07-09&11Tutorial-Whitehorse

Page 1 of 36 Whitehorse City Council INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY 2020 - 2025 STRATEGIC PLAN July 2020 Please read this case in full. It is used in Tutorials 7, 8, 9 & 11. ISYS90038 IS Strategy & Governance Tutorials 7, 8, 9 & 11

Page 2 of 36 CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................. 4 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 7 2. STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK .................................................................... 8 3. CONTEXT ...................................................................................... 9 3.1. WHITEHORSE CITY COUNCIL .............................................................................. 9 3.2. IT AND BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY .......................................................................... 9 4. STRATEGIC DRIVERS ......................................................................... 10 4.1. CURRENT ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................ 10 4.1.1. Digital & Business Technology ....................................................... 10 4.1.2. Technology .............................................................................. 12 4.1.3. Cyber security .......................................................................... 12 4.1.4. Business applications, data and data management .............................. 13 4.1.5. Governance and processes ........................................................... 13 4.2. PLAN ALIGNMENT ........................................................................................ 14 4.2.1. Victorian Government Information Technology Strategy ....................... 15 4.2.2. WCC Vision 2013-2023 ................................................................. 15 4.2.3. WCC Plan 2017-2021 ................................................................... 16 4.2.4. Asset Management Policy (2014) .................................................... 16 4.2.5. IT Asset Management Plan (March 2019) ........................................... 16 4.2.6. Digital Strategy 2017-2020 ........................................................... 17 4.2.7. GIS Strategy 2017 -2022 ............................................................... 17 4.2.8. Information Management Strategy 2013 ........................................... 18 4.2.9. Whitehorse CARES ...................................................................... 18 4.3. COMMUNITY EXPECTATIONS AND BUSINESS OBJECTIVES ........................................... 19 4.3.1. Community Expectations ............................................................. 20 4.3.2. Business Objectives .................................................................... 20 4.4. TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES ......................................................................... 24 4.4.1. Existing technologies .................................................................. 25 4.4.2. Available technologies ................................................................ 25 4.4.3. Emerging technologies ................................................................ 27 4.4.4. Future technologies .................................................................... 27

Page 4 of 36 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction This document sets out the Information Technology Strategy for Whitehorse City Council (WCC) from 2020 to 2025. This Strategy has been prepared concurrently with the preparation of an initial Business Case for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation which will explore and recommend options for ERP capability in the areas of finance, HR and payroll applications with scope for exploration of additional modules. Strategic Drivers The Strategy is informed and guided by a number of factors. • The Strategy must build on the current business, IT and digital environment, while making the most of WCC’s existing human and technology assets and strengths. • The Strategy must take account of other relevant plans as these direct or shape how technology should be developed and deployed. • The Strategy must respond to the needs of users: − The community places expectations on Council about how services should be delivered and how technology should be used to support these services. − Business areas within WCC need technology to support them in delivering services to the community. • Technology offers solutions that are not exploited at present, or may only become available in the future, which Council must consider in continuing to provide outstanding service. Technology Principles Twelve principles will guide future IT decisions. Information and data will be easy to find and to use Technology vendors will be actively managed so that WCC maximises the benefit of what it purchases Employees can work anywhere, anytime on any device Accessing systems will be seamless Technology decisions will be guided by both business and technology expertise Decision making will be informed by integrated and aligned technology Services will be responsive to changing community demands Decision makers will be presented with a unified view of people and assets Services and systems will be designed for reliability Decision makers will have straight forward access to real-time reporting Technologically skilled people will maximise the value of technology WCC technology will be delivered as efficiently as possible

Page 5 of 36 Enablers The business objectives will be enabled by business and information technology. This strategy envisages five groups of enablers, each of which will be achieved through a number of strategic initiatives. Design enablers ensure that all planning and design for technology solutions at WCC takes account of all aspects of the technology context Process enablers ensure that WCC business processes are best aligned with user requirements and that appropriate structures exist for sound technology decisions to be made. Service enablers are management disciplines which support the effective, efficient and sustainable delivery of IT services, improving operations across WCC. Capacity enablers address the availability of suitable and effective systems and people. Capability enablers ensure that employees have the skills and knowledge needed to select and use technology to best advantage. Strategy for the WCC organisation This is a strategy for information technology within WCC, and therefore implementation is not restricted to the IT function. The elements that impact the whole of the organisation are: • Uplifting IT capabilities across WCC – improving skills and knowledge so that the potential of existing technology is fully exploited, and general IT awareness and skills are improved. • Strengthening governance – developing an IT/Business Area partnership for all technology related decisions, developing an enterprise-wide perspective on programmes and projects, and strategic oversight of all endorsed initiatives. Strategy for IT The role of the IT function will be enlarged, and capabilities uplifted during the life of the Strategy with a series of strategic initiatives undertaken in each of the enabler groups. IT and business areas will increasingly work together to integrate technologies and support better business processes.

