

link port qty

Summit 7i 1 Out core 1GB 16 2 1GB 2 Summit 48 1 +

1 cold spare

Out core / router

10/100Mb 48 2 1GB 2

Summit 300 1 core 10/100Mb 24 100Mb 1 HP 2524 6 edge M’gd 10/100Mb 24 100Mb 1

Planet FNSW-2400s

15 Out Edge 10/100Mb 24 100Mb 1

3Com 2426 1 PoE 10/100Mb 24 100Mb 1 This gives a capacity of approx 500 end user devices The cost of a phased replacement would be £30,000 over 2 years including resilience and maintenance cover. Telecommunications Infrastructure There is a growing demand for telecommunication services given that such endeavours as mobile and flexible working and new public communication options such as text message communication are dependent upon new telecommunications technology. One particular new technology is called a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) gateway. This is where a service provider interfaces with the telephone system and allows all our telecoms provider services to be delivered with a single billing system. This can result in a minimum of 25% saving over our current costs and will result in an increased range of services. These services could include

• Fax to email • Personal Fax • Voicemail • Improved offsite disaster recovery telecommunication services • Resilient links for voice and data for key remote sites (Meadow Park and Cranbourne)

Proposed Telecommunications Architecture

31

Table of existing costs and the proposed savings over 5 years

Hertsmere Borough Council COO & ROI Matrix V1.2 - Telecommunications Managed Service

Cost Centre

Existing Environment

Cost Per Annum

Qubic Service Credits

Over The Contractual

Period Cost

Year 1 Cost

Year 2 Cost

Year 3 Cost

Year 4 Cost

Year 5

Revenue Saving Over5 Years

BT/C&W/O2 Fixed Line Telephone Calls £17,372 +£86,863 Qubic Fixed Line Calls £4,619 £4,619 £4,619 £4,619 £4,619 -£23,095 BT/C&W/Incumbent IP WAN £49,433

+£247,165

Qubic Converged IP, TDM, GSM WAN £40,863

£34,248

£34,248

£34,248

£34,248

-£177,855

Council Remote Workers - Incumbent Provision £14,400 +£72,000 Council Remote Workers - Qubic Provision £12,320

£11,520

£11,520

£11,520

£11,520 -£58,400

T Mobile/Vodafone Corporate Mobility* £35,661

+£178,308

32

Qubic Mobility - Corporate Services & Devices £14,700 £19,404

£19,404

£19,404

£19,404

£19,404 -£82,320

Qubic Mobility - GSM GW & Mobex System £18,305 £2,925 £2,925 £2,925 £2,925 -£30,005 Qubic Mobility - GSM GW & Mobex Sim Cards £12,000

£12,000

£12,000

£12,000

£12,000 -£60,000

Total £116,867 -£14,700

£107,511

£84,716

£84,716

£84,716

£84,716 Revenue Saving £152,661

The following advantages of GSM Gateway can therefore be identified:

• Improved services to staff and public • Single supplier • Leverage value from current technologies • Improved Business continuity and Emergency Plan services • Reduced cost (est. £30,000ps) • Resilient provision to all sites

Additional Components

• Training. The career grade scheme including designated qualifications will be upgraded to reflect the new infrastructure technologies as they are introduced.

• Infrastructure licensing. Microsoft have recently introduced a new operating system

(Vista) and a new version of Office. Both represent major operational changes and will need to be implemented. This can be done in an integrated way with the deployment of the Virtual infrastructure (which lends itself to such an important change). The use of Microsoft Office will remain the desktop standard as it integrates with many of the third party products we use, and with the advent of an improved email system (Exchange) the use of the 2007 version of MS Outlook will become key. In addition it is proposed that we procure our Microsoft Infrastructure licenses using a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. This will cover corporate-wide licensing thereby allowing all PC’s to be upgraded to the latest version of key Microsoft products including Office, SQL and Exchange.

• Computer Room Power Supply. This needs to be upgraded from individual

Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) to a situation where the entire room is provided with UPS power. This UPS will provide up to 30 minutes of power at full load and provides the servers the time needed to automatically shut down. This will also enable public facing servers to remain available longer. The installation could also feed an Emergency Planning room (located in the Learning suite) with a secondary power supply if needed. The cost of this would be approximately £20,000 however in order to attain Exemplar Organisation status in line with the Council’s Emergency Plan we would need to have our own onsite power generator at additional cost.

Proposed Time Line (draft)

34

Appendix 01 – Risk and Project Management

Risk and Project Management The two key components of project management are the delivery of agreed results and the management of risk. The projects that flow from this strategy are highly significant and affect all part of the organisation and therefore good project and risk management is critical. The following diagram outlines the proposed project structure:

Hertsmere Borough CouncilTransformational Government Project Structure

Transformational Government Strategic Programme Board

Chief Officers, CIO, Finance / Efficiency representative, Elected Members Quarterly

Transformational Government Project BoardCEO, CIO, Human Resources, Corporate Comms, Corporate Services,

Finance, Contact Centre

Monthly

Asset ManagementStrategic Working

Group

Workforce Planning Strategic Working

Group

Contact Centre / ePost Room

Strategic Working Group

GIS Strategic Working Group

Mobile WorkingGroup

IS Strategy

Transformational Government Strategic Programme Panel

Chief Officers, CIO, Finance / Efficiency representative, Elected Members

Quarterly

Information Management Group

Transformational Government Project Board

CEO, CIO, Human Resources, Corporate Comms, Corporate Services, Finance, Contact Centre

Monthly

It is proposed that all projects resulting from this strategy will be managed using the customised ‘PRINCE2 Lite’ project management methodology developed specifically for Hertsmere Borough Council. Risk Management Risks can be broken down into:

• those risks that affect the project • those risk that the project may have on the operation or strategic objectives of the Council • those risk to the operation or strategic objectives of the Council that present themselves by

not undertaking specific projects (the ‘do nothing’ risks) The identification and management of risk will be carried out in accordance with Hertsmere’s Risk Management Strategy, and as suggest in this strategy all risks affecting the operation or strategic objectives of the Council will need to be engaged with and ‘owned’ by the entire organisation. To this end the identification and analysis of risks associated with any of the projects resulting from this strategy and that affect the organisation will be carried out collaboratively.

35

Appendix 02 – Electronic Post Room (e-Post Room)

An electronic post room allows for more flexible working arrangements because it means that Hertsmere’s (and potentially other authority’s) knowledge workers no longer need to be physically close to the paper based information they need. When implemented in conjunction with the ECM based information repository the following advantages are made possible:

• Increased availability. An electronic document can be viewed by multiple people at the same time, without having to duplicate several trees worth of paper.

