Hampshire County Council
	Cabinet
	28 April 2003
	IT and e-Government Annual Report
	Report of the Head of IT Services

Contact: Jos Creese, ext 7436

1. Introduction

1.1 This report shows the progress being made on the Council's e-government and IT plans. It identifies achievements for 2002/3, priorities for 2003/4, issues and opportunities, and IT finances. Its purpose is to brief chief officers and members.

1.2 An annual report on IT has not been produced for several years therefore this report is rather longer than normal. It can only give a flavour of the many activities underway, but tries to avoid being too selective - touching on many areas rather than detailing a few.

2. Management Summary

2.1 2002 has to some extent been a turning point in terms of e-government and IT strategy. The original intentions set out in the previous `IT2000 strategy' have been completed as planned and within budget, and have now embarked on a new programme which in many ways is even more ambitious.

2.2 In essence this includes:

· Delivering the new technologies to the `hard to reach' parts of the County Council - the small and remote sites where the economics and technology are most challenging;

· Extending the reach and range of IT services to other public service organisation, breaking down traditional organisational barriers and demonstrating the value of collaboration across boundaries;

· Making e-government a reality for the public and frontline services - helping to re-engineer traditional services methods and processes, and harnessing new technologies to deliver better services to the public.

2.3 Good progress is being made in these areas, and the emerging `e-government and ICT strategy' will set a vision and development plan in more detail. It will also help to ensure wider corporate understanding and support for any new IT investment plans.

2.4 Much remains to be done, and progress has not been without its difficulties. Major IT developments including IT2000 roll out, the Hampshire Public Services Network (HPSN), the SAP programme, mainframe rundown, regional e-government projects and developments in many other areas have put pressure on limited resources. Ongoing demands for IT support and development are also increasing. The scale of change makes problems unavoidable, and the task is to manage the risk, reduce the impact of problems, and ensure good communications exist with users of IT who may be affected.

2.5 There is a difficult balance to strike in meeting the demands of:

· Supporting legacy applications and systems which are still critical to many parts of the Council - `old' Hantsnet, residual financial systems, PROFS, Social Services systems, and much more;

· Bedding in and managing the on-going transition from the older technologies to the new technologies - e.g. HPSN, IT2000, SAP, email and many other smaller new services and IT functions;

· Putting in place the technology infrastructure necessary for the implementation of e-government plans - for example, security and authentication, transactional services on Hantsweb, GIS and document management;

· Extending the reach and range of new facilities to all parts of the Council and to partners, especially those smaller remote sites away from the Castle complex who have yet to benefit from the major change programmes above;

· Supporting organisational change programmes enabled by e-government and newer technologies (eg. ecommerce, relationship management, employee self-service);

· Meeting the growing demands of departments and partnership working for new technology and business solutions in a rapidly changing world, and to retain our position amongst the best local authorities.

2.6 It is arguable that IT has never been under such pressure to deliver. Managing the demands for new technology and organisational change against the need to maintain high quality operational services, puts pressure on IT resources - people, skills, time and, of course, funding.

2.7 In many ways, common sense dictates that the Council should consolidate the new technologies which that have been introduced before moving to the next level, but in reality this is not an option. A return on investment must be realised for the technologies that have been implemented over the last 2 years, and that means not only their exploitation but in many areas, their extension. For example, broadband networks and the IT2000 `thin client desktop' services will not realise their full potential until new transactional services run across them which support front line services.

2.8 The challenge is therefore to do all of this, but focusing on the things that matter most - the priorities that will have the biggest benefit to our public services or organisational effectiveness. This means that some desirable activities will need to wait if they have doubtful return on investment or less benefit. It also means that the Council continue to take on a higher level of risk than would normally be either acceptable or desirable.

2.9 With the continuing corporate commitment and support this can be achieved. That commitment and support is more than just recognising the size of the task and being patient when patience is needed. It is also about departments actively contributing their time and effort to achieve the outcomes that have been set, as part of service planning and management, and supporting the priorities and changes noted in this report. To this end I have made to all departmental management teams over the past year to discuss these priorities.

3. e-Government and IT Strategy

3.1 Implementing e-Government

3.1.1 For the last two years each local authority has been required to produce an `Implementing e-Government' (IEG) statement for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). This year ODPM required a much more detailed picture of how Councils intend to deliver the best value performance indicator BVPI157 of providing services electronically by 2005.

3.1.2 Over 98 authorities had their IEG statements qualified, and a further 23 were rejected, but the Council's statement (see IEG2) was accepted without referral, along with the performance indicator progress. Next year there may be a less onerous requirement as a result of the CPA `Excellent' rating.

3.1.3 A corporate e-government and ICT strategy is being developed which will incorporate the substance of the IEG statement to replace the former IT2000 strategy. Officers across the Council have been working together over the past months to develop a document ready for wider consultation in the spring, and drafts are being reviewed by the `e-Government and ICT Steering Group'. Whilst this has taken a little longer than had been hoped, the consultation and wider involvement it has permitted are very valuable in ensuring on-going commitment.

3.1.4 The work builds on the broad priorities and direction already agreed by CMT last year, and will:

· Show how the e-government programme contributes to the County Council's corporate aims - especially the close links to the Community Strategy;

· Show how the main IT priorities support the e-government programme;

· Provide a clear link between technology infrastructure investments which need to be made and the requirements for core business systems for departments and front line services;

· Include a plan and resource model for implementation.

3.1.5 In terms of progress towards delivery of all services electronically by 2005 (where possible) the County Council is behind the leading authorities, and potentially face an uphill struggle in the remaining 2-3 years. Departments are now taking ownership of the electronic government agenda, recognising that it needs to form part of service planning, to which they need to dedicate time, effort and resources. Each department is developing an e-government/IT plan which should:

· Link to corporate plans and strategies;

· Provide a bridge between IT and the businesses/services it supports;

· Look creatively at how technology can improve services and take forward the Council's core aims, linking to other corporate strategies;

· Show how BVPI157 targets will be met;

· Identify where partnerships are needed with other organisations to support wider e-government plans;

· Identify the key projects and resources necessary to deliver change.

3.1.6 Departments have committed to producing such plans by May 2003 following CMT endorsement of the need in May 2002.

3.2 The Needs of the Public

3.2.1 Internet technologies enable public services to reach out to citizens and communities. Access to the internet and email at home is still increasing fast and ecommerce is growing as a core businesses tool. According to MORI internet usage in Hampshire is now at 52%, above the national average (48%). 10% of Hampshire residents now state they would prefer to contact the County Council by email (compared with 11% preferring to contact the Council by letter and 12% in person), representing a very big increase.

