Agenda of Implementation Advisory Group

Item No: IAG0717 Item 1

Subject: INTEGRATION AND INNOVATION PLAN - MONTHLY UPDATE

File Ref: 17/6012/73680.17

Prepared By: Nellette Kettle - Group Manager Integration, Customer Service and Business Excellence

Authorised By: Rik Hart - Interim General Manager

SUMMARY

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the report be received and noted and the IAG provide any feedback.

The Integration and Innovation Plan (iPlan) outlines the key projects to establish the Inner West Council in preparation for the return of the elected Council.

CURRENT STATUS

Progress against the actions in the iPlan is reported in Attachment 1. Key status highlights appear below.

Service integration: Integration and Transformation Program

The Integration and Transformation Program is well underway, with over 80 projects currently in progress.

Key achievements this past month:

· Continued on-boarding of additional projects into the online project management framework

· Completion of 5 integration projects, with an additional 8 projects expected to complete in the coming 2 months

· Reporting framework developed, with the first program monthly report submitted to Leadership Team

· Partnership Agreements signed by Group Managers

Below is a snapshot of current progress updates for some critical integration projects:

Project	Status Update
Community Engagement Framework	The Engagement Framework and Policy will be reported to Council for adoption on 27 June. Development of a staff toolkit will follow adoption.
Community Strategic Plan	Broad community engagement is occurring now inclusive of a community wide survey, pop ups, youth survey and photo competition. Staff workshops are scheduled for July. Overall, the project is on track for a first draft in September/October for the incoming Council.
Consolidated Asset Database and Asset Management Process	The asset registers from the three former councils have been provided to Technology One (Jeff Roorda & Assoc.) to produce a single consolidated asset register revalued as at 12 May 2016. This stage is key to the project and is nearing completion. There are a number of processes and outcomes delivered as part of this task including a data health check, audit report, valuation report and revised unit rates and useful life values for consideration. The transactions from capital works projects for 2016/17 are being processed and additional condition audit data will be provided to enable a second revaluation as at 30 June 2017 to be used for the annual financial statements.
Fees & Charges for FY17-18	Project has been completed within the project time frame. Final Fees and Charges 2017/18 will be applied by the end of June.
Integrated Budget	The 2017/18 budget will be presented to Council for adoption at the June 2017 Council meeting.
Intranet	Technical implementation nearing completion. Content implementation to begin shortly. Remains on track for soft launch in July.
Website	Received tenders evaluated in line with Council's procurement requirements. Vendors have been shortlisted for presentation in week commencing 26 June.

Risk and Audit Activities

The new IWC Risk Management Policy, Procedure and Risk Register Framework has been finalised and is now being considered for adoption by the Leadership Team.

A structured program of facilitated work for the identification and assessment of Council's primary enterprise risks, and the development of appropriate risk treatment plans, is now underway and scheduled for completion in July.

The third community member vacancy on the Audit and Risk Committee has not been able to be filled from previous appointees, and will be advertised externally in the coming weeks.

The Administrator approved the establishment of an Internal Ombudsman function at the Council meeting on 27 June. The Internal Ombudsman will strengthen Council’s governance and risk framework by providing an avenue through which impartial and professional investigation of complaints about corruption, misconduct, maladministration and unethical behaviour can occur.

ICT Systems Integration and Transformation

Systems integration and connectivity

The main ICT projects at present focus on the infrastructure enabling the co-location of teams and system access across sites. Following is a status update:

Project

Status update

Design and build of new integrated active directory

Cross site active directory trust continues to enable the implementation of the standardised telephone system project and unified address book.

The project phases include:

· Milestone 1 – Establish Communication between the former Council environments (Complete)

· Milestone 2 – Enablement of the Standardised Telephone System project (In Progress)

· Milestone 3 – Provide a unified address book and email platform (In Progress)

· Milestone 4 – Enablement of the Intranet project

· Milestone 5 – Enablement of the Access to Business Applications project

Milestones 3 and 4 are currently in progress and on track. They are scheduled to be completed at the conclusion of the co-location project.