• Rule of one. For multiple people to have access to the same paper document there needs to be multiple copies of it. When that document needs to be deleted, you need to ensure all copies are deleted. With an ECM system everybody can link to a single instance of the document.

• Search. Many scanned documents can have key information extracted using optical character recognition (OCR) technologies thereby allowing them to be electronically searched and classified.

• Enforced rules. An electronic document can be easily attached to a workflow, with precise rules for when it needs to be processed and who needs to process it. This is much harder to manage with paper documents.

• Storage. Ultimately, letters are just records which must be stored. An electronic copy of a record can be valid for legal purposes, so the paper copies do not need to be kept for longer than a few months. This reduces storage space required both in the main office and in off-site storage facilities.

• Backups. It is much easier to make a copy of electronic data than it is of pieces of paper. If your paper archives burn down or flood then you’ve lost everything. If your computer system burns you can retrieve the backed up data and rebuild it.

The main aim of an electronic post room is to enable the council to better manage what it has, in order that its people can spend their time doing real work rather than wasting it trying to hunt down documents which have been misplaced. Possibly the most important aspect of any electronic post room implementation is to have only one of them. If all post goes into a single location then only a single small group of people are needed to manage the entire council’s post. One set of scanners is needed, and the knowledge and infrastructure can be shared across all the departments in the council. This also simplifies the interface to the public since the location of a particular department is no longer important. Normally, physical council addresses will be replaced with PO Box numbers which all deliver to the one location. Use of PO Box numbers makes it easy to pre-sort mail for each department, but also abstracts the location making it easy to move the location of individual council services at any point (on a permanent basis, or because of disaster recovery). Of course, although a single point of arrival has its advantages, there will always be mail coming in through other routes (such as letters handed in to the front desk). These avenues don’t need to be closed down unless absolutely required. The use of Multifunctional Devices (MFDs – combined scanners, printers and photocopiers which are relatively cheap and easy to use) can allow such letters to be scanned into the system from other points in the building, or they can be taken down to the post room for scanning along with everything else. The next step is to determine exactly how much work a post room does. Receiving post is more than just opening an envelope and scanning in the contents. Once a document has been scanned into the system the system needs to know where to send it. The following steps can be defined:

36

1. Post is received, and is sorted according to who it is going to. The destination of the post can be determined from a PO Box number, the name of the addressee or other factors which need to be determined on a council-by-council basis. All post to a similar destination will be placed into one or more batches ready for scanning all in one go. Normally sorting at this stage is on a per-department basis.

2. The post is scanned into the system and text extracted using optical charter recognition (OCR).

3. Further information on where a single item of post is sent is then determined from the contents itself to enable it to be sent to a single individual or small group of people.

Step 3 may be done in the post room, or may be done outside of the post room. It can require a great deal of knowledge (down to the level of who is in work today and who is off-sick or on holiday), which can often be better provided by an individual department. It is often the case that the Electronic Post Room has the knowledge required to get the documents into the system, and more detailed knowledge is held further on in the system. There are some special cases which have to be handled with some extra thought:

• Confidential mail. Some mail can be considered confidential and must be passed to an individual or group unopened. Normally this consists of mail directly addressed to a person, or whistleblower mail which may be denoted by a PO Box number.

• Cheques and cash. This may turn up with a covering note, or not. Normally the money is separated out when the envelopes are opened, and sent to a financial department which deals with it. A record is attached to the content to be scanned which states how must money was included with the letter.

• Identity documentation. Often sent in the form of passports and bills, these are often sent in as proof of address or identity and must be posted back to the sender. These can be photocopied and the photocopies signed and scanned by the scan operators once their authenticity has been confirmed. The documents can be posted back immediately, whilst the scanned image is sent through the system.

• Planning documents. These can consist of very large sheets of paper which can be difficult to scan on standard scanners. Dedicated A0 scanners are required for this task, but generally only a single scanner is needed since the amount of paper of this size that comes in is only a small proportion of the whole. Once scanned, these documents can be placed into the system along with the other images.

Once mail has been scanned it is normally kept for a few weeks or months before being destroyed. The images however can remain in the system for as long as required / allowed by law. It should be noted that just because everything can be scanned, not everything has to be scanned. Marketing mail (including flyers, magazines, free offers etc.) can be kept out of the system, and delivered to individual desks using more traditional methods (generally such things aren’t time critical, so they can be either collected or delivered after the day’s scanning is complete if necessary).

37

Knowledge Working Once documents have been scanned they can enter into a workflow. Documents in a workflow get automatically routed to a group of one or more people, appearing in their inbox or team space ready to be read and processed. Workflows can be as complex or as simple as required, and can vary from department to department, or depend on the type of document that has been received. Workflow makes it easy to split work across a group of people – everyone just takes the next item in the list – with the business logic controlling where it needs to go after a task is complete. Once a document has been responded to (exactly what this involves will vary widely depending on the content), then the workflow is marked as completed, and the document can be moved off the queue and into a suitable location in the document repository for historical reference. Some tasks are easy to define in business rules, and the user can be presented with options to choose from to denote how their portion of the task has been completed, and to control where the document goes to next. More open ended tasks can have a simple “I’ve done the work” tick box, and allow the user to control who the document goes to next.

Appendix 03 – GIS Strategy

Geographical Information System (GIS) GIS is a combination of specialist software, computer hardware, spatial data, users, potential users and corporate standards for managing spatial data and information. This GIS Strategy considers all of these factors. GIS software are tools for collecting, storing, editing, querying, manipulating, analysing and displaying spatially referenced data. Aims This GIS Strategy is a set of protocols and methodologies designed to support corporate objectives by:

• Providing council staff the knowledge, skills and tools to produce representative geographical and management information for use by decision makers.

• To enable the council staff to use GIS effectively to support their operational requirements and to support national initiatives such as the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and the National Land Information Service (NLIS).

The Way Forward with GIS

Positional Accuracy Improvement and the new ‘MasterMap’ format

Ordnance Survey (OS) is Britain's national mapping agency and the provider of the digital maps used by all local authorities including Hertsmere Borough Council. Positional Accuracy Improvement (PAI) was a 5 year programme completed in 2006 by OS to improve the quality and accuracy of the maps they provide. OS have also developed a new mapping format, called MasterMap, which offers a number of key advantages for HBC as outlined below. In addition to the advantages outlined below OS will only support a new MasterMap mapping format as of October 2008, so HBC will need to upgrade to this format in order to keep its maps up-to-date (map updates are provided by OS every quarter).

HBC has 1,164,121 internally created geospatial data ‘objects’ contained within 2297 GIS layers. Much of this data is redundant, created when, for example, a department or individual takes a previously created layer and uses it for another purpose, and in addition much of this data is now inaccurate due to the changes to underlying maps provided by OS. HBC has therefore initiated its own PAI project, and although some of the corrections can be carried out automatically using software procured by HBC (as illustrated in figure G1) much of the data will need manual intervention due to quality issues (as illustrated in figure G2).