3.2.2 The telephone is likely to remain by far the most significant way the public wish to communicate with local authorities, but in parallel a growth in demand for services delivered in other ways can be expected. This will place increasing pressure on the Council:

· Implementing and supporting new ways of delivering services, including how the existing methods are used(eg face to face and telephone);

· The need to address security and authentication (to be sure of who the Council are dealing with);

· Considering new channels of delivery, especially those getting much publicity but as yet with limited actual application (e.g. Digital TV, smart cards);

· Extending service hours availability, especially the IT service provision and support for front line services.

3.2.3 Notably, the Council's e-government plans must be integrated with the corporate strategy, service plans and our community strategy - e-government is not a separate stream of activity but `part and parcel' of the Council's aims and activities.

3.3 e-Government and Partnerships

3.3.1 Delivery of e-government aims relies on partnerships - partnerships with the private sector, other local authorities in the region, central government, public service agencies and most importantly our communities.

3.3.2 During the year Hampshire County Council bid, on behalf of the `Hampshire and Isle of Wight (HIOW) e-Government partnership', for partnership funding from central government. Our bid was successful and was awarded £2m. This has strengthened the partnership, and a number of joint projects have now been identified and are underway across the Hampshire region (see Appendix A).

3.3.3 These projects are important for a number of reasons. Not only do they support the Council's e-government aims of the Council, but the collaboration will position the County Council well in the debate regarding regional government.

3.3.4 The opportunity has also been taken to extend the partnership beyond the original local authority membership. It now includes the Strategic Health Authority and the Fire Service, and it is hoped to extend it still further. Linking e-government activities to Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) will be important, for example, in supporting developments in the community such as broadband implementation.

3.3.5 Projects need to be sustainable when the initial funding runs out, and it will be important to capitalise on the partnership's potential to achieve outcomes beyond the scope of our original bid which would be more difficult or more expensive to achieve by other means. This requires support and awareness across the County Council, identifying new in new joint projects.

4. Business Development and IT Projects 2002/3

4.1 A very large number of IT projects and initiatives have been undertaken during the year. Demands on IT have increased and departments are recognising that. IT is no longer just a support service, but integral to the best value and service improvement plans.

4.2 The full list of projects successfully undertaken through the year is too long to include here but have been covered in the regular electronic monthly IT Newsletter circulated widely across the Council. Highlights of the main project areas included:

4.3 IT2000

4.3.1 The original intentions by the end of 2002/3 were to roll out the new `thin client' IT2000 desktop services to 5000 desktops. In fact IT Services has delivered over 6250 desktops, this included more than 110 new sites in 2002/3. Some of these have proved complex, such as the links now in place to the Wales Outdoor Centre. Growth is slowing down, but there remains have a heavy workload now for 2003/4, and IT2000 is being delivered to other organisations such as the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.

4.3.2 The service availability has now stabilised and performance measures and customer satisfaction surveys both indicate that the same level of service availability and satisfaction is being achieved that had been enjoyed with the older Hantsnet mainframe environment. This is remarkable - indeed counter to predictions. Had earlier service problems continued, the pace of development would not have been sustainable.

4.4 Hantsweb/Hantsnet

4.4.1 During 2002/3 the new Hantsnet (`Hantsnet 2000') was redesigned and re-launched following discussions and usability testing across departments. This has resulted in improved navigation, and a more "active" home page which features a wider variety of news items. However, this should not be seen as a completed exercise. There is still scope for substantial improvement.

4.4.2 Hantsweb remains the busiest local authority website in the UK, with hits continuing to grow past the 5 million-a-month mark. An in-depth report commissioned from SOCITM highlighted the need to introduce far more transactional content into the website, allowing the public to interact with the Council. The number of online forms is beginning to grow, and this will be driven by departmental e-government plans and the needs of the public.

4.4.3 The planned introduction of `content management' software will simplify the task of creating and managing web content, and will help a re-design and re-structure of Hantsweb. Procedures have already been put in place to allow units with their own marketing identities to set up websites which reflect these styles, while still keeping to the core principles of usability, accessibility for all and corporate branding.

4.4.4 The Council is working closely with the HIOW e-government partnership to deliver a shared catalogue of public services by the end of 2003 (a first release was published this year), and with the voluntary sector organisations on co-ordination of the information about community groups currently held in the `Cousin' directory on Hantsweb.

4.4.5 The Hantsweb Awards, recognising the achievements of Hampshire-based websites, were presented in October and generated a considerable media interest, helping to highlight the need for useful and usable websites and the Council's role in encouraging this. The award competition will be run again this year.

4.5 HPSN

4.5.1 The Hampshire Public Service Network (HPSN) continues to grow fast, and by the end of 2002/3 will have connected over 1000 sites to broadband, including nearly 500 schools. The first phase of this programme - to replace the County Council's old IBM network concluded this year, with the final cancellation of the older lines. HPSN is also supporting the `People's Network' in Libraries, and the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) in schools.

4.5.2 HPSN remains central to the Council's e-government plans. It is as much to do with connecting external public sector agencies together as it is to do with ensuring that the County Council itself has broadband services.

4.5.3 During the year all district and unitary authorities in Hampshire partnership have adopted HPSN. SEEDA is proposing HPSN as a potential NHS network solution, and has provided a grant of £150,000 for a number of further HPSN related projects. IT Services are working with Wired Winchester Ltd to explore the possibility of HPSN being used for private sector as well, and beginning to look at the possibility of using HPSN as a backbone for community broadband services.

4.5.4 As these initiatives bear fruit and draw in new funding and as HPSN grows, so the cost of broadband for all HPSN partners can be driven down.

4.6 Corporate IT Training

4.6.1 It is important to ensure that the Council has an IT literate workforce in order to exploit the benefits of the technology investment, and to integrate the e-government plans into service improvement and community plans. This requires a re-evaluation of recruitment requirements, linked to corporate IT training programmes and their adoption - all employees need basic IT skills.

4.6.2 Benchmarks comparisons for IT indicate that the Council spends relatively generously on corporate IT training compared with other local authorities, but the perceived value is lower than the average. Several years back the it was recognised that this was an area requiring improvement, and during this year an IT client manager has been appointed to focus on the problem.

4.6.3 Building on work commissioned from Bloor Research in 2001/2 and on the terms of reference agreed by CMT, the Corporate IT Training client is working with Personnel and Training to:

· Coordinate a review of corporate training needs and facilities;

· Develop a corporate awareness campaign to promote IT training;

· Undertake IT training audits where commissioned by departments;

· Coordinate the arranging and brokering of IT training supply with training partners.