Standardised telephone system – Skype for Business

Back end enablement – 100% complete

Functional testing completed in mid-June as well as pilot user testing for all three service centres. Petersham/St Peters sites migrated onto new system in mid-June. Leichhardt and Ashfield service centres expected to follow suit in a staged approach aligned with the co-location project.

The Touch-Point sub-project, which will deliver the single call centre solution for Customer Service, has commenced and the build completed. Functional testing to occur in late June.

User training in for Skype-for-Business commenced mid-June and will continue to be offered through to August.

Access to business applications (former councils)

The framework for this project is complete and testing is underway within the ICT department. The solution has been presented and offered to the Leadership Team. ICT is working through specific business use cases with key stakeholders and will enable access progressively.

Intranet

The intranet build is underway and will be ‘rolled out’ in two stages. The first stage will focus on a centralised communications hub to deliver internal news across the Council.

Administrator training for the intranet was delivered in mid-June with content development set to begin in late June/early July.

Integrated IT Service Desk

A centralised integrated interim service desk model has been developed to facilitate the co-location process and establish the framework for a long term strategy. The model consists of a new temporary incident management system, a single central phone number and queue, a single contact email address and two service desk staff at each of the three service centres.

Statistics captured from the single incident management system will be valuable in increasing efficiencies and allocating resources into the future.

Infrastructure Current State Assessment

The discovery phase of the current state assessment has been completed. Priority actions identified during this stage are:

1. IT Service Delivery

2. Technology solutions to facilitate collaboration and mobility

3. Delivery of a modern end user computing environment

4. Consolidation, standardisation and modernisation of data centre platforms

The next stage of the project will focus on defining the scope, solution options and cost models for the above initiatives.

TechnologyOne implementation

The TechnologyOne project is the single largest integration project spanning two years.

The immediate focus for the project team is delivery of Release 1 (Finance and Supply Chain) for 3 July 2017, which will enable the organisation to establish and maintain the Ledgers and Chart of Accounts into which all financial transactions are posted and from which all financial reporting is performed. The Supply Chain module will enable the organisation to manage procurement, storage and issue of goods / services.

These two modules are enhanced by electronic workflows which provide a secure and auditable mechanism (e.g. originator, approver) for all transactions.

In the final week prior to ‘go-live’ the following project milestones have been completed:

· All Software as a Service environments have been built

· Business processes have been aligned and documented

· First round of end user training delivered to approximately 200 staff

· Finalised Purchasing and Stores workflow configurations

· Trial data migrations from existing systems have been completed

· Design of interfaces:

o Payroll (3 x interfaces to existing systems)

o Property (3 x interfaces to existing systems)

o Eziscan (interface for automated import of supplier invoices)

In progress at the time of this report:

· Final configuration of the Production environment;

· Communications to suppliers / staff of revised arrangements;

· Second round of end user training to be delivered 26^th June to 10^th July (Computer based);

· Final data migrations from existing systems into Technology One;

· Finalise interfaces;

· Final detailed cut-over steps incorporating EOFY activities for 2016/17

The timeframe for implementation remains extremely tight and a number of other key projects / business as usual activities are planned for the same time period, which adds to the risk profile.

A cut-over review meeting is scheduled for 28 June 2017, which is expected to authorise cut-over from three existing systems to Technology One. If endorsed, cut-over will commence Monday 3 July 2017, with progressive shut-down of existing systems and ramp-up of Technology One.

Q-flow ticketing system

The capture of front counter statistics across the three customer service centres is critical to enable improved service delivery to our customers, real-time reporting of customer interactions, and monitoring of key performance indicators.

Council has chosen to expand the Q-Flow solution used at the Petersham service centre to the Ashfield and Leichhardt service centres. The Q-Flow solution will provide us with a better understanding of how many customers are being served, what services our customers are enquiring about, and how long our customers are waiting. The data captured will identify trends - peaks and troughs in customer volumes, transaction types, average queue wait times and queue lengths at different times of the day and on certain days of the week. Q-Flow will also allow customers to be routed to a Customer Service Officer who is sufficiently skilled and trained to resolve their enquiry.