Figure G1

38

39

Figure G2

What is OS MasterMap?

OS MasterMap is an intelligent digital map designed by Ordnance Survey for use with geographical information systems (GIS).Based on the National Grid it includes topographic information on every landscape feature such as buildings, roads, telephone boxes, postboxes, landmarks etc. Each feature has its own unique identifier or TOID® which is a 16–digit reference number that can be shared with other users across different applications and systems. This allows easy data association and greater accuracy, focusing on real–world objects on the map.

This format represents a significant evolution from traditional cartography and offeres considerable advantage for HBC. Moving to MasterMap therefore should be a key stratigic aim for HBC.

Facilitating a joined-up Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and GIS

Local government has taken advantage of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology for many years to deal with individual departmental issues. Today's drive for councils requires less duplication in systems and effort, and a more joined up approach to service delivery.

Councils are looking to access a variety of data from a single corporate data repository underpinned by a common BS7666 compliant gazetteer and Ordnance Survey digital mapping to encourage sharing of information. Local authorities are taking a more enterprising approach to GIS can use it to manage and extract value from data in almost any functional area - from finance and CRM, to planning and land charges - thus increasing efficiency and avoiding duplication of effort.

To facilitate joined up work it is essential that GIS and the LLPG are integrated with other information systems. Therefore, it is crucial that other departments link to LLPG and GIS system. This will increase information sharing between department and therefore enhance the decision making process.

Actions required

• GIS data audit in the council

40

• Centralised GIS data (GIS metadata database) • Move from Land Line to MasterMap • PAI Program • GIS on the Intranet

Current and Recommended GIS Application Solutions

The choice of GIS is determined by current and perceived software functionality required by each section. The matrix below shows the type of task matched and the recommended GIS software.

Future/ current Tasks Software Matched to Task • LLPG maintenance Plantech system

• Editing/Digitising OS base Data • Spatial Analysis • Complex Queries • Detailed cartographical output

Desktop MapInfo GIS

• Viewing data (text and Maps) • Simple queries • Simple map Production

eGGP interactive maps (for the website) PlanWeb (for the intranet)

Benefits and Opportunities for Improved GIS

The benefits of GIS technology are profound. As a geographic information management and analysis tool, it can deliver the below benefits:

• Enable better decision-making and improved responsiveness to citizens by providing staff and management with information in intuitive and readily understandable formats.

• Enable potential efficiency savings by allowing faster access to information both via HBC staff and directly via electronic means.

• Enable partnerships working and resource sharing by using the information standards defined within GIS/LLPG systems as the basis of integration with external agencies thereby allowing further potential efficiency savings.

Conclusions

It has been estimated that over 80% of local authority data is land or property related. The potential benefits of using GIS to pinpoint the location of land or property are substantial. A picture paints a thousand words, and GIS forms a critical component in enabling the accurate and efficient use and reuse of information both within HBC and beyond.

41

Appendix 04 – Case Management

Case management – automated, auditable business process Case Management enables the tracking of issues or enquiries from beginning to end in a scalable, accurate and timely manner. It ensures that all documents associated with a case are accessible on-line and directly from the case. Case Management provides integrated Case Flow giving quality control through review and audit, and allows the organisation to more easily meet contractual obligations and maintain legislative compliance as well as enable better planning and greater control. In order to properly support this way of working, a case management system must contain at least the following components:

• Policies and Procedures

• Correspondence – scanning, tracking of outbound information

• Case Notes and Events - auditing

• Inbound and Outbound email tracking

• Reminders and calendars (from the perspective of managing SLAs)

• Case Flow workflow for the case

• Enterprise Wide Search

• Synchronisation / integration with legacy systems

• Ability to stop-the-clock to control SLAs when the case is outside of your organisation's control

• General Management Information such as reports

• The ability to leverage information from existing content and document management systems

Case management should not be yet another source of disparate information which needs updating. The primacy of customer information is key in an organisation, and this should be provided by the EDRM backbone under-pinned by a File Plan, and case management acts as a system to record against citizens and businesses etc., as well as the case itself. Figure 1 - Case Management

42

Case Management issues The following checklist provides high level details of the issues which are considered when implementing a case management system. These are not intended to be in any prioritised order, but are designed to give a general overview of the areas to be covered during the business analysis and consultancy prior to the production of an implementation and deployment plan. Policies Consideration will be given to the business policies currently in place, and equally those which aren’t but which will be required in order to successfully implement case management. For instance the service levels in place and how would these change with the introduction of the case management system. The introduction of the case management system will however provide the ability to review these, and perhaps improve the level of service provided. Where service levels are not exposed to clients, through the introduction of an electronic system, goals will need to be set which are objective and measurable for the case management system. Workflow Business processes defined and documented for the organisation can be implemented as workflow, however not having defined workflow processes will not prevent the adoption of case management technology since it takes advantage of case based working with a single view of case information. However the full benefits of case flow and mapping SLAs to cases may not be realised until at least some business process analysis has been carried out. Records Management The Records Management file plan is important in understanding where the case management system should file records. Case Management will itself need to be taken into account when developing the file plan (including a retention and disposition schedule) for records, since the cases themselves are records. The records management policy will become increasingly important as the organisation begins to preserve emails and link them to cases. Single Version of the Truth As already mentioned, the case management system should not be yet another source of information. Whilst the EDRM component of the ECM system will provide the dominant system for data downloads into the case management system, other sources of data may need to be reviewed and cleansed. This is often a useful exercise to carry out as it can focus the organisation into thinking about which aspects of the data / information kept about the case are truly important.