4.6.4 Notably, an on-line `training portal' is being built in Hantsnet and will be launched by the summer 2003 for general use. This development, being undertaken with Hampshire Training Solutions, will bring together a range of training resources and contacts.

4.7 Extension of email

4.7.1 Email is probably the most heavily used application. The Microsoft "Exchange" email system is now rolled out to all IT2000 users and IT Services is working with departments to migrate all PROFS (mainframe email) users to the new technology.

4.7.2 One of the successes of 2002 was the rollout of Exchange to all administration staff and head teachers in education using the internet web browser based `outlook web access' (OWA) product. This provides a broad base on which to continue to build a fully integrated email system for all teachers across the county. IT Services is now looking at ways of further increasingly email functionality for schools where this is required.

4.7.3 Email is now so popular that storing vast quantities of emails is becoming a challenge of its own. This is being addressed by a project to introduce lower cost archive storage mechanisms.

4.8 SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

4.8.1 The Enterprise Project represents a major undertaking for the County Council, primarily aimed at replacing financial, procurement and HR systems with modern integrated SAP systems. Despite earlier problems that resulted in some overrun on the original plan, considerable progress has been made over the last 12 months. As a result, the Enterprise Project Team has successfully:

· Implemented the last of the County Council's payrolls in SAP;

· Implemented HR modules including recruitment, training and employer relations;

· Revised the strategy, design and build of the devolved financial and HR facilities;

· Consolidated the support for the back office systems.

4.8.2 The Enterprise Project Team is now also largely self-sufficient, having concluded the original partnership arrangements with Price Waterhouse Consulting (PWC) for support. More remains to be done, and over the next 12 months trialling and rolling out of the devolved finance and HR facilities will continue as well as the continuing replacement of related older mainframe applications.

4.8.3 SAP has greater potential use. It will be important, as the original project moves towards a conclusion, to integrate SAP into the mainstream of strategic IT management and development to ensure that it can be considered as a `tool set' of choice wherever this is appropriate.

4.9 Mainframe Rundown

4.9.1 Part of the move to newer technologies includes the replacement of legacy mainframes, which have served us so well in the past. This is a long and complex programme of work. Plans predict a completion date of April 2005. Despite some slippage as a result of SAP implementation delays, this has not affected the overall rundown programme.

4.9.2 There has been good progress over the past 12 months towards the decommissioning of the applications running on the mainframes. The SAP Enterprise (Finance, HR and Procurement) and SWIFT (Social Care) projects have plans to replace existing corporate and Social Services applications by the planned cessation dates, and departments have also made good progress in planning replacement or decommissioning of other applications. Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils are both running applications on the mainframes and have now either implemented replacement programmes are on track to do so.

4.9.3 Over the year, 80 of the 92 applications running under the MVS operating system have been replaced, and it is expected to have all MVS applications decommissioned by the summer 2003. There are over 90 Oracle applications on the mainframe, and currently 26 are now ready for decommissioning; the rest are planned but require more work. This progress is enabling us to gradually decommission some of our older software such as FORTRAN, COBOL, CICS and UFO running under MVS, and so gradually reduce the software licences.

4.9.4 Additionally, of the 355 old IBM SNA network lines active in April 2002, over 340 have now been replaced and cancelled, offsetting HPSN costs, and the rest will be cancelled before year end.

4.10 Geographic Information Systems

4.10.1 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) form an important part of the Council's core information resources, and the need to make greater corporate progress has been recognised. During the year IT Services has been working closely with the Environment Department and have developed new facilities on Hantsnet ranging from searching for locations in Hampshire through to providing mapping systems available to the specialist user. Recently a set of tools has been made available to web page developers to enable maps to be incorporated into the web pages of departments.

4.10.2 Additionally, IT Services has developed a way of offering specialist GIS services across the IT2000 platform allowing departments to use specialist GIS services in locations remote from the Castle complex. Discussions are also being held with the NHS about a more widespread joint use of GIS data and facilities, run on a joint funding basis.

4.10.3 The HIOW e-Government partnership is developing a joint approach to the use of the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) information. Whilst this is in its early stages, project developments look promising and will add further stimulus to the Council's own internal GIS developments

4.11 Visit Hampshire

4.11.1 The Visit web service provides electronic tourism information, and helps to improve the sales and marketing of tourism products and services. It provides reliable, up to the minute and easy to use information via a shared database and interactive facilities for leisure and business tourism.

4.11.2 Originally developed with the help of European grants under the European Regional Development Programme (Information Society) the Visit partnership includes the local authorities in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, West Sussex and East Sussex. To date, a total of 21 local authorities have subscribed to the Visit partnership, covering 42 tourist information centres and supporting over 3500 tourism outlets.

4.11.3 During 2002 Visit has become fully operational, and has now become recognised locally, regionally and nationally as an exemplar for electronic systems to support tourism across the public and private sectors.

4.11.4 Earlier this year the South of England Economic Development Agency (SEEDA) chose Visit as their preferred tourism marketing and management system for the South East Region, and SEEDA has contributed £268k towards rollout costs. In addition, a joint partnership agreement was established with the Southern Tourist Board to promote and support the roll out of Visit to new partners. It is hoped that a further 20 local authorities will join Visit in 2003/4, supporting around 8000 tourism Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

4.12 SWIFT and Social Services Direct

4.12.1 Over the last 18 months IT Services has been working closely with Social Services to select a social care information system package and supplier. A contract was successfully negotiated with Anite for the supply of their package "SWIFT". It was always planned to select a supplier that will deliver a market leading package, along with hardware and software, that the Council can then be developed further in conjunction with the supplier.

4.12.2 The contract was formed to allow other public bodies to join. Portsmouth City Council has decided to go with the same system as Hampshire - recognising the benefits that this collaboration will bring (greater influence with NHS partners, cost sharing of data migration, training, support, disaster recovery, risk sharing, joint development, greater influence with the supplier etc). There is strong interest from Isle of Wight. Southampton City Council has decided to take an alternative route.

4.12.3 A "development partnership" with Anite has been agreed, whereby IT Services will develop additional functionality (eg. integration with Outlook) that will then become part of the core package supported by Anite. The development work is funded by Anite through discounts on the SWIFT software. Anite recognise the strategic opportunities and potential in health and social care systems in Hampshire. From the County Council's point of view, the partnership means that some funding is received towards developments that the Council would have needed to undertake, and the assurance that they will be maintained in the longer term as part of the core product. A phased implementation throughout 2003 and 2004 will keep the SWIFT project team very busy.