Page 7 of 36 1. INTRODUCTION This document sets out the Information Technology Strategy for Whitehorse City Council (WCC) from 2020 to 2025. It replaces a previous IT Strategy adopted in 2014. The Strategy is intended to provide direction to all decision makers within WCC regarding information technology, enabling business and technology decisions to be aligned. Through this, individual decision makers can be confident that the decisions they make in accordance with this Strategy will also align with decisions made by others within Council. As a result, Council resources will be used most efficiently, and decisions will be made most effectively. This Strategy has been prepared concurrently with the preparation of an initial Business Case for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation which will explore and recommend options for ERP capability in the areas of finance, HR and payroll applications with scope for exploration of additional modules. Both the IT Strategy and the full proposal for ERP phase 1 are expected to progress to Council approval together, though not solely reliant on the other. The two initiatives potentially deliver significant synergies and alignment and this Strategy has therefore been developed to exploit these synergies. It does not, however, assume that the ERP project will proceed. This Strategy also takes account of the potential for later stages of the ERP project. While this is a five-year strategy, it also recognises that decisions made during this period will have an impact beyond 2025 and that the life of many systems is significantly more than five years. The Strategy will be reviewed annually and internally refreshed after 2022-3.

Page 8 of 36 2. STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK The Strategic Framework is the logic which underpins this Strategy. The Strategy must use existing and new technologies to deliver positive outcomes for the community and WCC’s internal processes. The Strategy describes these outcome imperatives through groups of Strategic Drivers . The response to these Strategic Drivers is a set of Technology Principles which describe the required features that technology must deliver. Converting these Principles into practical actions is effected through a set of Outcome Enablers . Strategic Initiatives then set out the detailed actions that will best deliver the outcomes represented through the Technology Principles and the Outcome Enablers. This framework is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Strategic Framework The Strategic Framework is made up of four elements: 1. Strategic drivers . These include the current IT context for WCC, alignment with internal and external plans and strategies, community expectations, business areas requirements in order to be able to meet these expectations, and how current and future technology opportunities might deliver financially sustainable benefits for WCC. 2. Technology Principles . These show the how technology enables the business to achieve its objectives. 3. Outcome Enablers . These provide a structure within which technology will deliver the Strategic Principles. 4. Strategic Initiatives . These are practical actions that WCC needs to undertake to meet the expectations of the community.

Page 10 of 36 4. STRATEGIC DRIVERS This Strategy is informed and guided by a number of factors. • The Strategy must build on the current business, IT and digital environment, while making the most of WCC’s existing human and technology assets and strengths. • The Strategy must take account of other relevant plans as these direct or shape how technology should be developed and deployed. • The Strategy must respond to the needs of users: − The community places expectations on Council about how services should be delivered and how technology should be used to support these services. − Business areas within WCC need technology to support them in delivering services to the community. • Technology offers solutions that are not exploited at present, or may only become available in the future, which Council must consider in continuing to provide outstanding service. This section sets out these drivers. 4.1. CURRENT ENVIRONMENT This section outlines the existing WCC environment within and outside the Digital & Business Technology functions as well as data, security and governance settings. 4.1.1. Digital & Business Technology The Digital and Business Technology function is currently structured into three teams under the Head of Digital and Business Technology. These teams are IT Operations, Corporate Information and Digital as shown in Figure 2.

Page 11 of 36 Figure 2: Current Digital & Business Technology function IT Operations Function The IT Operations function covers the people, teams, platforms and processes that deliver IT services across WCC. This team has been through significant change since 2017. At that time, a new Digital project team was created that led to flow-on changes of personnel and roles. In addition, the changing nature of technology and the need to respond to recognised gaps in service and technology have led to further organisation, employees and capability changes. The current state functional structure for the Information Technology team is shown in Figure 3. Figure 3: Current State IT Functional Structure

