The challenge
Guildford Borough Council suffered from a lack of investment in ICT for several years, resulting in technology that was not suitable for current business requirements, and was approaching end of life. The position did not support the council’s priorities to transfer to a more modern way of working under the Future Guildford Programme.
Socitm Advisory set out an approach and gained agreement to invest and support an accelerated approach to the technology refresh.
The approach
The Council had begun the project using the in-house ICT team, but progress was not fast enough, with design/build phases having taken 18 months:
- A new approach was designed by Socitm Advisory and funding was agreed
- A dedicated and highly focused Refresh Team led by Socitm Advisory was established to ensure the success of the project and ensure there was no resource conflict with business as usual (BaU) activities
- Resources were selected from the Council and Socitm Advisory
- A new set of principles and approached was agreed to guide the project
- Business engagement and communications ensured there was business understanding and support to deliver the project
- An agile working model was established to enable and deliver rapid progress on project delivery
“The completion of the project in February 2020 was immediately prior to the Covid-19 crisis where agile home working suddenly became extremely important for the continued operation of the Council and its business continuity. Whilst Covid-19 was not anticipated, it certainly put our new network, applications, collaborative working tools and devices to the test!
We have received extremely positive feedback from all service areas about how well our new ICT has operated during the crisis and many parts of the organisation are extremely grateful that our ICT has worked so well. Microsoft Teams has now become second nature to many of our staff. With Socitm Advisory’s help and guidance, our ICT services have been a key enabler of the Council’s efficient and positive response to the crisis and our business continuity.”
Claire Morris, Director of resources, Guildford Borough Council
The outcome
The solution included changes to network, applications, devices and collaborative working:
- Network: Scaling up VPN access, and adding additional WiFi access points
- Applications: The use of InTune application packaging to simplify the management of application deployment, implementation of Office 365, and Azure AD including security and compliance
- Devices: Move from mixed device estate to introduce Windows 10 across all areas, introduce Microsoft Face Recognition, the secure provision of applications using agnostic processes, and implementing soft phone technology
- Collaborative working: Equipped all staff with Microsoft Teams, enabling online meetings (audio, video, screen sharing, etc.), document sharing and collaboration