Agenda item

Consider CGI Briefing. (Copy attached.)

3.1       There had been circulated copies of the report by Director Strategic Commissioning and Partnerships that presented key information with respect to the CGI contract for the first two quarters of 2022.  It provided Elected Members with key information on the governance of the contract, updated information on the transformation programme being delivered with CGI, key performance information with respect to the service delivery of the contract and a note of key issues associated with contract management, which included change requests signed in the quarter. The Director explained that regarding the Transformation Roadmap referred to in the report, 3 key programmes of change were being considered, namely Enterprise Mobility, Process Simplification and Automation, and Enterprise Information.  8 transformation projects had been completed by the end of quarter 4 of 2021.  During quarter 1 and 2 of 2022 7 projects had been completed. One project had been cancelled, which resulted in 14 projects still outstanding. With regards to Key Performance Indicators (KPI), there were 3 red KPI targets over quarter 1, each related to customer satisfaction levels.  The Director highlighted that a P1 incident had occurred following the end of quarter 2, which had subsequently been resolved.  Further information would be brought to the next meeting.

3.2       The Chair welcomed Mr Wordsworth-Goodram from CGI to the meeting.  Mr Wordsworth-Goodram advised that a strong governance portfolio remained in place, with collective joint responsibility shared between CGI and SBC.  The key control boards had taken place and had met regularly to progress key activities.  A number of sessions had taken place on digital sustainability, which had been widely received by SBC employees.  Further work was ongoing to assess how the experience gained from work that CGI was carrying out with other Local Authorities could benefit SBC.  With regards to the transformation programme, work was aligned with SBC’s corporate plan.  The Totalmobile project had been successfully implemented in SBCares, and work was ongoing to identify and accelerate the Social Work Pathfinder paper to come forward with a paper in August to Council. That paper delivered across key priorities including Enterprise Mobility, Process Simplification and Automation and Enterprise Information.  Mr Wordsworth-Goodram highlighted the current position with regards to various projects via the Transformation Project Overview  explaining that a number of projects were with SBC colleagues either seeking approval or clarification.  In response to a question from the Chairman regarding the alignment of the transformation programme to the new Council Plan, Mr Wordsworth-Goodram explained that the plan was for CGI and SBC to collectively deliver.  The Director, Strategic Commissioning and Partnerships explained that the plan was aligned to the new Council Plan, and we would ensure that in terms of presentations future information would reflect progress against the new plan.  In response to a question regarding any areas of concern on the Transformation Project Overview, Mr Wordsworth-Goodram explained that he had no concerns to raise, with work ongoing in partnership with SBC to carry out the appropriate impact assessments and approvals.  An overview of Transformation Projects was provided, with a number of projects marked as completed, including Inspire Learning Business Intelligence and Bulk Print.  Digital Customer Access was nearing completion, final components of which had been handed to SBC for testing and approval.  The Smart Routing and Weighbridge projects had been subject to delay due to global supply chain issues, with work ongoing to try and resolve the difficulties.   Inspire Care Phase 1, which provided iPads into Care Homes was completed, whilst work on additional elements to ensure full service provision was ongoing.  Mr Goodram-Worsworth explained that MacBooks had been marked as Red due to an overheating problem impacting upon the end users ability to use the product effectively.  A short-term solution had been provided, with a long-term solution expected imminently in conjunction with Apple specialists, and the expectation was that the issue would move to completed relatively quickly.