4.12.4 In addition IT Services have been working with Social Services in developing a Social Services Direct `contact centre' service, enabling close inter-agency working within health and social care teams . This will help deliver seamless services to the community to overcome organisational boundaries and barriers by joining up professional processes and IT infrastructures. With this in mind there are a number of joint initiatives with the Strategic Health Authority and other NHS agencies which support this:

· Integrated electronic health and social care records;

· Social Services Direct link to NHS Direct;

· Initiatives to join up HPSN to local NHS networks and to the national NHS network;

· Joint mental health system initiative.

5. IT Performance

5.1 Despite recent power failures, IT service availability has been high over the year, our Service Level Agreement (SLA) targets have been met, and the IT2000 services are now as reliable as Hantsnet used to be. However, the recent power failure has indicated a potential vulnerability and a project is being instigated to look at measures to increase the protection against power failure in particular.

5.2 HPSN has delivered variable quality in some areas, and the SLA has not been met consistently. Unisys have put in considerable effort to correct this, and performance measures indicate clear improvement.

5.3 The Help Desk continues to serve users well based on sample surveys, and is dealing with over 65,000 calls each year.

5.4 This year, in addition to routine performance measures, two independent external best value assessments have been commissioned:

· A Customer Satisfaction Survey of IT, undertaken by the Wolverhampton Business School on behalf of the Society of IT Managers (SOCITM);

· A national benchmarking review. So far over 150 local authorities have been through this process so there is a good reference base of comparison. This was also conducted through SOCITM.

5.5 These are based around twelve IT Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which are becoming de facto standards for local Authority IT performance measurement.

5.6 Overall user satisfaction was shown in a very favourable light compared with the other councils who had previously undertaken the survey, despite inevitable problems affecting end users associated with the programme of IT changes which have been introduced. The Council frequently appeared in the top set of comparisons, and were well above average in all categories.

5.7 However, the findings indicated some areas for improvement. Users were not satisfied with the level of their participation in the planning of new systems and developments, probably reflecting the amount of technology change introduced in a relatively short space of time. Effectiveness of IT training was also seen as an improvement area, and is covered elsewhere in this report.

5.8 Comparisons in all areas of the benchmark survey were not possible due to the way some performance data is currently recorded. It was also found that some measures were difficult to equate to IT Services technology base - for example the `thin client' technology and scale of broadband investment are unusual and do not yet permit easy comparisons on performance or costs. However, the exercise was useful and data capture methods are being adjusted for future comparisons.

5.9 In terms of strengths, the success rate in IT projects compared with others was high in terms of delivery to time, budget and quality. The Council has also achieved a high level of employee access to the web and email, and also access to the intranet (Hantsnet) for office based staff- though still not high enough.

5.10 Whilst the Council's spend per head of the population is relatively low, it is only average per employee and as a proportion of total council budget. This reflects the major IT capital programme being undertaken, and these figures will need re-examining once these IT programmes conclude, to be ensured the underlying IT running costs remain amongst the lowest.

5.11 PC procurement costs also seem high, and this needs investigation. It maybe that we are not comparing `like with like' - our IT2000 architecture has slightly higher acquisition costs but reduced running costs by its nature. There are indications that the approach being adopted by the Council is yielding lower running costs than average others, but more time is needed to be confident of this, and the sample size was small.

5.12 The Council appears to have a comparatively high number of IT professionals overall, but it is suspected that this is because IT professionals working in departments have been included, and others have not done the same. The Council also has higher numbers of IT Staff at present supporting the major technology projects (e.g. SAP).

5.13 The Council spend below the average on training of IT professionals - again this might reflect the pressure on IT professionals which has reduced the time for training, and we need to review this, but given our reliance on key IT staff this needs to be reviewed. Members training was also relatively low in the period of the survey - well below the median number of hours.

5.2 Monthly Survey of Customer Satisfaction

5.2.1 In addition, IT Services has have redesigned our monthly random electronic survey of customer satisfaction, using an electronic forms-based tool. This reaches 500 IT users each month - 6000 every year, with over 40% response rate.

5.2.2 The results have shown an increase in satisfaction over the year, especially with IT2000 largely because of increased stability and realisable value of the newer technologies now in place.

The broad results are consistent with the independent review.

6. e-Democracy and Members' IT

6.1 During the year a number of members' workshops on IT have been held led by Cllr. Baulk, the members e-champion. The recent series of workshops was held primarily to help in the development of a members' IT plan, which is expected to be completed by May 2003.

6.2 Additionally, it will be important that to ensure that consultation with members on the e-government and IT strategy, through the member e-champion.

6.3 Members can also help greatly on the implementation of various parts of this strategy, especially in forging links with other public services organisations which support the Council's e-government objectives. The thematic nature of e-government and IT mean that members are well-placed to help ensure these plans form part of other plans of the Council.

6.4 As part of our e-government plans and in order to ensure the effective operation of the new constitution, it was agreed two years ago that all members should be provided with updated IT facilities. The aim of this was not only to speed up the flow of information to and from members but also to provide members with access to the internet and with tools that would help them with their constituency work.

6.5 During the last year a laptop service has been provided to Members. To date 95% of members are now on-line at home and can be contacted by e-mail.

6.6 During the series of recent focus groups chaired by the member e-champion a number of areas for development were identified, these included:

· Making better use of electronic communication and reducing paper where possible;

· Investigating ways of delivering cost effective means of high speed connection to Hantsnet to allow for increased use to be made of the system;

· Developing a mail alert system for Members on areas of interest (both subject and geographically based);

· Maximising the benefits that can be gained from using the existing technology by more training.

These together with a number of other ideas will form the basis of the IT Plan for Members referred to above.

6.7 The Council is tackling the opportunities of electronic democracy at a number of levels:

· Bringing new electronic process and tools to support members, democratic services, policy and decision making, and information management;

· Encouraging local organisations to use the web by providing support and assistance via Hantsweb. This has been developed further through our first "Hantsweb Awards" which recognised excellence and innovation in Hampshire-based websites;

· Developing the County Council's electronic consultation mechanisms through Hantsweb and using market research and its Citizens' Panel ("Hampshire Listens"). This has helped to gauge the public preference for communication and consultation via the web.

6.8 The County Council is currently carrying out a Best Value Review of Democratic Services part of which is addressing the issue of County Council elections and democratic renewal through the ballot box. Underpinning all best value reviews is e-Government and the use of new technology. It is likely that a range of initiatives will come out of this review.

7. Management and Organisational Arrangements

7.1 Organisational Arrangements

7.1.1 IT needs continually to re-evaluate the way it organises itself to ensure it can adapt to the emergence of new technologies, the changing needs of the services it supports, and the demands placed on it by IT change programmes such as SAP.