43

Appendix 05 – ‘Managed’ IT Support Service

What are Managed Services When a company subscribes to a managed service, a service provider manages the network equipment and applications on the customer premises according to the terms of a service-level agreement (SLA) established to meet the company’s unique business needs. Some managed services are also hosted, meaning that the service provider hosts the equipment in its data centre facility instead of the customer’s offices, and delivers services to company employees over a wide area network (WAN). A hosted managed service approach for Hertsmere can provide the following benefits:

• Reduces costs, including traditional service fees, hardware, IT operations, and transport • Eases adoption of new business processes • Provides enterprise level capability, such as high availability and disaster recovery, for

less • Increases levels of support and network availability without additional staff • Makes the IT budget more stable and predictable • Provides access to the latest technology with limited risk • Provides access to a large specialist skills base • Makes it easier to adapt to changing business conditions • Enables the IS team to focus on adding strategic value to Hertsmere Borough Council

The following diagram illustrates the strategic value of IT to Hertsmere Borough Council thereby indicates where internal staff effort should be best directed and where external suppliers should considered for managed IT service provision:

44

What this means for Hertsmere Borough Council It is proposed that all of the technical support for key aspects of this proposed knowledge infrastructure be provided by an external organisation in a partnership arrangement. This method of technical support is referred to as a ‘managed service’ and will allow existing IS staff the time needed to focus on assisting the organisation to implement the information management disciplines required for success. This therefore allows the IS department to focus on the uses of technology that add strategic value to Hertsmere Borough Council and enable all staff to focus on their core objectives. The future revenue funding necessary to support this managed service approach is expected to come from a mixture of rental and revenue income from Hertsmere’s proposed data centre project, and other change projects that are enabled by the ECM technology. Efficiency savings will be made from simplification, standardisation, consolidation and modernisation of systems as we move towards the new IS Architecture. Freeing information flows and creating a single Information Repository will enable the Council to start to realise the benefits from its considerable investment in the Contact Centre as more and more traffic can be driven through this access channel. The adoption of virtualisation and thin client technology will result in savings on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) as these are vastly more efficient than current technologies. In addition there are savings that can be made in our telecoms spend made possible by using the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) gateway identified above. For the reasons outlined in the first phase business cases, the technology for the ECM (Intranet & WCM) and Microsoft Exchange Server (Email) needs to be in place as a matter of urgency however due to possible ongoing funding issues the Intranet and web content management (WCM) phase will be contracted in such a way that the Council can review the process after 12 months. HBC need to demonstrate best value in terms of costs - the intermediate managed service would provide proof of concept of the value and reality of such a managed service. It will also provide the necessary information to create the specification / requirement documentation needed to run an open tendering process for the future provision of a fully managed ICT service for the Council.

45

Appendix 06 – Guide to Knowledge Management

Information as a valuable and under-utilised resource Information is a valuable resource that must be managed with as much care and attention as the traditional resources of people, money and buildings. It is an asset that needs to be used effectively for the benefit of our customers. Information should not be confused with information technology. Everyone in the organisation has some responsibility for information management and, because of its effect on our everyday work, implementing Knowledge Management involves organisational culture change. Access to information for the benefit of citizens and the protection of the Council On 1 January 2005 the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) came into force, which means individuals now have a right of access to information. This right extends to all local authority information, not just that held on a computer. Compliance with the legislation demands at the very least a high-level inventory of an authority’s information assets in the form of a Publication Scheme. The legislative framework will be of little use to citizens unless the underlying information systems are effective and reliable in their storage, maintenance and retrieval of information, and this is one of the reasons for increased interest in corporate information management systems. We need an organised approach to codifying, cataloguing and storing all our records. The ideal solution would be to have a single unified and searchable view of all the council’s information. Only in this way is it really possible to conduct an integrated search, and also to establish effective cross-referencing between different sets of data. These assets also need safeguarding, and in the same way as archivists care for paper documents by storing them in special environments, so electronic records require care to ensure the continuing integrity of their contents. The National Archive recommends that the records management function should be ‘a specific corporate programme within an authority and should receive the necessary levels of organisational support to ensure effectiveness’. This function should coordinate management responsibility for records in all formats, not just electronic. This responsibility should extend throughout the life cycle of the records from initiation through to disposal or archive. Organised information is an electronic clear desk Probably every local authority manager suffers from initiative overload. Conversely, there are still plenty of people getting frustrated trying to find the information that they need in order to do their job. Most frustrating of all is when two sources provide conflicting information, and time is wasted resolving which is correct. Knowledge Management tackles the issue of information overload directly. An effective retention policy removes the clutter of unneeded documentation. An appropriate classification system driving the filing or electronic management system effectively implements the old saying ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’. Duplication is eliminated.

46

Access to services and a successful contact centre e-Government relies on proper management of information. Many customer interactions involve requests for information and so that information must be properly classified, coordinated and accessible to those who need it, whether that be directly to the public via a website or mediated through a contact centre. It really helps customer contact centres to operate effectively when they have access to a good picture of the customers’ previous needs. The Council provides a much more complex array of services than any commercial organisation so good systems to support contact centre staff are even more important. Knowledge management – taking Information Management a step further Over time there has been a shift in attention from data to information to knowledge management. Efficient data processing has been thoroughly embedded within most departmental units within Hertsmere Borough Council along with clearly understood disciplines, policies and procedures. However Information and knowledge management are less well defined, and are commonly regarded as being technical issues. There is much scope for service improvement through considering all three areas together and managing them corporately. The diagram below shows one way of relating data, information and knowledge:

KnowledgeInformation

put intoproductive

useand made actionable

0 0 0 0000 0

00

0

00

0 0 00000

0 000

000

0 0 0000

0011

1111 1111111

111

1 1111 1

1111

Data

Information

Data processedand arranged

into meaningful patterns

Wisdom

Numbers, words, sounds,

images

KnowledgeInformation

put intoproductive

useand made actionable

0 0 0 0000 0

00

0

00

0 0 00000

0 000

000

0 0 0000

0011

1111 1111111

111

1 1111 1

11110 0 0 0000 0

00

0

00

0 0 00000

0 000

000

0 0 0000

0011

1111 1111111

111

1 1111 1

1111

Data

Information

Data processedand arranged

into meaningful patterns

Wisdom

Numbers, words, sounds,

images Diagram 1: Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom Knowledge Management (KM) is an approach to improving performance by making better use of the knowledge that employees possess. There are two main aspects to KM:

• The creation and management of processes for acquiring new knowledge that can then be deployed to improve council performance. For example, new knowledge about the preferences and concerns of citizens can be used to allocate resources effectively

• Ensuring that existing and relevant knowledge is shared readily and is available to those who need it, when they need it. For example, customer services staff can provide a better service if they know about the contact history of an individual

47

Information and Knowledge Management Components Information architecture Diagram 3 illustrates an information architecture. Enquiries from customer contact points (at the top of the diagram) are satisfied by information provided by the technology infrastructure (at the bottom of the diagram) as directed through the Knowledge Management components (in the middle of the diagram). The Geographic Information System (GIS) is shown behind the other components since it has the potential to be used as anything from a presentation tool to a database engine.

Diagram 3: information architecture

This architecture has the following key components: .