Configuration and installation of Q-Flow is in its final stages with testing and training taking place in the last week of June. Q-Flow will be fully operational by 1 July 2017.

Community Strategic Plan Development

The CSP project remains on track for a draft to be delivered to the incoming Council later this year.

The community engagement campaign, Creating Our Inner West 2036, launched via the Your Say Inner West site on 19 May and continues until 17 July. The household wide survey was delivered in June. Surveys have also been made available in five community languages online and at community events. The survey asks people to identify what makes the Inner West unique, and what one “big idea” they wish to share. It also tests the interim vision (developed as part of the Statement of Vision and Priorities earlier this year), and helps to identify opportunities and longer term community goals. A youth survey and photo competition is also underway. People are invited to complete the survey and/or make a submission on the Issues Paper. Submissions are open until 9 July (or 17 July for the youth survey and photo competition). At the time of writing this progress report over 800 surveys had already been received.

Targeted engagement is being undertaken with young people and Council’s Strategic Reference Groups.

Preparations for Transition to Elected Council

Briefings on the project plan for election planning were provided to IAG and LRAC in June. As a result of feedback from these meetings Council is investigating sending a personalised postcard to each registered voter with key information and dates for the election.

A dedicated webpage (http://www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/council/elections-and-ward-map) with detailed information for the election has been published on the website with a link from the front page. Council has already received a number of enquiries in relation to enrolment on the Non-Residential Roll. Applications for the resident and non-residential rolls close on 31 July. A media plan has been developed to communicate key messages to residents in the lead up to the election and the Communications Team has commenced promoting the dedicated Council webpage for information on the election.

Candidate briefing sessions facilitated by LGNSW have been organised for 20 July at Leichhardt Service Centre and 15 August at Ashfield Service Centre to inform prospective Councillors of the legal requirements in running for election and important information on becoming a Councillor. Staff are currently preparing information on the election for inclusion in the July Rates Notice.

The NSW Electoral Commission has appointed Ray Pozatto, a very experienced election official as the Returning Officer for the IWC election. Ray will commence fulltime duties on 17 July and will be occupying the former Centrelink premises in Marrickville.

Council has commenced planning on implementing an effective governance framework for the elected council in September. The 27 June Council will consider reports on a Draft Expenses and Facilities Policy for Councillors and Remuneration for the Mayor and Councillors. These reports are the first stages in establishing this governance framework for a smooth transition to the elected Council in September.

Key Dates

31 July	Close of Residential Roll Close of Non-Residential Roll Nominations for Candidates Open
9 August	Nominations for Candidates Close
28 August	Pre-Poll opens
9 September	Election Day
11 September	Return of Postal Votes Closes

Organisation Structure Update

Significant progress continues to be made on the roll out of the permanent organisational structure. Structures for two Service Units were endorsed by the Joint Consultative Committee in June:

· Customer Service

o Level 6 - 27 jobs (24.96 full time equivalent)

· Roads, Traffic and Stormwater

o Level 5 - 43 jobs

o Level 6 - 5 jobs

40 new positions were advertised during June, consisting of:

· Procurement and Fleet - 7 positions

· Properties, Major Projects and Facilities - 15 positions

· Community Services and Culture - 4 positions

· Trees, Parks and Sportsfields - 7 positions

· Human Resources - 8 positions

The total number of positions advertised since March was 113 at the time of writing this report.

Leadership and Culture

High Performance Leadership Program

23 newly appointed Level 4 managers commenced the High Performance Leadership Program on 19 June. This is the same program completed by the Level 1, 2 and 3 Leadership Team in May and will ensure a consistent leadership approach across the organisation into the future.

A second group of Level 4 managers will commence the program in August, once the remaining Level 4 appointments have been made.

Leadership Team retreat

The Leadership Team attended a retreat on 22 and 23 June. The agenda saw a mix of strategy development and team building, with sessions focused on building employee engagement; a consistent approach for forming new teams and setting up for success; Council’s financial future and stewardship; and building continuous improvement to support business excellence.

