To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2010.

The Head of ICT noted that the District Emergency Planning Manager was looking into the feasibility issues and the Asset Management team were looking into the costings of the back-up generator discussed at Minute No 62/10(a).  It was agreed that this item would be kept on the agenda.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2010 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence. 

None.

To consider any urgent business.

The Chairman agreed to accept two items of urgent business.

a)         New Website

The Marketing & Communications Officer gave Members a short presentation on the new website which was due to go ‘live’ on 27 September 2010.

Data cleansing was in its early stages, but all web editors had received training and initial feedback was that the new site was quick and easy to update.

Items that had been on the website for up to twelve months would be flagged for removal.  Editors would have one month to confirm that the page was still relevant or it would automatically be deleted.

The Communications team, supported by ICT would constantly monitor the website.

The aim of the new site was to be user friendly and information should be accessible in three clicks.

The Twitter page would be launched the following week with a core group of people to be followed, such as Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps.  It was hoped that those people would in turn follow Breckland on Twitter.

All Breckland videos would be migrated from U-Tube to the new Flickr site which would be used to provide images for others to access.

Currently about 30 on-line forms were available but they were not completely transactable.  The software in the new site allowed such forms to be created quickly and in the second stage of development, self populating forms would be introduced.

In conclusion it was confirmed that the site was in budget.

The Chairman thanked the Marketing & Communications Officer for his presentation.

b)        Provision of ICT equipment to the ARP

The Head of Finance advised Members that a report had been presented to a special meeting of the ARP Joint Committee on 26 August 2010, concerning the provision of new servers, software and Chip PCs for use by the Partnership.  A copy of that report had been e-mailed to Members.

At that meeting it had been agreed that Forest Heath would procure the equipment using their reserves.  Agreement was sought from Members to release money from the Capital programme to contribute to the project.  The Head of Finance would also be contacting RIEP for grant funding and he advised Members that the figures quoted in the report were ‘worst case’ and could be much lower.

He further explained that the proposed replacement equipment would provide more functionality and support potential expansion in future.  The Business Case confirmed that savings would be made and these could be increased if another authority joined the Partnership.

RESOLVED that £79,200 be released from the Capital programme to purchase a new server and other ICT equipment.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests they may have in any of the following items on the agenda. The Members’ Code of Conduct requires that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is a personal or prejudicial interest.

There were none.

To note the names of any non-members who wish to address the meeting.

Mr P Duigan was in attendance.

Report of the Director – Corporate Resources.

The Head of ICT presented the report which sought the Sub-Committee’s approval to purchase a replacement Microfiche reader/printer.  The existing machine was old and unreliable, causing a problem in providing the required level of service to members of the public.

The machine was not an ICT asset and therefore the budget for the replacement would need to be found from another source.  Members discussed which department would provide this and also sought clarification of who would pay the future maintenance costs of the new machine.

It was noted in the Profroma B that the decision to vire the necessary budget would have to be made by Cabinet.

Members therefore agreed, to

RECOMMEND TO CABINET that a replacement device be procured at a maximum cost of £5,000 with expected revenue costs of around £500 per annum.

Report of the Director – Corporate Resources.

The ICT Project Manager introduced the report which sought approval to spend the remaining £136,000 of the refresh budget which had been previously released in 2009. 

The Sub-Committee was asked to approve the investment of £100,000 with Dell on hardware through ESPO.  The Business Case and supplier assessment criteria supporting this proposal were attached for Members’ information.

It was clarified that a further £195,000 remained in the refresh budget which was yet to be released and was available for the purchase of other refresh items such as PCs, Chip PCs, Monitors, Printers, etc.

A Proforma B had been provided at the time the funds were originally released however, the Senior Accountant Capital and Treasury agreed to provide a retrospective Proforma B to cover the revenue budget and to ensure that savings were identified.

RESOLVED to:

1)                 note the intended use of the remaining released ICT refresh budget amounting to £136,000;

2)                 agree to the procurement and delivery of option 2 of the Business Case VMWare and SAN infrastructure; and

3)                 authorise procurement of the recommended supplier as a result of the ESPO procurement process.

It was noted that the Digi TV Project had been shelved due to funding cuts.

No other applications had been received.

The report was noted.

Update by the Head of ICT/Steria.

The Head of ICT advised that staff briefings would be initiated this week with regard to potential TUPE arrangements.

The report was noted.

Update by the Head of ICT.

The Head of ICT had received further communications from Norfolk County Council about the BT offer and he would be in a position to bring more information to the next meeting.

He had also attended a further meeting of the Norfolk Heads of IT. Strong interest had been expressed in an informal pooling of skills and resources to help keep costs down and to keep work within the public sector, rather than having to out-source.

Update by the Senior Accountant Capital and Treasury.

The Senior Accountant Capital and Treasury raised concerns about the amount of unallocated money in the budget.  It was agreed that she would work with the Head of ICT to produce a report for the next meeting.<1>

It was noted that the financial performance report was only about capital investment but that there were lots of revenue knock-on effects and that it was important to show that investments had provided savings.

To note that the next meeting will be held on 5 October 2010 at 09.30 in the Norfolk Room, Conference Suite, Elizabeth House, Dereham.

To consider the following meeting dates proposed for 2011/12:

The proposed dates of future meetings were agreed.

The arrangements for the next meeting on 5 October 2010 were noted.

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

PART B – ITEMS FROM WHICH THE PRESS AND PUBLIC ARE EXCLUDED

RESOLVED that under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

Report of the Director – Corporate Resources.

The Head of ICT presented the report which sought the release of budget to improve the Council’s telephony infrastructure.

The Senior Accountant Capital and Treasury confirmed that the budget was available, but she had not had the opportunity to prepare a Proforma B to support the report. 

The Chairman said that in this instance if finance were in agreement a retrospective Proforma B could be accepted.  However, in future no reports would be approved without a Proforma B.

RESOLVED that authority be delegated to the Head of ICT and the Head of Finance to:

(1)               approve the procurement of a replacement telephony switch; and

(2)               to authorise a tender process for the procurement of a new telephony system within the £74,500 capital budget available.  The tender process to commence in September for procurement in October/November in accordance with the plan set out in the report.

Report of the Director – Corporate Resources

The Head of ICT presented the report and advised that it had already been to Exec Board and been approved by the Audit Committee.

The Head of Finance said that costs would be monitored to track savings.

The report was noted.