• Content — managing the content, wherever it is located, with the same rigour as traditional resources such as money

• Navigation / Metadata — signposting where to find information and making it easy to find what you want

• Communication — ensuring that the relevant standards are in place so that people, systems and institutions are using the same language where possible

• Presentation — allowing others to use information in ways that are meaningful to them • Rights / Security — providing the security framework required to ensure sensitive

information is only accessible by those with a legitimate right. This issue is closely linked with that of identity management

Content Having the right information (and no more) at the right time and from an authoritative source is essential for supporting citizens, continuous improvement, joined-up service delivery and meeting legal requirements. Current and obsolete information stored in different systems (physical or technological) and locations within Hertsmere Borough Council make for an inefficient and chaotic situation. It is like working on a desk that is cluttered with untidy paper documents. We need the electronic equivalent of a clear desk policy. Creating order from chaos is imperative to increasing efficiency and reducing frustration at work.

48

Before we can manage content we have to know what information assets we have. The asset register is more than just a simple list of information items, it should also describe the information held, including:

• a description of the datasets and (in some cases) individual data items • location and access rights information • data custodian information • creation date information • review date information • retention and archive information

Effective knowledge management demands an organised approach to cataloguing data about information, categorisation systems and thesauri. Navigation / Metadata Citizens, elected members and employees must be able to get to the information they need as quickly as possible. Inefficiency in finding information leads to wasted time and frustration. Multiplied across the whole organisation such inefficiencies represent significant waste. Highly effective access systems can help manage the problem of information overload. Data about information Whatever systems we use we are faced with the same problem of trying to find information resources quickly and easily. There is often a lack of basic information about the resource itself. Many information resources are published which don’t contain a title, or a date, or a creator. Imagine going into a library where none of the books have this basic information printed on their spines. What’s more, the books are jumbled up and there is no card index telling you where books are stored. How much time would you waste trying to find what you were looking for? Fortunately, this is where Knowledge Management standards for tagging digital resources (metadata) and filing information resources (taxonomy / file plan) come to our rescue. Metadata has been defined as ‘structured information about a resource’ but think of metadata as index information which makes things easy to find. It also helps to manage information resources in other ways, for example by helping to manage retention and disposal schedules and access permissions. Any record, therefore, within Hertsmere Borough Council should have the following items of metadata information attached:

• where the information held • when it was stored, and by who • who the custodian of the data is • when it was last accessed • when it is due for review • when it should be disposed of

Table 1 shows some of the e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS) elements. All information that we hold should be tagged with at least the mandatory metadata.

49

Audience Format (R) Rights Contributor Identifier Source Coverage (R) Language (R) Subject –category/keywords Creator Location Title Date Preservation Type Description Publisher Approved date Disposal Relation Approved by whom Table 1: standard government metadata

Elements in bold type are mandatory, those suffixed by ‘R’ are recommended, and others are optional. Although we need to have a complete picture of our information assets, this could add to the burden of the service staff who collect, hold and maintain the information. They might feel that this effort isn’t necessary to do their job. Fortunately software exists that can do much of this additional work automatically by, for example, trawling through an organisation’s information resources, and automatically classifies those resources according to the Local Government Category List (LGCL). We have already published some metadata in the form of an inventory of our information holdings in response to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA). This is the Publication Scheme. In producing this we made a start on cataloguing and classifying our information holdings. Further work is however required on this as any Publication Scheme will require constant maintenance in order to avoid becoming out of date. An ECM (Enterprise Content Management) tools can be used to help reduce the burden in this area as described below. A file plan is the second key tool here. As well as having metadata to enable easy searching and management, information resources need to be organised into an agreed file plan or taxonomy. This makes things easier to find. A good Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system will allow for the development and maintenance of a good file plan, and once configured the system can automatically create the FoI publication scheme and automatically keep the scheme up to date. We can draw an analogy with a financial management system. Within such a system financial information might be categorised by budget, supplier, transaction date and so on, and the different structures and categorisations produce different ways of viewing the same data. Corporate information assets need to be managed with the same rigor as financial assets. Communication Organisations delivering integrated electronic services must handle their information in a consistent manner. It is essential that all parties either speak the same language in their classification systems and metadata, or can readily translate between them. This is an area where the Local Government Classification Scheme, created as part of the Hertslink LGOL Project, plays an important role. One of the problems with referencing information is that we all tend to express our requirements in slightly different ways. For example, if a member of the public wants to know which day their dustbin should be emptied, how might they find the answer from the website? They might find the authority refers to ‘refuse disposal’, ‘dustbins’, ‘wheelie bins, ‘environmental cleansing’, ‘collection rounds’ or ‘waste disposal’. To link these alternatives to the term preferred within the Council a Knowledge Management system will use a thesaurus.

50

This is also an essential component for a customer contact centre. Using whatever keyword the member of the public chooses, the system should respond with the information the operator needs to satisfy the request. Many authorities have set a benchmark percentage for retrieving the correct information first time. Again this is a component that requires maintenance and management. Presentation Useful tools for the presentation of information to citizens, members and employees include maps, portals and graphics. Behind the scenes, the enterprise content management system will provide the appropriate information to populate the presentation that the citizen sees. Personalised information contributes to tackling information overload as illustrated below. Maps People are familiar with maps. They offer a simple means of delivering large amounts of complex data in an understandable way. Bringing up a map centred on the location of your choice, with overlays showing just the data that you require is a terrific way to make sense of information. The IDeA has identified three key data themes for information held by central and local government:

• Places — 85% of information is held by reference to an address • People — 75% of information is referenced by a person’s name, generally including an

address • Organisations — 35-40% of information is referenced by an organisation’s name, again

generally including an address. Citizens and elected members know well the geography of where they live, and their perspective on issues and problems is very much centred on their location. Elected members particularly appreciate having information about what is happening within their ward rather than having to trawl through information based upon individual departments or functions. Maps therefore are a familiar device for presenting complex but related data. Portals Definitions of the term ‘portal’ vary from simply ‘a website that allows access to other websites’ to ‘a website that allows access to variable content depending upon the wishes of the user’. It is the latter that we need to aim for because personalisation is an important factor in ease of use. We want Hertsmere’s residents and staff to be able to configure the website and intranet to work in the way that suits them best. It is hard to appreciate the significance of personalisation until you see it in action. When you can personalise an area of the web, it starts to feel more like ‘yours’ rather than ‘theirs’ and this has a subtle but beneficial effect. Rights / Security Information security is critical to the new ways of working outlined in this strategy. The management of information security risk will be integral part of normal business processes and this area is dealt with in a separate Information Security Strategy based on BS7799.