Team Co-location

The co-location of teams is regarded as one of the most significant and highly impactful integration projects within the Transformation Program. The project has been in planning since December 2016 and is now gaining momentum with Phase One relocation moves now well under way. Teams who have already moved in together are reporting that it is good to finally be in the same location.

To enable Phase One moves, two sites within the project required major refurbishment; the ‘Demountable’ at Leichhardt Admin Centre and the Djuarli Room at St Peters Building B.

The refurbishment of the Demountable at Leichhardt Admin Centre has been completed, with Rangers moving in over the first weekend in June, providing the team with a contemporary, comfortable, functional and compliant workspace.

Works on the Djuarli Room, which is being transformed from a training room into office space, is now complete, with Trees, Parks and Sportsfields staff moving in on the weekend of 24 June.

The Trees, Parks and Sportsfields team have been extensively consulted in the lead up to co-location. They have commissioned a local artist to design and install a mural within the stairwell to make the site an inviting and productive place to work.

Importantly, as part of the co-location the WH&S Unit are completing thorough WH&S inspections before any of the moves go ahead, typically the inspections take place on the Friday before the move.

Largely the number of staff that can move at any one time is dictated by the number of ICT computer installations that can be completed. An ambitious move schedule has been prepared for the weekends of 30 June and 7 July including:

· Roads and Stormwater engineers will move from Leichhardt Level 2 to St Peters Building A

· Legal Services will move from Leichhardt Level 1 to Leichhardt Level 2

· Communications Engagement and Events staff from Ashfield and Petersham will move to Level 2 at Leichhardt

· The Major Projects team from Petersham will move into the Leichhardt ground floor

· Parts of the Finance teams from Leichardt, Petersham and Ashfield will be moving in together on Level 2 at Petersham. The End of Financial Year process and the roll out of the finance module of Tech One on 3 July have been a key considerations in the scheduling of Phase One moves, to avoid minimal disruption to services and permit the end of year to proceed as smoothly as possible.

Ongoing consideration of staff morale and the personal impact from having to relocate is at the forefront in the project planning.

Communication pieces are particularly important now as the physical moves begin and have been specifically tailored for this stage of the moves and for specific teams as required (for example, as shown the Tress, Parks and Sportsfields team received a specialised information pack).

Co-location packs provide staff with critical and practical information including floor layouts, IT support and emergency evacuation routes.

Co-location continues to feature prominently in the Staff Newsletters. ‘Move Champions’ meet weekly receiving information for dissemination within their groups and acting as a central point of contact for staff.

Co-location for depots has encountered some delay, as a result of operating restrictions in regard to truck movements at the Summer Hill site. A number of options and alternatives are currently being explored across the other depot sites. It is hoped that a report will be provided for the August Joint Consultative Committee with a clear path forward.

Other Works in support of Co-location

The under-supply of female toilet facilities at the Petersham Administration Centre heavily featured in feedback from staff during the consultation phase of the co-location project. This has been addressed with new facilities on Level 3 adjacent to the Council Chambers now complete.

A number of ICT/facilities projects are also underway. These include providing wi-fi access to staff across all centres and new security passes being rolled out to provide all staff access across all sites.

Community Engagement

Community Engagement Framework

Submissions from the exhibition period have been assessed and incorporated where possible. The draft Community Engagement Framework was adopted by Council on 27 June. Development of a staff toolkit will follow.

Strategic Reference Groups

Five of the SRGs met during June, as follows:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander – 6 June

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander SRG met on Tuesday 6 June. A quorum was not present, however the meeting went ahead without official recommendations and minutes were recorded.

The Group were informed about Council’s agreement to support the Koori Knockout in 2017 and were also provided details and asked for feedback regarding the NSW Local Government Stronger Community Funds – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Projects (specifically the dual naming and way finding projects from the Cooks River to the Iron Cove Bay).

Additionally, the Group continued on from the April meeting to provide feedback into the Community Strategic Plan, providing input for Planning and Development, Civic Leadership, and Local Business and Industry.