Page 13 of 36 4.1.4. Business applications, data and data management Most applications are owned 2 by the relevant business areas, though some applications have shared ownership. IT provides expert support to business areas at all stages of the acquisition and sustainment lifecycle. Application owners across Council manage their own data. Data is not controlled centrally, apart from records (unstructured data), where the management of the data is overseen by the Corporate Information team. The current siloed nature and lack of unified standards of this data inhibits the realisation of Single View of Customer and Business Intelligence & Analytics capabilities. Business reporting software allows consolidated reporting and analysis of separate data sets. In the context of different ownership, such consolidation is vulnerable to different data definitions and requires a significant level of skill by users. There is no data dictionary that aligns data field names, nor is there a software layer that allows data to be updated across different applications. One significant example of this is that each system needs to be updated separately when a customer changes their address. As IT Operations lacks any business analysis capability, performing a more strategic or proactive role with business areas would not be possible with current resources. This also means that practical development work on existing systems depends on developers doubling up as business analysts which is an unsound practice. 4.1.5. Governance and processes Governance is overseen through an IT Steering Committee (ITSC), a Digital Steering Committee (DSC) as well as line management of the Digital and Business Technology department through the General Manager, Corporate Services. ITSC has industry-standard Terms of Reference and acts as an advisory body to the Executive. The Committee does not have the authority to approve budgets or spending, both of which are vested in business area managers, EMT and, ultimately, the Council. ITSC also does not have responsibility for monitoring or managing the IT team’s current or future workload and this is resourced and managed through annual funding and requests for additional resources. Decisions made by ITSC are mostly tactical rather than strategic. Unlike many other organisations of similar size, there is neither an engagement model, nor a Service Management framework (with accompanying service definitions for users). This means that there are only operational arrangements for managing incidents or requests to the Service Desk. While some project management skills exist within the IT function, no formal project or programme management methodology is applied or managed within the team or within WCC more broadly outside of the Major Projects function and, as a result, there is no means of coordinating concurrent projects other than through line management. This also means that there is no work-pipeline management. An established suite of policies, processes, procedures and work instructions exists, though coverage is incomplete, and some documents need refreshing. Internal processes are partially 2 Application ‘ownership’ covers responsibility for the strategic and operational management of the application within the business. The role of the IT function is to provide and manage the technology platform and network that the application relies on. Application owners primarily manage the relationship with the vendor, though IT is involved where platform and network matters need to be considered.

Page 14 of 36 documented, partly because the knowledge within the team means that IT is not currently dependent on procedural documentation. 4.2. PLAN ALIGNMENT This section discusses how this Strategy is aligned with current internal and external strategies, visions and plans. Information Technology contributes to the operations of WCC, which in turn operates as an entity legislated by the Victorian Government. This Strategy is therefore necessarily shaped by guidance and direction from other strategies and plans. The Information Technology Strategy is aligned to both external and internal strategies and plans. Figure 4 depicts the relationship between these plans. Figure 4: Plan Alignment

Page 16 of 36 Strategic Direction How IT contributes to this objective 2 Maintain and enhance our built environment to ensure a liveable and sustainable city IT supports Council teams that deliver this objective by providing and supporting technology including infrastructure within and outside Council premises, management software and personal productivity tools. 3 Protect and enhance our open spaces and natural environments IT provides technology infrastructure and services to support council open space and natural environment management. 4 Strategic leadership and open and accessible government IT provides infrastructure and functionality to inform decision making within Council and across the community. 5 Support a healthy local economy IT supports Council officers who promote and support business activity by providing technology infrastructure which enables efficient and effective Council operations for the benefit of ratepayers. Table 1: IT's contribution to WCC Vision As the Strategic Directions represent the overall purpose of Council, each element of this Strategy responds to one or more of these Strategic Directions. 4.2.3. WCC Plan 2017-2021 The Council Plan for 2017-2021 details how Council will deliver its goals. The Plan is updated each year. The Year 3 Plan includes a Mission Statement: Whitehorse City Council, working in partnership with the community to develop and grow our municipality through good governance, proactive strategic planning and advocacy, efficient, responsive services and quality infrastructure. (page 6) This strategy provides a framework for IT governance, sets out a strategic pathway and aims to support the delivery of Council services in line with the mission. 4.2.4. Asset Management Policy (2014) The current policy on assets states: As custodians of community assets, the City of Whitehorse will provide assets that are accessible, safe, sustainable and responsive to the needs of the community and the contemporary environment. This strategy takes account of this policy in guiding the strategy for asset acquisition, management and disposal. 4.2.5. IT Asset Management Plan (March 2019) This plan documents an approach to the ongoing management of WCC’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and related assets. The Plan recognises that this IT Strategy might drive change in several asset areas.