51

An information champion As in all major projects, implementing Knowledge Management requires a strong champion for the cause. The job demands leadership and political skills to unify and coordinate diverse and often conflicting interests. They will have to act in this demanding role for a significant amount of time. As case studies carried out by the IDeA reveal, the timetables for projects of this type are measured in years not months. So the champion will have to sustain energy and enthusiasm over a long period. Getting staff involved Having secured the hearts and minds of management, we need to mobilise the energy of the project team and the rest of the organisation. Whilst the strategy provides the broad approach to information management, tactically the project team needs detailed plans. These plans should provide a steady stream of business benefits which the champion and the team can use to demonstrate the benefits of their work. Citizens, elected members and all staff members will be involved in a consultative and collaborative capacity throughout the process. A Knowledge culture Building a knowledge culture is about getting employees to value information as a resource in the same way as they would other traditional resource such as money. Of course this isn’t easy and it requires:

• a long-term plan of approach which the top management team fully owns • a consistent, sustained message about the value of information • use of all available communication channels to promote the message • inclusion of knowledge skills as a competency within the authority’s management

competency framework • provision of suitable training • managers leading by example through their words and actions.

This is not just a matter of implementing a technology solution, it involves changing people’s attitudes to the way they work and the responsibilities that they have in relation to the information they hold and use. Culture changes notoriously take a long time to happen and an incremental approach is generally better than a big bang. Approaches and solutions While carefully planned and targeted software solutions are part of the answer the truth is that technology alone will never solve the problems. Shifting the balance A big part of the problem involves shifting the balance of where knowledge assets reside. Typically, most people tend to store their information in personally created areas either on network or local drives with only a small percentage ever published corporately. This situation makes the sharing and re-use of knowledge assets difficult and minimal. It is far better when most knowledge is stored at the organisation level, with only certain knowledge assets held at individual or team level.

52

By contrast, rather like the FoIA, we need to ask ‘is there any reason that this shouldn’t be published so that staff can see it?’ rather than ‘should we publish it?’. This will lead to a change in the way that both the web and the intranet are used. Diagram 5 illustrates the point:

Team TeamTeam Com

pany

Company

Indi

vidu

al

Individual

Sharing Sharing

NowNow

Vol

ume

Managed Information

FutureFuture

Vol

ume

TeamTeam TeamTeam Com

pany

Company

Indi

vidu

al

Individual

Sharing Sharing

NowNow FutureFuture

Vol

ume

Managed Information

Vol

ume

Team

Diagram 5: Shifting the balance of information storage

Firm foundations Information can’t be managed successfully without good design, detailed planning and a clear understanding of the organisation’s purpose and processes. We need a properly structured and accessible repository of Knowledge. This will allow information to be stored digitally, retrieved and used to maximum effect, with the minimum of effort. Integrated approach By maintaining and creating information in a more inclusive way, where departments work more closely together towards common or sympathetic objectives, an organisation can radically reduce medium-term costs and deliver far more consistent and usable Knowledge. Training and Support By ensuring that Knowledge is made available to support priority services, leaps in quality and effectiveness can be made towards performance and Knowledge delivery. In situations where processes and procedures exist in a variety of disparate styles, provided sometimes on paper and at other times in online format, and where there are multiple contributors and a lack of version control, consistency and purpose, then both staff and citizens suffer by struggling with unusable and inaccessible information.

53

Appendix 07 – Glossary of terms

ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voice band modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice telephone call. A splitter - or micro filter - allows a single telephone connection to be used for both ADSL service and voice calls at the same time. Because phone lines vary in quality and were not originally engineered with ADSL in mind, it can generally only be used over short distances, typically less than 5 km.

BIOS Basic Input/Output System. BIOS refers to the firmware code run by a personal computer when first powered on. The primary function of the BIOS is to identify and initiate component hardware, (such as hard drives, floppies, and CDs). This is to prepare the machine so other software programs stored on various media can load, execute, and assume control of the PC. This process is known as booting, or booting up, which is short for bootstrapping.

CRM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information.

DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a protocol used by networked computers (clients) to obtain IP addresses and other parameters such as the default gateway, subnet mask, and IP addresses of DNS servers from a DHCP server. The DHCP server ensures that all IP addresses are unique, e.g., no IP address is assigned to a second client while the first client's assignment is valid (its lease has not expired). Thus IP address pool management is done by the server and not by a human network administrator.

DMZ In computer security, a demilitarized zone (DMZ), more appropriately known as demarcation zone or perimeter network, is a physical or logical sub network that contains an organization's external services to a larger, untrusted network, usually the Internet. The purpose of a DMZ is to add an additional layer of security to an organization's Local Area Network (LAN).

DR Disaster recovery is the process of regaining access to the data, hardware and software necessary to resume critical business operations after a natural or human-induced disaster. A disaster recovery plan (DRP) should also include plans for coping with the unexpected or sudden loss of key personnel, the focus of which is data protection. DRP is part of a larger process known as business continuity planning (BCP).

ECM Enterprise Content Management is the term used to describe the fusion of Document Management, Web Content Management, electronic Records Management, Digital Asset Management, Collaboration and any other unstructured document requirement. This fusion is being led by vendors such as Open Text, Alfresco and Documentum. In essence you can control all of your document and content assets in such a system. These systems provide workflow technologies to allow for the development of processes through and between multiple, distributed enterprises. Native XML capabilities allow global companies and trading partners to leverage a platform�neutral standard for exchanging structured and unstructured e�business content. Since a lot of web content originates as documents it makes sound business sense to use only one system to satisfy both requirements. The technology which is found in document management systems has been extended to provide exactly the kind of system required to support mission critical applications for managing content across the global organisation. ECM is a technology that can be applied in organizations as small as 20�30 people and can address the needs of large global multi�national companies. The combination of these technologies into a single solution provides an organisation the ability to have a “single version of the truth” and hence concentrate on its key business rather than having to find and validate information. ECM can be used for a wide variety for tasks but its greatest value is its ability to enhance an organisation’s capacity to innovate. It reduces or eliminates barriers between people and information and increases their access to the collective intelligence of the organisation. Enabling organisations to develop new ideas, implement them, and bring new products and services to market faster and more efficiently. In some circles this technology combined with collaboration and enterprise thematic searching is often termed Knowledge Management.

GIS Geographical Information System (GIS) (also known as geographical information system, is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes which are spatially referenced to the earth. In the strictest sense, it is a computer system capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing, and displaying geographically-referenced information. In a more generic sense, GIS is a tool that allows users to create interactive queries (user created searches), analyze the spatial information, edit data, maps, and present the results of all these operations.

HTTPS https is a URI scheme used to indicate a secure HTTP connection. It is syntactically identical to the http:// scheme normally used for accessing resources using HTTP. Using an https: URL indicates that HTTP is to be used, but with a different default TCP port (443) and an additional encryption/authentication layer between the HTTP and TCP. This system was designed by Netscape Communications Corporation to provide authentication and encrypted communication and is widely used on the World Wide Web for security-sensitive communication such as payment transactions and corporate logons.