7.1.2 During the year IT Services have been adjusted as follows:

· The `Professional Services' group has become a `Consultancy & Business and Solutions' group, focusing on developing partnerships as well as translating business and service needs of the County Council into technical solutions. A new manager has been recruited from the private sector to run the group;

· The `Corporate Client' group has been re-titled as the `e-Government and Corporate IT' group, still undertaking its previous IT client activities, but with a new emphasis on e-government developments. A senior manager in the group leads on the e-government programme of the County Council, and another supports the wider HIOW e-government programme on behalf of the partnership;

· The role of the `e-Government and ICT Steering Group' has been updated, replacing the previous IT2000 Steering Group. The changes are in line with recommendations made by the District Auditor to strengthen the Council's e-government programme and management arrangements. The Group leads and directs e-government and IT developments on behalf of CMT.

7.1.3 In addition, evaluation is underway to look at the wider IT professional group and create stronger yet more flexible arrangements in departments in support of e-government:

· Creating more consistency and flexibility in the way IT professionals are managed and deployed in meeting the needs of e-government and IT requirements across the Council;

· Reaffirming the importance of the separation of internal IT supplier functions in the interest of best value;

· Integrating SAP IT professionals back within IT Services to support the development of future SAP (and other Enterprise' related projects) on a corporate basis;

· Strengthening the role of departmental IT specialists in supporting organisational change associated with e-government projects.

7.1.4 Other IT groups have also been reassessed to ensure they best meet the needs of the County Council for swift and effective decision making on IT matters, and new structures agreed by the `e-Government and ICT Steering Group'.

7.2 Investors in People

7.2.1 After not quite making the grade for the first IT Services IiP assessment in 2001, the department worked hard to improve internal communications and management arrangements, and were pleased to achieve accreditation the second time round in 2002. IT managers will continue to work with staff to ensure our accreditation is maintained.

7.2.2 Recruitment and retention remains a key concern, despite improvements in the market place since the `millennium bug' which should have improved the situation. The risk of losing key IT personnel or not being able to recruit at this level is serious if the Council is to stand any chance of delivering e-government and IT plans. This is an ongoing challenge.

7.3 Private/Public Partnerships

7.3.1 IT Services aims to maintain a strong team of in-house IT professionals, and believe this is the right approach at present. Not only has it served us well in ensuring IT professionals have an understanding of the business of the County Council, but it has also enabled costs to be contained.

7.3.2 However, the department is not averse to private sector involvement and IT Services has a strong culture of working with the private sector especially where this can improve service quality or reduce costs (e.g. commodity services - network installation and management, hardware maintenance, partnership on system integration etc). HPSN alone represents nearly a third of IT Services total annual spend, and is run as a managed service by Unisys.

7.3.3 At the same time in-house IT expertise for project management, change management and consultancy has been strengthened over the last two years. This is consistent with industry trends where the reliance on external contractors and consultants has reduced in order to reduce costs and retain control of critical projects. What matters is getting the right mix of services at the right price and on the right basis. Despite problems with HPSN for example, the same level of change could not have been achieved without the Unisys partnership. Yet for both IT2000 and SAP we had to bring back in-house elements of activities that were found to be better operated in-house than by private sector partners and at a lower cost.

7.3.4 As the IT marketplace develops new models are emerging where supply chains are increasingly unclear. Indeed, the Council is are already providing e-government services for external public sector organisations, and they are doing the same for us. And the private sector is providing bits of each. New partnerships with other public service organisations may also allow us to create new ways of jointly collaborating, more along a co-operative model of service provision.

7.4 Recruitment and Retention

7.4.1 IT Services continues to find it very difficult to recruit and retain skilled IT professionals despite apparent improvement in the marketplace. A recent review conducted independently for the Council has confirmed that IT salaries remain well below the average in the marketplace, especially at senior levels, and the gap has increased over the last two years.

7.4.2 Notably, the Council is reliant on a relatively small number of specialists leading our main IT programmes, and experience of recruitment at this level during the past 12 months has proved very hard indeed. A separate report is being prepared with the head of Personnel and Training on this.

8. Priorities for 2003/4

8.1 Managing the `Old' and the `New'

8.1.1 The Council will continue to have to manage the transition between `the old' and `the new' technologies. Many parts of the Council and some of our partners continue to rely on the mainframe environment, and it is inevitably a struggle to balance the need to continue to develop new technologies whilst supporting the old, with existing resources. This means that the sooner it is possible to migrate from the older technologies the better, but it is dependent on major programmes of work such as SAP and the Social Services SWIFT systems. Migration from old Hantsnet to new Hantsnet alone represents a major corporate programme of work.

8.1.2 Growth of IT2000 will continue, though at a less demanding pace, and new ways of connecting will emerge suitable for smaller organisations. Developing the basic `Office' tools (Word, Excel, Zip, etc) will be part of this, ensuring the base level set delivered to all is sufficiently comprehensive

8.1.3 Departments need to be regularly reminded that the cost of IT2000 has been spread over 5 years, and the charges reflect that. As the end of that period is reached, it may be possible to reduce charges to move closer to the on-going cost base. However, at the same time new costs of machine and technology upgrade will be incurred which will undoubtedly limit this capacity.

8.1.4 HPSN will remain a major challenge, not just in ensuring the Council has the capacity to support growth, but also in dealing with service management problems. However, the old network will be replaced entirely by the start of 2003/4.

8.1.5 The SAP Enterprise Project is moving closer to a conclusion against the original project objectives. The current management arrangements whereby the Enterprise Project operates as a separate department, have served us well, given the scale of the development and the importance of the project not being seen as an `IT project'. It will be necessary to re-integrate business support back into departments and SAP IT with the mainstream of IT service management, administration and support to avoid duplication. This will help prepare the ground for unlocking the potential of SAP as a corporate toolset. For 2003/2004 there is a clear priority to continue the Enterprise Project to its conclusion, focusing especially on the business realisation programme and the introduction of on-going support and charging mechanisms, whilst bringing in arrangements to manage new developments and provide on-going support.

8.2 Supporting Small Sites and External Organisations

8.2.1 The focus during 2002/3 has shifted towards the needs of staff not located in the Winchester Castle complex. This will continue to be a priority - delivering the same (or nearly the same) quality of IT facilities to staff located in small sites and in partner organisations.

8.2.2 These IT solutions must be affordable and represent best value, and this requires us to look at alternative methods to meet some needs, especially reducing `entry level' costs. For this reason a number of new tools have been examined, including a product called `NFuse' which can deliver Hantsnet and applications such as SAP in a way which looks like IT2000, but avoids IT2000 desktop costs (eg. using existing equipment) which will be attractive to external partners.