Page 17 of 36 This strategy takes account of the Asset Management Plan and, in particular, the intent to adopt more consistent lifecycle management of equipment to ensure that Council’s equipment is fit for purpose. It also recognises that “as a Service” solutions will affect asset requirements in the longer term and that Service Management practices are being adopted more widely in IT. 4.2.6. Digital Strategy 2017-2020 Digital design and delivery are closely interconnected with information technology. The Digital Strategy relies in part on Council’s IT resources (hardware, software and data) to deliver the outcomes sought. The Digital Strategy is established and part complete. The Digital Project Vision statement is shown below: By embracing digital technology, WCC aims to provide the community the best possible service, quick access to relevant information and the ability to connect and engage online. − Council will achieve this by working collaboratively across all Council departments, developing digital skills and automating and digitising workflows and processes. − Council will use data and insight to continually improve our digital presence and our operating processes and respond quickly to technical change. − Council will be customer focused and create connected, user friendly, relevant and simple interactions with Council. The Strategy initially focuses on enhancing established web interaction with customers and a more systematic and measured involvement in social media. The focus over time will see growth in app delivered access to information and services which will provide connections into back end systems. The development of this strategy has included deep involvement by the Digital team and the strategy provides a context for the IT delivery aspects of the Digital Strategy. 4.2.7. GIS Strategy 2017 -2022 Council has always relied on an element of spatial data to manage not only the property and rating function but several other assets, service and compliance functions. GIS technologies have come of age in the last decade and the GIS Strategy responds to growing demand and to the potential to improve service quality and efficiency as well as reduce costs. The GIS Vision statement is shown below: By embracing GIS and Spatial Information, WCC aims to provide its customers and stakeholders the best possible service, quick access to relevant information and the ability to connect and engage online. Council will achieve this by: − Ensuring all Council information can be easily mapped in the office, at home or in the field − Creating a pervasive GIS mindset throughout Council − Providing the necessary IT infrastructure, governance, policies, skills and culture One strategic and three supporting outcomes will deliver this vision: − GIS enabled, integrated, mobile user applications − Enabling infrastructure

Page 19 of 36 4.3. COMMUNITY EXPECTATIONS AND BUSINESS OBJECTIVES This section highlights the expectations and objectives of both external and internal users While the focus of this Strategy is on technology, the ultimate goal of the strategy is to enable WCC to meet the needs and expectations of its community. Implementing this Strategy will enable WCC to meet these expectations by supporting business areas in meeting their objectives. As part of the preparation of this Strategy, an extensive consultation was undertaken with managers and subject matter experts from business areas to understand the community needs of each area, and what support each of the business areas needed to be able to respond to, and satisfy, these needs. Each interview established the current state as described by the interviewees, how their operations might be improved, and how information technology could enable such improvement. The discussions were not limited to technology tools, but also covered structural and behavioural elements. Figure 5 describes the relationship between the community expectations identified during the consultation, and the business objectives that are required to be able to satisfy these current and future needs. Figure 5: Business Objectives

Page 20 of 36 4.3.1. Community Expectations The community comprises both internal and external customers and within these groups are WCC employees, ratepayers, residents, landlords, business owners and consumers of Council’s services. Their expectations are described in more detail in Table 2: Customer Expectation Description Good governance, wise spending The community will be assured that all decisions are made on a consistent basis, and that when WCC is determining how to use funding it is also based on sound and justifiable reasoning. Channel options Community members will be able to access WCC services using their preferred channel, whether that is face-to-face, telephone, e-mail, or online. Simplicity Community members will not need to navigate a complex external business process, or multiple system interfaces, to interact with WCC. Speed and responsiveness Community members will receive an immediate acknowledgement of enquiries. Community members will have enquiries/transactions resolved as quickly as possible. Real-time status updates Community members are able to view the status of an incident, transaction, report they have made or enquiry without needing to contact WCC by phone or e-mail. Community members will receive status updates on a push basis from WCC. Accessibility Community members will be able to access WCC services from any device and any location, at any time of the day. Progress reporting Community members will be able to access current reporting on the status of projects being delivered by WCC on their behalf. Table 2: Community Expectations 4.3.2. Business Objectives WCC aims to be able to provide services to its community that meets its expectations. Increasingly this means providing fast and accurate responses to requests, allowing access to council services via a variety of channels, providing real-time status reports, and improving reporting to the community on projects and initiatives. To do this the business areas need to have data and information that is well managed, integrated and shared across the organisation and business processes that are formalised and optimised. It also means that the mobility of the workforce needs to be supported with the right tools and applications.