ILM Information Lifecycle Management is the practice of applying certain policies to the effective management of information throughout its useful life. This practice has been used by Records and Information Management (RIM) Professionals for over three decades and had its basis in the management of information in paper or other physical forms (microfilm, negatives, photographs, audio or video recordings and other assets). ILM includes every phase of a "record" from its beginning to its end. And while it is generally applied to information that rises to the classic definition of a record (Records management), it applies to any and all informational assets. During its existence, information can become a record by being identified as documenting a business transaction or as satisfying a business need. And while most records are thought of as having a relationship to business, not all do. Much recorded information may not serve a business need of any sort, but still serves to document a critical point in history or to document an event. Examples of these are birth, death, medical/health and educational records.

IMAP The Internet Message Access Protocol (commonly known as IMAP or IMAP4, and previously called Internet Mail Access Protocol, Interactive Mail Access Protocol (RFC 1064), and Interim Mail Access Protocol) is an application layer Internet protocol operating on port 143 that allows a local client to access e-mail on a remote server.

IPSec IPSec (IP security) is a suite of protocols for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and/or encrypting each IP packet in a data stream. IPSec also includes protocols for cryptographic key

54

establishment. KPI Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect

strategic performance of an organisation. In local government some of these may need to be reported as a statutory requirement.

LAN A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small geographic area, like a home, office, or group of buildings. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to Wide Area Networks (WANs), include their much higher data transfer rates, smaller geographic range, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines

PoE Power over Ethernet or PoE technology describes a system to transmit electrical power, along with data, to remote devices over standard twisted-pair cable in an Ethernet network. This technology is useful for powering IP telephones, wireless LAN access points, Network cameras, Ethernet hubs, embedded computers, and other appliances where it would be inconvenient, expensive (mains wiring must often be done by qualified and/or licensed electricians for legal or insurance reasons) or infeasible to supply power separately. The technology is somewhat comparable to POTS telephones, which also receive power and data (although analogue) through the same cable. It works with an unmodified Ethernet cabling infrastructure.

PSU A power supply (sometimes called a power supply unit or PSU) is a device or system that supplies electrical or other types of energy to an output load or group of loads.

RAID In computing, specifically computer data storage, a Redundant Array of Independent Drives (or Disks), also known as Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives (or Disks), (RAID) is an umbrella term for computer data storage schemes that divide and/or replicate data among multiple hard drives. RAID can be designed to provide increased data reliability and/or increased I/O (input/output) performance. A number of standard schemes have evolved which are referred to as levels. There were five RAID levels originally conceived, but many more variations have evolved, notably several nested levels and many non-standard levels (mostly proprietary).

SDSL Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) is a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) variant with E1-like data rates (72 to 2320 Kbit/s). It runs over one pair of copper wires, with a maximum range of about 3 kilometres. The main difference between ADSL and SDSL is that SDSL has the same upstream data rate as downstream (symmetrical), whereas ADSL always has smaller upstream bandwidth (asymmetrical). However, unlike ADSL, it can't co-exist with a conventional voice service on the same pair as it takes over the entire bandwidth. It typically falls between ADSL and T-1/E-1 in price, and is mainly targeted at small and medium businesses who may host a server on site,

SLA Service Level Agreement (SLA) is that part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined. SNMP The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) forms part of the internet protocol suite as defined by the

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). SNMP is used in network management systems to monitor network-attached devices for conditions that warrant administrative attention. It consists of a set of standards for network management, including an Application Layer protocol, a database schema, and a set of data objects.

SSL Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), is a cryptographic protocol that provide secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers.

UPS An uninterruptible power supply (UPS), also known as an uninterruptible power source or a battery backup is a device which maintains a continuous supply of electric power to connected equipment by supplying power from a separate source when utility power is not available.

VLAN A virtual LAN, commonly known as a VLAN, is a group of hosts with a common set of requirements that communicate as if they were attached to the same wire, regardless of their physical location. A VLAN has the same attributes as a physical LAN, but it allows for end stations to be grouped together even if they are not located on the same LAN segment. Network reconfiguration can be done through software instead of physically relocating devices.

VNC In computing, Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing system which uses the RFB protocol to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network.

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol, also called VoIP (pronounced voyp), IP Telephony, Internet telephony, Broadband telephony, Broadband Phone and Voice over Broadband is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network.

VPN A virtual private network (VPN) is a communications network tunnelled through another network, and dedicated for a specific network. One common application is secure communications through the public Internet, but a VPN need not have explicit security features, such as authentication or content encryption. VPNs, for example, can be used to separate the traffic of different user communities over an underlying network with strong security features.

WAN Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries). Or, less formally, a network that uses routers and public communications links.

SAN Storage Area Network (SAN) is a network of storage disks. A SAN connects multiple servers to a centralized pool of disk storage. Compared to managing hundreds of servers, each with their own disks, SANs improve system administration. By treating all the company's storage as a single resource, disk maintenance and routine backups are easier to schedule and control. In some SANs, the disks themselves can copy data to other disks for backup without any processing overhead at the host computers.

55

Appendix 08 – IT portfolio management

The Seven Pillars of Service Portfolio Success

THE SEVEN PILLARS OF SERVICE PORTFOLIO SUCCESS

Best Practices for Developing Your IT Service Portfolio

July 2007

Best Practices in IT Costing & Chargeback Solutions | Lontra 2007 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The true ambition of IT Service Portfolios is to standardize, integrate and manage all services delivered by IT and outsourcing providers across all departments and functions. This is accomplished through a single central repository from which IT can serve the needs of all departments and proactively manage the portfolio of IT Services. To ensure success and rapidly realize tangible benefits, IT organizations should not approach the implementation of a Service Portfolio as an “all or nothing” type of activity. The Seven Pillars of Success provide best practices and guide decision making needed to successfully harness a Service Portfolio during its life cycle, from planning through implementation and ongoing maintenance.

1. SUPPORT THE CIO’S NEED FOR VISIBILITY AND CONTROL Current regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA have a significant impact on the way IT operates. IT departments have to evolve towards “controlled” operations that will ultimately enable the CIO to sign-off on IT operations in the same way the CFO now must sign-off on financial operations. This move towards greater transparency requires IT to operate with a higher degree of visibility and predictability driving a more systematic audit process. The Service Portfolio should be used as a strategic tool for helping the CIO gain visibility and control over IT. The Service Portfolio can become the centralized reference for defining and documenting what IT does, the costs of IT activities, who is delivering which service to whom, how the services are delivered, and how well the IT organization is performing against set objectives.

Expert advice: Publish a view of the Service Portfolio that is tailored to the needs to the CIO and IT executives. Use it to give them a tangible tool for getting better visibility into IT. Also track the IT department’s overall degree of control by measuring the “percentage of IT operations that are performed per catalog” as a key metric. Follow-up by asking the CIO periodically whether he or she would feel comfortable signing-off on IT operations, and make corrections accordingly.