8.2.3 Whilst the functionality and overheads of some of these new technologies may be lower, it will be important that parts of the Council do not become disenfranchised as a result of poorer quality services delivered to remote sites. Such solutions must be scalable as requirements from smaller sites grow (e.g. in terms of the tools delivered such as, network bandwidth etc) without throwing away investments. Such services also need to contribute on an equitable basis to legitimate internal overheads.

8.2.4 Corporately it is important to encourage greater access to electronic services - availability of screens, access to Hantsnet, adoption of electronic communication, targeting of IT training, and so forth. These aspects need to be considered in Departmental e-Government and IT plans already discussed in this report, and the costs over the next few years of meeting these needs to be clearly identified by departments.

8.3 Supporting Schools

8.3.1 Our IT support to schools is an important area and it warrants a section on its own. This priority reflects both the importance of schools as IT customers, and also that these services have in some aspects fallen some way short of schools' expectations.

8.3.2 During 2002/3 IT Services has worked particularly closely with the Education IT department, EdICT to develop a different approach to service provision, focusing more on how teachers, parents, governors and pupils see County Council services. This has identified not only a range of projects which are believed to be needed, but specific priorities for improvements to current services.

8.3.3 Discussions with head teachers and education specialists indicates that schools do generally want to work with the LEA and they do want to buy IT services from the County, but this depends on a number of factors:

· Providing IT services and describing those services in ways which really reflects the needs of schools (e.g. reducing administrative burdens, making ICT support in the classroom better for pupils, improving inter-school and other communications etc);

· Demonstrating value for money for IT solutions so there can be no doubt in the minds of heads and governors that the Council provides benchmarked value, and predictable future charges to assist with budgeting;

· Having a clear (and consistent) vision of where the Council IT activities are leading, recognising in that vision the current and future needs of schools;

· Helping to reduce the risk of IT investment by helping schools avoid some of the pitfalls of buying technology or service contracts directly from suppliers which subsequently become defunct;

· Joining up information systems services in ways which make them easier to use, and less likely to require schools to spend on their own IT consultancy to do the same;

· Improving our IT support to schools, integrating the various Council IT supplier functions more closely together ensuring consistency in advance and clarity on `who does what';

· Ensuring that schools feel in control of all this, rather than feeling forced to operate in a particular fashion dictated by the County Council.

8.3.4 None of these is impossible to achieve, and progress is being made. However, more remains to be done, and we need to put in more effort to avoid schools `doing their own thing' with significant consequences in terms of costs and lost opportunities for `life long learning' (for example).

8.4 Development of Hantsweb

8.4.1 Hantsweb is now in urgent need of redevelopment. It remains one of the most successful and certainly the biggest public service website nationally, but it is falling behind:

· Relatively few online transactions for the public;

· Parts of its underlying technology (e.g. information management tools and search engines) are old and ineffective;

· Its design is out of date;

· Speed of innovation and change has slowed;

· A recent national survey of local authority web sites puts us in the top set of Counties, but for the first time not in the top set of all local authorities.

8.4.2 This has been inevitable with the other major programmes of change over the last 2-3 years, but it now requires urgent attention. An aggressive development programme is being put in place over the coming year, including:

· Content management tools implementation

· Catalogue of Services development

· Hantsweb design and restructure

· Search engine review

· Hantsweb awards

8.4.3 In addition IT Services will be working with departments to stimulate developments based on national best practice to increase transaction services for community use.

8.5 Development of Hantsnet

8.5.1 Hantsnet is now running in two environments - the old mainframe environment (text based - the version the Council has had for many years) and the new IT2000 environment (an internal `web site'). As we migrate from our mainframes `old' Hantsnet must be replaced with `new' Hantsnet. This is much more than simply extending the access to IT2000. Whilst the new version of Hantsnet links to the `old' Hantsnet information, it has not yet replaced the variety of smaller systems such as the `fast paths' in `old' Hantsnet. This will probably take at least 2 years.

8.5.2 Additionally, the distinction between `old' and `new' Hantsnet, `Hantsnet2000' and `IT2000' has become confusing, and it is important to get back to simply talking about `Hantsnet' as the gateway to all electronic services and information for the County Council and trusted partners - our `intranet'. The fact that Hantsnet is running it on newer technology has not changed the underlying vision or values of Hantsnet. IT2000 is simply the technology at the desktop which enables access.

8.5.3 Some of the tools and technologies being acquired to address Hantsweb development (e.g. Content Management) will be considered for the information management and publishing requirements of Hantsnet. This will be important not just to reduce training and support costs, but to make controlled information sharing between public and secure access areas easier.

8.5.4 In the enthusiasm to exploit the new capabilities in Hantsnet it is important to restrain ourselves. Unnecessary use of graphics, backgrounds, personalisation of emails, use of attachments when electronic links would be better, etc., not only result in a very ragged corporate appearance, but can make access by those on lower speed lines (e.g. home workers and those at remote sites) infuriatingly slow. It can also create unnecessary pressure of storage and network bandwidth which will gradually drive up our costs. This will be a matter for Corporate Communications and IT Services to consider together, but for departments to enforce. Once again, corporate IT training needs to make staff aware of the potential pitfalls as well as the benefits of newer technologies.

8.5.5. Making the migration complete and reaffirming the principles and the vision of Hantsnet will be priorities for the next couple of years in this area.

8.6 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

8.6.1 Unlocking the corporate potential from geographic information systems remains a priority. It is important that corporate data, information and tool sets are widely available, yet core users such as those in the Environment Department can continue to feel real ownership.

8.6.2 It has been agreed with the Environment department that a team of GIS specialists will transfer to IT Services to work together to unlock this potential.

8.7 Flexible Working

8.7.1 More flexible working arrangements represent a priority for most organisations. This is not just about supporting more flexible working arrangements for Council staff and members who need to access electronic services and information from multiple locations. The general public expect to be able to conduct business with us at their convenience and where appropriate electronically. School pupils need to access work electronically from home as well as the classroom. Partner organisations (the NHS, suppliers, district councils etc) need access to Council systems and electronic communications.

8.7.2 Achieving these aims requires more open and flexible access to systems and information, yet at the same time it is necessary to protect confidentiality and be confident about the identity of individuals who are accessing our systems and information. This is especially true of electronic transactions with the public.

8.7.3 A project is being set up to consider the Council's requirements during 2003/4 driven by e-government plans.

8.8 Application Support and the Help Desk

8.8.1 A couple of years ago the IT2000 Steering Group determined that the capability of the Help Desk was extended to provide application support - especially for Microsoft Office tools. In practice this has not yet been heavily used, and it will be important to ensure achievement of good value for money from this investment (or abandon the development).