3.3       In response to Councillor Thornton-Nicol expressing concerns regarding Bulk Print being marked as “complete” when it had been moved to form part of another project, Mr Wordsworth-Goodram undertook to investigate with his team and report back.  Regarding the duration of time that procurement of IPhones for Children and Family Social Work had taken, Mr Wordsworth-Goodram acknowledged that the process had taken too long and explained that an initiative was planned to create a service catalogue to ensure that procurement was carried out in a timelier manner.  Councillor Thornton-Nicol raised the “happy signals” pilot programme, and expressed concern that service delivery had not reached satisfactory levels.  Mr Wordsworth-Goodram agreed that work was needed to ensure that levels of service improved, and that feedback was needed to learn what improvements were needed.  The Director explained that with regard to the delivery of IPhones to Social Work, the phones had been delivered but work was still required to ensure that the correct tools and applications were installed and available for use on to the devices.   In response to the Chairman raising his concerns that the commentary included within the presentation could be more insightful, including timescales and the detailing of issues faced, Mr Wordsworth-Goodram undertook to provide more meaningful and detailed commentary with future presentations.

3.4       Mr Wordsworth-Goodram provided an overview of Service Delivery, explaining that Service Performance continued to be very good, with the Service Desk meeting all KPI targets in May.  Public Services Network Re-accreditation had been secured, and feedback from the Happy Signals pilot would be assessed to ascertain where improvements needed to be made.  Disaster recovery testing was ongoing, Enterprise Mobility rollout in Social Care had been completed, with support now managed by the Service Desk.  Staff at the Contact Centre in Galashiels had experienced Lync calls dropping, and a global toner shortage had resulted in difficulties fulfilling replacement orders.  In response to a question from the Chairman regarding the usage of the Lync system, Mr Simon Foxlee of CGI explained that currently a hybrid solution was in place, with a proposal to replace Lync with Teams. Miss Shammy Halder of CGI explained that the call dropping issued experienced by staff was faced exclusively by the out of hours emergency team, and that a team of specialists was assessing the entire network to ascertain the underlying cause of the problem.  The Director, Finance and Corporate Governance undertook to provide a briefing paper to the Committee on the Lync Migration project due to the complexity and difficulties inherent to the project.  In response to Councillor Thornton-Nicol raising concerns regarding issues with Pulsant not listed as an area of concern, Mr Wordsworth-Goodram undertook to investigate and provide a briefing note for the Committee. Mr Wordsworth-Goodram provided overview of the Success Factors, Quality Levels and Continuous Service Improvement in relation to Service Management.

3.5       Mr Wordsworth-Goodram provided an overview of some BAU change activity, highlighting that various projects and their estimated completion dates.  In response to a question regarding pay parking, the Director, Finance and Corporate Governance explained that the change to the 3Sixty application would affect all Council owned parking, and would be an upgrade rather than a replacement.

3.6       With regard to recruitment and staffing levels on the SBC contract, the newly built building at Tweedbank was expected to be finished in July, with the building to be occupied shortly after.  CGI had 67 employees in the Scottish Borders, with 5 university graduates, 3 high school graduate apprentices, 4 project delivery roles, 23 service desk members and 10 test automation engineers listed as planned recruitment.  In response to a question from the Chairman, Mr Wordsworth-Goodram explained that whilst CGI was actively recruiting staff to work at the Centre in Tweedbank, the employee may not work directly on the SBC contract. The Director, Strategic Commissioning and Partnerships explained that the target number of employees for CGI within the Scottish Borders was 150, with a “stretch” target of 250, and undertook to provide further context and information within the slide presentation detailing the number of employees engaged within the Scottish Borders, whether or not they were working directly on the SBC contract, to provide the Committee with oversight and a deeper sense of emerging trends.

DECISION

AGREED: -

(a)        to note the update;

(b)       that briefing notes would be provided to the Committee on issues raised at the meeting including:

(i)         Lync migration and calls dropping at the Galashiels Contact centre;

            (ii)        Pulsant connection losses;

            (iii)       the Bulk Print project completion status; and

            (iv)       delays in the Procurement of IT equipment for Social Work;

(c)        that more detailed information and context would be included in the slide deck concerning:

(i)         job creation and recruitment by CGI in the Scottish Borders at future meetings;

(ii)        timescales highlighted in Transformation project overview slides; and

(iii)       more detailed narrative including current Issues highlighted in the narrative on Transformation project overview slides.