Agenda item

To follow.

6.1       Izzet Guran (Information Officer) presented the report and advised that work on restructuring digital delivery to be City Council driven had commenced in May 2017. The ‘Report It’ function had seen significant uptake, with around 8,000 residents registered to use the service and around 16,000 cases created. Since ‘Report It’ had been created, there had been a number of improvements to the service, with all but two journeys now not requiring users to register with the service and to be able to access services as guests. Improvements were also being made to on-mapping services, with unnecessary maps being removed. Izzet Guran advised that steps were being made to place the Contact Centre on the same web platform as the Council’s website. This would bring the same customer database across the Contact Centre and the website and bring an ‘omni-channel’ experience to customers.

6.2       Izzet Guran advised that an external agency had been commissioned to review the City Council’s website and had undertaken a number of ‘light sprints’ covering the following functions:

·         Homepage

·         Find it

·         Apply and pay

·         What’s new in Westminster

·         Life stage – moving into Westminster

6.3       Izzet Guran informed Members that in the longer term, a procurement for a new web platform would be undertaken and implementation timescales would be based on other local authorities’ experiences, including looking at how these transpired at Manchester City Council and Birmingham City Council.

6.4       During discussions, a Member emphasised the need to ensure that digital services were ‘mobile first’ so that customers could access and use them on their mobile phones. He felt that some customer journeys were still too long and he suggested that commercial organisations offering good mobile services be approached for ideas. Members commented that they would be happy to help test mobile digital services. It was asked who reviewed changes to the website to assess whether they offered improvements. A Member queried when would it be possible to upload photographs on ‘Report It’ forms. Another Member requested that ‘councillor’ be added as an option to the ‘Report It’ forms and asked what steps were being made to make customer journeys faster. Members also expressed a desire to be more fully engaged in developing the Digital Transformation Strategy. 

6.5       The Chairman concurred that it was important that services could be accessed by mobile devices as otherwise there was a danger that the City Council would fall behind the technology other organisations were offering. He emphasised the importance of digital services being able to work well on popular mobile platforms such as Apple and Android. He sought details of the timescale by which time most services could be used through mobile phones. The Chairman welcomed the progress on mapping.

6.6       In reply to issues raised by Members, Izzet Guran acknowledged that progress needed to be made in making digital services accessible to mobile devices, and there would be recognisable improvements in respect of this by November/December 2018. Testing was currently being undertaken on a number of different types of devices, including mobile phones. With regard to the City Council’s website, Izzet Guran advised that the design had initially been service led. This approach was now being changed and customer focus groups were being used to provide their views on the website. The post of Head of Customer Experience had been created and was responsible for liaising with the focus groups. In respect of uploading photographs on ‘Report It’, Izzet Guran advised that there was already some functionality, although this needed to developed more widely. Efforts were also being made to make customer journeys faster, although mapping was the biggest obstacle to this because of the complexities involved and alternatives were being looked at.

6.7       The Chairman thanked officers for the progress made to date and encouraged there to be more dialogue with Members and customers on this. However, it was important that progress continue to be made in improving digital services. The Chairman requested that councillors be sent details of officers they could contact for ideas about the website. He also requested that the Digital Strategy be included in the next Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services update.

6.8       ACTIONS:

1.    Add ‘councillor’ as an option to the ‘Report It’ function. (Action for: Ben Goward, Chief Information Officer.)

2.    Details to be provided on photograph upload capability on all Report It forms and when this will be. (Action for: Ben Goward, Chief Information Officer.)

3.    Councillors to be sent details of officers they could contact for ideas about the website. (Action for: Ben Goward, Chief Information Officer.)

4.    Digital Strategy to be included in the next Cabinet Member for Housing and Customer Services. (Action for: Ben Goward, Chief Information Officer and David Lee, Cabinet Officer.)