8.8.2 There appears to be a genuine need, but the service has not been well used, perhaps because it has not been well enough publicised. Over the coming year therefore it is intended to link this and raise awareness with the Corporate IT Training portal described elsewhere in this report, and review again in 12 months (2004/5).

8.8.3 Over the last year the regular monthly IT satisfaction survey indicates that the Help Desk is performing well and generally deliver a high quality service which meets the needs of IT users. It therefore should form a good basis for developing support services still further in this way.

8.9 HIOW e-Government Partnership Projects

8.9.1 The jointly run projects sponsored by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight (HIOW) e-Government partnership will be critical in the coming year, not least that the money then runs out! More importantly, these projects are central to delivery of our wider e-government aims and those of the Council's partners. 2002/3 has been largely taken up getting the partnership formally constituted, the projects set up and endorsed, and forging ahead where momentum already existed. 2003/4 will concentrate on delivery in all areas as described in Appendix A.

8.9.2 Strategically, it must be a priority to introduce further projects which will form the building blocks for longer term collaboration. It remains to be seen whether the strength of the partnership and its success based on external funding will be enough to encourage all parties to contribute from their own budgets in the future to ensure its on-going survival. It is certainly in the Council's interest that this should be the case.

8.9.3 Development of partnership arrangements generally will require IT Services to re-evaluate IT licensing arrangements to ensure the maximum flexibility to allow technology to be shared. Examples include not only our Microsoft tool set, but also applications such as electronic forms, social care systems and financial systems. As a principle, all new contracts will permit wider adoption to create the maximum possible flexibility for e-government partnerships.

8.10 Extending IT Support and Increasing Availability

8.10.1 IT Services has provided limited IT service support 24 hours a day 365 days a year for a long time. This has been largely achieved by increasing the skills of the out of hours operational cover teams to become an extended `help desk', and ensuring call out arrangements exist for key IT specialists for when more complex problems occur. The support is funded as a marginal cost to other IT services through normal recharges, to avoid the complexities (and debate) about which specific service place the most demands on out of hours activities. These arrangements have served well, but are increasingly inadequate as demands for new service levels grow.

8.10.2 Staff working at home, members, the extension of the availability of Council services generally, the needs of partner organisations being supported and even the public using electronic services directly (e.g. through Hantsweb) all demand higher levels of support at weekends and outside normal office hours.

8.10.3 Whilst providing full support for every IT service 24 hours a day 365 days a year would be very expensive (and rarely used) it will be necessary to extend current cover, and can probably achieve this without budget increase provided current principles for funding mechanisms continue. Areas likely to require greater support include support for specific applications, problem resolution, and password resets.

8.10.4 It may be helpful to look at integrating this with demands for extending out of hours support for front line services.

8.10.5 Demands for high availability are also increasing and a range of disaster recovery improvements are being considered, including a generator for the central computer centre at Winchester which was recently hit by a serious power failure. These actions are targeted to reduce unplanned downtime and widen hours of Hantsnet service availability.

8.11 Customer Relationship Management

8.11.1 This is an area where the Council needs to establish its position - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an important foundation stone for the delivery of e-government, and need to agree corporately how to exploit it.

8.11.2 This is not primarily a technology matter; - it is about cultural and organisational change. Principles and policies for service delivery need to be set which exploit the potential of CRM and are `right' for the culture of the County Council and its service aspirations. Only then can tools to deliver this be chosen - and there are choices on the market place (Siebel, ORACLE, and SAP to name three leaders), but we will want to consider our existing portfolio of products as our `first choice' to reduce diversity of product sets. The experience of other organisations will be helpful in this respect (e.g. national local government CRM pathfinders).

8.11.3 A methodical approach is being adopted, learning from the experience of others, and a workshop of the e-Government Steering Group is preparing the way for proposals to be brought in the near future to CMT. It will take several years to implement a CRM strategy.

8.12 Reducing Paper

8.12.1 The Council still uses too much paper. The culture of using electronic storage and communications as the methods of choice is pervasive in some parts and alien in other parts of the Council. Corporate guides are still sometimes produced on paper even for those who would clearly be able to use electronic access, and internal paper memos are sent where a simple email would do. Many paper forms are used despite investment in a corporate electronic forms and workflow tool in 2002/3.

8.12.2 There are a number of problems with this reliance on paper. Firstly it is inefficient - electronic storage and communications are a fraction of the cost of the paper equivalents. Perhaps more importantly as we move towards electronic service delivery it will be important to divest ourselves of our older methods in order to really understand the potential and the limits of the new media. Overall reliance on paper reduces the speed of decision making, limits organisational flexibility (eg. flexible working arrangements) and impairs communications and information/knowledge sharing.

8.12.3 This is not to advocate a paperless office. Paper has a key role, and this will continue. But its role is not primarily as a communications medium or for storage, but as a tool for developing ideas, taking to meetings, supporting `work in progress'. It is clearly needed in areas where technology has yet to reach - but its true costs must be exposed and set against the costs of using technology. Reducing paper reliance will contribute towards sustainability targets, improved communications, reduced pressure on accommodation, and improved decision-making.

8.12.4 IT Services is working with Personnel and Training and with PBRS to increase the pace of change in the move away from paper wherever this is feasible.

8.13 Aligning IT with The Business

8.13.1 IT must align with the business or services it supports. IT strategy is no longer just about automating manual processes, but central to service plans, and to business/service process re-engineering. In this respect the public and the private sectors are very similar, and as e-government plans touch nearly everything the Council does, so e-business plans do the same in commercial organisations.

8.13.2 This presents us with a number of challenges - none of which are new, but several are becoming more critical:

· IT must provide change management and business analysis support to services, in addition to traditional operation IT solutions. This is evidenced in programmes such as SAP, but applies in many other smaller ways where technology can change the way we work (paper reduction, use of office space, flexible working arrangements, sustainability, joining up services, and so forth);

· Departments need to embrace this in the way they undertake service/business planning, and ensure IT plans form an integral part of wider planning, and are much more than a statement of the systems and technology which will be acquired and introduced;

· The Council's e-government plans must integrate with our corporate Community, Sustainability, Property, Personnel and other plans, not run as a parallel stream of activity. This requires joint planning from policy through to projects;

· Partnerships with other organisations will be key, and existing e-government partnerships can be strengthened through other existing service partnerships, including LSP's;

8.13.3 IT needs to work closely with all departments and demonstrate an understanding of the real objectives of the Council and individual services. Cost control must be demonstrated along with excellent value for money, and an ability to communicate in the language of the services IT supports. Above all IT needs to operate in a business-like fashion - putting customers first, managing finances tightly, planning and implementing projects with a high success rate, delivering value for money through open involvement of the private sector where the business demands this.