The Group were also asked for feedback about Council’s proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Citizen of the Year; were presented with details about Council’s NAIDOC Week 2017 events; and were invited to attend the Cooks River Culture and Country Event and Forum on 16 June 2017.

Social Inclusion – 14 June

A core function of this SRG is to provide strategic planning, policy and feedback to Council on specific issues, policies and plans in order to support social inclusion.

The SRG had a presentation from Council’s Communications Team regarding the process, accessibility, engagement and timeframes regarding the development of Council’s new website. The Group is very interested in access and equity and ensuring the entire community has equal access to information and services. Some members have actively engaged in the website consultation and were pleased with the progress and to note that Council is striving for best practice regarding accessibility requirements.

The Group noted that Council had adopted the Social Inclusion Action Plan, Affordable Housing Policy and the Homelessness Policy since the last meeting. The members reiterated their strong support for all three policies, recognising the positive work and outcomes that were being achieved particularly with regards to addressing the issues for rough sleepers in the inner west. It was also highlighted that homelessness is broader than rough sleepers, noting housing affordability is also of considerable concern and that the Group would appreciate a further presentation at a future meeting on the affordable housing policy and its implementation.

The Group also provided positive feedback on the diverse array of socially inclusive programs, partnerships and initiatives that are being delivered by the Inner West Council. This included Council’s financial commitment over the next four years towards programs and initiatives that address domestic and family violence; Council’s partnership with Redfern All Blacks to host the 2017 NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout Carnival (Koori Knockout) and the establishment of the Community and Refugee Welcome Centre, a result of a positive partnership with Settlement Services International and Sydney Justice and Peace Office / Diocese, to operate weekly programs and services to refugees.

Planning & Heritage - 15 June

The Group considered the draft submission prepared following the Community Strategic Plan workshop held on 15 May and provided further feedback for inclusion in the submission.

An update was also provided on the Haberfield Conservation Area State Heritage Register listing progress, including the outcome of a meeting between Council officers and the NSW Heritage Branch.

An overview of the draft Central District Plan was presented along with the issues raised by Council in its submission to the Draft District Plan.

Young Leaders – 26 June

The Group continues to contribute to the development of the Community Strategic Plan and provided input into to the Local Business and Industry and Civic Leadership priorities / issues in Community Strategic Plan Issues Paper:

Following preliminary discussions at the April meeting, a working group of the SRG met on 14 June to provide further input into the following priorities in the CSP Issues Paper:

- Planning and Development

- Transport

- Social Vitality, Creativity and Quality of Life

- Sustainability and the Environment

The Group continues to discuss the wider engagement of children and young people in the development of the Community Strategic Plan, including a survey (for young people) and the Creating Our Inner West 2036 photo competition.

The Group also received an update on upcoming youth programs, such as the Winter 2017 School Holiday Program.

Housing and Affordability – 26 June

The Group discussed their submission on the CSP Issues Paper, priorities and the Community Strategic Plan. The Group also discussed private rental issues affecting the community; and considered an update provided on progress made by Council to seek approval from the NSW Minister for Planning for inclusion under SEPP 70.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Nil.

OTHER STAFF COMMENTS

Information to inform this report has been drawn from relevant staff across the organisation.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION

This report is published on the Council website.

CONCLUSION

Substantial process continues to be made on the implementation of key integration projects and the building of one, integrated organisation and culture.

ATTACHMENTS

1.⇩

I-Plan Status Report Attachment - July 2017

Members:	· Lucille McKenna OAM	· Alex Lofts
	· Darcy Byrne	· Vera-Ann Hannaford
	· Sam Iskandar	· Rosana Tyler
Other Attendees:
· Richard Pearson, Administrator · Rik Hart, Interim General Manager · Peter Gainsford, Deputy General Manager Assets and Environment · Michael Tzimoulas, Deputy General Manager Chief Financial and Administration Officer · John Warburton, Deputy General Manager Community and Engagement · Nellette Kettle, Group Manager Integration, Customer Service and Business Excellence · Ian Naylor, Manager Governance and Administration · Rad Miladinovic, Coordinator Governance and Administration (Minute Taker)