Using the Service Portfolio to improve visibility and the overall controllability of IT will not only make for a more informed and successful CIO, it will also help to build confidence in IT throughout the rest of the company.


2. INCORPORATE IT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND DEMAND PLANNING A Service Based IT Cost Management methodology provides companies with an efficient way to manage their IT costs through a combination of detailed unit cost calculations and distributed accountability for service consumption (customer) and service unit costs (provider). In other words, IT service providers become responsible for providing the demanded services at a competitive price, while IT service consumers are more accountable for the types and quantities of services that they demand, creating a customer-focused internal market place. Expert Advice: IT organizations need to understand the cost of delivering services to their customer so they can benchmark and trend their performance against industry standards. Without accurate unit costs, it is impossible for IT executives to determine if IT cost increases are due to increased delivery costs, or the increases in the demand for IT services. By establishing unit cost per service, forecast future service demand, communicating price to the consumer, and tracking cost trends and consumption metrics, IT decision makers can arm themselves with the information they need to make strategic decisions around service delivery. 3. FOCUS ON ONE OBJECTIVE AT A TIME The Service Portfolio can be used as a powerful IT management tool that delivers a wide range of benefits. However, trying to realize all of these benefits at once can put an implementation of the portfolio at risk. Don’t try to do everything at once—focus the initial Service Catalog implementation on a well-defined objective that you can implement in stages. Expert advice: Pick an objective that is of immediate interest and importance for IT management. Good examples include “understanding the true, total costs of delivering IT services” and, “defining in detail a specific set of services that are candidates for outsourcing.” Once the objective has been selected, initially focus on a specific and limited set of services, and then expand on them to satisfy the objective. After successfully reaching one objective, move on to the next one. Focusing on a specific objective will enable you to demonstrate value more rapidly, while at the same time simplifying the implementation of a Service Portfolio that will ultimately span the complete set of services delivered by IT.


4. ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION ACROSS THE IT ORGANIZATION A Service Portfolio that is not built with the support and participation of the entire IT organization is not only less likely to be successful; it may also suffer from inaccuracy due to a lack of important details. Resist “Ivory Tower” development efforts, and instead establish buy-in and encourage support and participation in catalog development throughout the entire IT organization.

Expert advice: Take a “middle outward” approach to publicizing and evangelizing the catalog. Initially target mid-level IT managers and have an experienced Service Portfolio author interview them and define a set of services that documents the manager’s key how the Service Portfolio relates to their day-to-day activities, most managers will recognize it as a useful tool for communicating the value of their department and for demonstrating the effectiveness of their team. Use those early adopters as champions to communicate the practical utility and value of the Service Catalog both upwards and downwards within the organization. Additionally, provide education at all levels of the organization. Allow everyone in IT, as well as key business representatives, to learn what the catalog is and how it is used to benefit both IT and the business. Building the Service Portfolio with the support and participation of the entire IT organization will result in a relevant, valuable, and widely used tool. 5. USE THE PORTFOLIO AS A CATALYST FOR STANDARDIZATION IT faces considerable challenges in the drive to become more proactive and service-oriented, and to eliminate ad-hoc activities through increased standardization. The Service Portfolio is not just an isolated repository of what is standard in IT; it can also be used as a tool to assist standardization efforts across the organization. Expert advice: Establish a metric for the percentage of overall IT operations that are captured in the service portfolio and delivered through the service catalog. Gather measurement data for individual groups or teams within IT, and publish the results widely. Along with the portfolio adherence metric, publish the benefits realized by each individual group. Track progress over time, reward high levels of standardization, and focus on areas where standardization is lacking. Remember that standardization doesn’t mean a lack of choice; it encourages the definition of services with a wide range of options, when required. Using the Service Portfolio as a means to increase standardization will have a direct impact on the predictability and repeatability of IT operations. It will facilitate increases in quality, operational efficiencies, and proactive cost management.


6. ADDRESS BOTH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL AUDIENCES Focusing the Service Portfolio solely on customer-facing services can result in a “black box syndrome”, where the portfolio is a good statement of what IT delivers externally, but lacks significant detail on how those services are delivered. View the Service Catalog as a general purpose tool for managing interactions between producers and consumers, whether those interactions take place within IT, between IT and the business units, or between IT and external providers and suppliers.

Expert advice: Define all services in the portfolio, including those that are provided to the business or consumed internally within IT, whether delivered internally or via an external service provider or supplier. Relate the services together when there are dependencies, for example when a businessfacing service is delivered using an external service provider. Publish different views of the catalog, each with a subset of content tailored to specific audiences: business units, individual employees, internal IT, IT management and executives. Defining services that are produced and consumed within IT will give deeper insight into the services that are provided to external customers. It will facilitate a more complete and accurate understanding of the total cost of delivering the business-facing services, and will provide a basis for understanding and managing critical dependencies that impact SLAs and the overall quality of service delivery.


7. EXPAND THE PORTFOLIO’S BREADTH AND DEPTH Enterprise IT departments can rival small companies in size, with thousands of employees and budget in the hundreds of millions. It is a challenge to track who is doing what, let alone understand where problems originate and where there are opportunities for increasing quality or decreasing costs. Over time, expand both the Service Portfolio’s breadth and depth of coverage to get as complete a picture of IT operations as possible. Expert advice: Capture depth by modeling services at both a “big picture” and “small picture” level, and by tying them together. For example, you can define a service that represents the support, maintenance, and administration of thousands of desktops, and a second service that represents support, maintenance, and administration of a single desktop. The former, “big picture” view is great for tracking overall costs and communicating with business units, but it loses information on individual behaviors that contribute to overall costs; the “small picture” view tracks nitty-gritty details, but doesn’t in itself provide insight into overall trends. The two can be tied together by using the sum of the “small picture” costs as a component of the “big picture” cost. Capture breadth by trying to account for 100% of the overall IT spend, even if at a high level. For example, be sure to capture overhead costs, as well as the cost of shared, core infrastructure. Expanding the Service Portfolio’s breadth and depth turns it into a powerful tool for tracking the “big picture” as well as for drilling down into the details to understand the underlying “how” and “why”. CONCLUSION By following these seven best practices, which have been tested and proven in the real world, companies can keep Service Projects projects on track and reduce the risk of project failure. A key point to remember is that deploying an IT Service Portfolio is not solely a technology initiative, but one that encompasses people, processes and organizational changes. Well-managed and successfull Service Portfolio projects will increase the level of sastifaction of IT customers, improve IT’s credibility with key business stakeholders and ultimately improve the alignment of IT with top business imperatives.
