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Rushcliffe Borough Council: Case Study - Independent Review of ICT

A project to review the capabilities of an ICT function in preparation for major decisions on collaborative provision of the ICT Service.

Knowing where to start

The IT infrastructure of the council, and the associated IT services staffing and organisation are a major enabler for the achievement of the Councils key strategic objectives. The senior management of the council required a ‘heads up’ assessment of the current state of the IT function and how it is aligned to the organisation’s vision and strategic direction so that gaps in capability and capacity could be identified and an action plan formulated.

Rushcliffe BC has recently undergone changes in the management of the IT function at a time of new challenges for the council. In particular there are plans in place for much closer collaboration between all local government organisations in Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands region, including enhanced 2-tier working and several shared service initiatives. 

Experienced help was at hand

Discovery

Modena agreed a set of target objectives with RBC senior management to focus the assignment on the key deliverable: Assessment of the capabilities of the IT function. The objectives were to:

  • Review current IT organisation, skills profile and capacity;

  • Review current IT Applications portfolio, IT strategy and investment plans;

  • Document and summarise high level business requirements for IT as derived from the service plans, targets and shared service initiatives and other strategic objectives;

  • Develop a ‘vision’ for IT support for the council that will inform a revision of the IT strategy.

To meet the objectives of the assignment, Modena undertook a number of interviews and meetings with key management and staff from the Service Areas and IT department.

The Service Areas were asked to contribute; Business plans and targets for the next 3 years; The impact of legislative changes and initiatives such as e-government on the structure and function of the business; The plans for partner working with other agencies; How IT is an enabler for these challenges; How well IT currently aligns with these requirements and areas where improvements may be planned or needed.

IT Portfolio

The current IT portfolio was catalogued and matched against the Modena model for a standard Application Architecture Framework in Local Government.

This architecture has been developed by us to provide a comprehensive framework of the components most local government organisations need to consider implementing to meet the challenges of Modernisation.









 ModenaJigsaw
RBCitdemand
 The IT Demand Model
 
 The IT function of the council is established to service the technology requirements generated from the normal business activity of the organisation. This creates a range of demands as summarised in the adjacent diagram.

The information gained from the interviews was rationalised to form a set of generic business requirements, initiatives and issues which need to be supported by the IT demand model.

Mapping the Architecture

The business requirements and initiatives were matched against the IT portfolio “as it is” thus identifying gaps which subsequently informed the “vision” for where the Application Architecture needed to be to support the future business. This is depicted by the diagram to the left.

The issues were organised into Organisational (management, skills, capacity, roles and responsibilities), IT (Applications Architecture) and Process (project commissioning process and resource management).

The analysis and rationalisation of the issues formed the basis for 10 recommendations. A plan was developed to deliver the recommendations.


 RBCarchdiag