Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Officer Resources & Chief Officer Commercial.

The Interim Chief Officer Commercial advised that the report outlined the full set of proposals on investment options required to maintain a stable and resilient ICT infrastructure. The Interim Chief Officer noted the three categories - Desktop estate; Network and telephony estate and Contract register and provided an overview of the work to be undertaken as outlined in the report.

At this juncture, the Chief Officer Resources provided an overview of the Capital and Revenue costs associated with the proposals. The Chief Officer Resources advised that the infrastructure investment proposals required an initial capital investment across the desktop and network estate of £464,000 in the first 2 years followed by an annual investment of £166,000 thereafter.

The recent desktop replacement programme for the initial tranche had been funded by reserves, however, this was no longer sustainable and it was therefore proposed that an annual allocation of £166,000 was agreed as part of the Council’s capital programme from 2021-22 onwards with the balance for years 1 & 2 (£132,000) funded from the ICT Reserve.

In terms of the Revenue Costs for the implementation of Teams Telephony & Contact Centre, it was reported that these are estimated to be £77,000 per annum, however this would be funded from the already established revenue budget for the existing services in place with these costs replacing the costs incurred on current services.

The Interim Chief Officer Commercial reported that no issues had been raised from the Corporate Overview Scrutiny Committee who had endorsed Option 1 for recommendation to the Executive.

The Leader noted the report and advised that this was a necessity as the Authority was playing a long term catch up as the infrastructure had been behind many local authorities. This have been highlighted over the last 12 months with more reliance on virtual working. This work would further benefit the different approaches the Council would take and allow for smooth implementation of any future changes.

The Deputy Leader concurred with the comments raised and advised that ICT warrants this review and ongoing reviews as it was an ever changing area. The Deputy Leader felt that going forward there would be monies available to support this area as it would open up greater possibilities.

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and Option 1; namely that the Executive considered the proposals and recommend the ICT infrastructure investment to Council for approval.