9. Finances and Financial Plans

9.1 The Council's e-government and IT programme reflect a very significant financial investment. Inevitably resources continue to be stretched, even though IT Services has been fortunate in attracting some new external funding during the year (e.g. Local Government On-Line money - though this typically represents one time capital which gives rise to on-going costs). In some senses a lack of funding will help to act as a brake on demand and enable us to focus on the things which matter most. Critically, IT spend needs to be linked with service needs, and this will be clear in the e-government and IT strategy.

9.2 Overall there remains considerable pressure to make existing resources go further. Departments understandably push for lower recharges in order to maximise the impact of IT spend to their services. They question why some corporate IT overheads are necessary, and IT Services needs to reaffirm the wider benefits of a corporate approach whilst recognising that in any organisation it is important to drive down overheads.

9.3 Significant corporate funding has been made available for the SAP programme, IT2000, and HPSN. This reflects a corporate recognition of the need to put in place the foundations for e-government, but this rate of investment cannot continue. We must move back to the position where departments pay for the services they use and this in turn permits development of new IT solutions. There has to be a focus on getting a real return on investment from these programmes.

9.4 However, some tricky manoeuvres are needed in the way IT is financed as the Council moves from the older mainframe series to the newer technology. Many of the mainframe charging models (e.g. `processing units') are not applicable to the way the newer technologies work. Yet it will be important to preserve the essence and principles of IT charging, which has been successful.

9.5 Also, whilst new external public service clients are being attracted, significant income streams originating from Local Government Reorganisation, Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils will disappear. This financial transition will need very careful management, and is included in IT Services financial plans.

9.6 Work is already underway to look at charging models for SAP services, and the revenue base for the mainframe environment (i.e. current departmental commitments with IT Services) will continue until there is certainty about the true running costs of the new environments. A group of officers led by Treasurers are examining this, and will be proposing new models for the e-Government Steering group which:

· Ensure the principles of fair and open charging continue, including our `penny post' which has been adopted for IT charges ensuring that different parts of the authority are not disadvantaged by their location;

· Include overheads of development, out of hours support, disaster recovery, help desk and other areas to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and debate about these essential services or who should pay for them;

· Charging models for SAP and the Social Care systems SWIFT will be introduced as `business as usual' IT charges;

· The finances required for the delivery of the e-government and ICT strategy already mentioned will be identified.

9.7 A summary of the main costs of IT are identified in Appendix B, and IT Services' financial plans are reflected in the IT Services Business Plan.

Recommendations

1. That progress and performance are noted.

2. That the emerging priorities for the coming year are endorsed.

APPENDIX A

Hants and Isle of Wight e-Government Partnership

The Partnership submitted proposals for funding by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) early in 2002. £2m was allocated by the ODPM for these proposals and the inaugural meeting of the Partnership Board, formed to oversee the projects arising from these proposals, took place 01/08/2002.

The major projects being undertaken by the Partnership are:

Hampshire Public Services Network: Extension of HPSN to all Partners enabling voice and data services to be shared, providing:

· Capability to make calls between partners over HPSN

· Rerouting calls from the public without them having to redial

· Information sharing via an Extranet

· Capability to share applications which can be located at any partners' site

· Access to services provided by any of the partners (e.g. Firewalled and filtered Internet access )

Catalogue of Services: The objective of this project is to deliver a database driven web based signposting system providing basic information and links to all services provided by all the Partners. The catalogue will provide a comprehensive directory for front line citizen contact staff and will be available for self service through the Internet for those who have access themselves.

Electronic Forms: A project which aims to obtain economies of scale in the production of electronic forms and the processes that lie behind them, by using common software and processes.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): The aim is to develop processes for exchanging data between the partners so that an enquiry or request recorded by one partner can be passed on to the organisation that needs to handle that contact who in turn can feed back information on the progress and completion of the enquiry/request.

National Land Information System/Land and Property Gazetteer (NLIS/NLPG): A project to develop processes and protocols for exchanging information between County and districts to speed up production of a unified gazetteer for the Partnership authorities.

A number of smaller of projects include joint consultation on e-Government, District Audit reviewing the scope for further collaboration, smartcards, webcasting, tourism and links to the South East forum for e-government (SEFEG).

APPENDIX B

IT Services External Trading Summary	2001-2002	2002-2003	2003-2004	2004-2005
	£'000s	£'000s	£'000s	£'000s
EXTERNAL INCOME
IT2000	4,290	5,086	5,866	6,000
Mainframe/SAP	5,515	4,687	4,687	3,552
HPSN	6,035	10,258	8,508	8,043
Other Services:
Consultancy Services	3,047	3,279	2,710	2,800
IT Client Services	489	498	496	496
HIOW e-Government		300	200	0
Dept. E-Govt Levy	264	277	287	287
European Projects/VisIT	70	349	325	220
Other (inc Enterprise and Networks)	2,136	2,152	2,217	1,778
TOTAL INCOME	21,846	26,886	25,296	23,176
EXTERNAL EXPENDITURE
EMPLOYMENT RELATED COSTS	�	�	�	�
Basic Pay	7,359	7,783	8,220	8,000
Overtime	179	227	228	230
Private Car Leasing	27	38	18	20
Training	238	251	273	300
Other	130	60	34	40
EMPLOYMENT RELATED COSTS	7,933	8,359	8,773	8,590
PREMISES RELATED COSTS	�	�	�	�
Rent	839	788	809	810
Electricity	94	126	96	90
Node Site Rental	20	35	35	35
Other	19	58	138	60
PREMISES RELATED COSTS	972	1,007	1,078	995
TRANSPORT RELATED COSTS	�	�	�	�
Other	80	103	80	80
TRANSPORT RELATED COSTS	80	103	80	80
SUPPLIES & SERVICES COSTS
Contractors / Consultants	675	981	531	400
Hardware	2,625	2,803	2,652	2,058
Software	2,287	2,506	2,344	1,734
Network	935	594	440	600
Supplies and Services	6,338	10,289	7,680	7,800
Central Recharges	168	144	150	150
Other	429	325	357	350
TOTAL SUPPLIES & SERVICES COSTS	13,457	17,642	14,154	13,092
TOTAL EXPENDITURE	22,442	27,111	24,085	22,757
SURPLUS / (DEFICIT) FOR YEAR	(596)	(225)	1,211	419
CUMULATIVE TRADING POSITION	(1,043)	(1,268)	(57)	362
2002/03 = Projected Outturn
2003/04 = IT Services Business Plan