Those digital projects in some detail

 by DOUG COLLIE

Members of Scottish Borders Council who sanctioned a £99 million IT contract extension with technology giants CGI were briefed on a collection of digital projects which, it is claimed, will improve local government services while at the same time saving taxpayers' money.

The confidential reports detailing each project have been released by SBC in response to a Freedom of Information request, and here we attempt to provide information on each of the 'transformation' themes. Some of the language used may seem obscure to the layman but was used in the briefing papers.

DIGITAL STRATEGY - Enabling citizen outcomes and efficiency. SBC challenges - ensure digital investment is aligned to key business priorities.

CGI solution - Practical actionable plan enabling key SBC outcomes through targeted roadmap and solutions; engagement across services; engagement with councillors. Benefits delivered include: future digital investment aligned to citizen outcomes and cost efficiency opportunities for the council. Cost: circa £100,000.

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY - Automated scheduling, route organisation and work anywhere. SBC challenges - Front office services under increasing stress; funding challenges across SBC; field workers hampered by admin and travel; unable to prioritise time in the field.

CGI solution - Enterprise wide scheduling and management solution; mobile app facilitating admin on the move; route optimisation factored into scheduling - the optimal route applied for the day's work. 

Benefits delivered - Improved production of frontline staff; enhanced service outcomes through redeployment of frontline staff time. Cost £2 million to £3 million for 500 workers. Savings - circa £1.5 million per annum.

AUTOMATION - RBA (robotic process automation) platform

SBC challenges - Operational performance against strategic plan priorities; data accuracy and processing errors; departmental processing capacity and productivity.

CGI solution - Virtual workers deployed for the automation of processes across the business; front office automation using Chatbots and Virtual Agents.

Benefits - Full-time equivalent reduction or redeployment to value add/customer focussed activities; improved process accuracy through minimising human errors; improving productivity and reduced down time as virtual workforce can run 24 X 7 X 365; cost £350,000 to £750,000 for initial platform. Further automation costed separately. Measurable benefits - circa £80,000 per annum using virtual workforce per complex process.

COMMUNITY CARE 360

SBC challenges - To provide shielding support to citizens and patients and help people to make informed decisions during the pandemic and beyond; to communicate with shielding citizens and their wider circle of care.

CGI Solution - The CGI Community Care 360 platform is designed to support the remote monitoring of patients and citizens as part of a digital approach to delivering services using observations and assessments.

Benefits - Reduce costs through systems standardisation and consolidation; increase in time dedicated to patients; average increase in visits per worker; minimisation of unnecessary care visits; reduction in the number of readmissions after hospital stays. Cost - £250,000 to £400,000; ongoing cost per citizen per month £5. Potential saving per month is £50,000 or £60,000 per year or could be taken as an increase in capacity of 1.6 visits per day per care worker.

CARE HOMES - INSPIRE PILOT (Waverley Care Home)

SBC challenges - No coverage for any technology to residents; limited ability to contact out of hours GPs/services restricted to certain areas of the building.

CGI solution - Additional WIFI and network capacity. IOT devices integrated with care solutions - Amazon Alexa, Facebook Portal, fall and flood alarms, medication dispensers. Adoption of Solution - UK Smart Retirement Village; staff and residents technology training.

Benefits - Improved care home resident experience through better communications, browsing, entertainment; improved safety, well being and security of residents. Costs: to be confirmed.

FLEET MANAGEMENT - phase one refuse route management

SBC challenges - Delivering service optimisation and cost reduction; optimised refuse collection routes and services that minimise risk of missed bins; missed bins lead to poor customer satisfaction.

CGI solution - Ruggedised in-cab device for high density route navigation and problem reporting; potential to integrate with digital citizen; potential to deploy on other cleansing services and gritting (winter services).

Benefits - Improved bin collection efficiency (based on vehicles' working hours, depot and landfill locations and the road network); reduced cost due to reduced fleet size required to operate route; fuel, crew and vehicle fixed cost savings as a result of driving fewer miles. Cost £500,000 to £1 million. Savings - two to three less bin lorries and indirect savings in customer contact.

STUDENT WELLBEING - monitoring and tracking

SBC challenges - Manage students and staff in relation to academic, non-academic outcomes; improve data accuracy and constancy of tracking pupil performance.

CGI solition - The CGI Monitoring & Tracking Solution is aligned to Curriculum for Excellence and supports the tracking of wider holistic attainment alongside the factual tracking of progress in SEEMIS.

Benefits - Improved pupil performance due to earlier interventions; reduced teacher admin time. Cost - circa £100,000 to £250,000 for base monitoring and tracking solution.