Riverland G3 Alliance (SA)

ICT Shared Service

CT Management Group’s alliance partner CSS Services Pty Ltd was appointed by the Riverland G3 Alliance (RG3A) in 2017, to undertake a shared ICT review.

The scope of the ICT strategy was defined as:

A high-level review of the existing ICT environment and related information;

Review of perceptions of the organisation regarding ICT services, including identification of key issues for service delivery where: Service gaps exist when compared to the expectations of the organisation.

Service gaps exist when compared to the undocumented expectations of the organisation.

ICT services and/or direction is not meeting the expectations of the organisation.

Review of current service standards or agreements which are in place for the provision of ICT services to the organisation.

The Riverland G3 Alliance was established in 2015 as a joint approach between Renmark-Paringa Council, Berri-Barmera Council and the District Council of Loxton-Waikerie, to a number of challenges faced by all three councils in the riverland of South Australia.

Having jointly implemented an IT managed service in 2015 and with the impending expiry of that agreement in 2018, the RG3A decided to undertake the development of an ICT strategy for the future.

CSS was commissioned by the Riverland G3 Alliance in 2017 after a detailed tender and assessment by the councils.

The ICT Strategy involved undertaking detailed consultation with each of the three councils to understand in detail the environment of each council, including current systems and technologies and opportunities to improve and deliver services to the community.

A five-year strategic approach to the ongoing delivery of ICT services for each of the 3 councils was developed.


Key planks of this strategy included:

  1. Strategic approach to the impending need for re-tendering for the ICT managed service, including parameters for improved service based on experiences to date.
  2. A shared service approach for the provision of key ICT functions through the established of a shared ICT function. Beginning with business analyst capabilities, the plan called for shared resourcing for business analyst/business transformation, GIS and digital and electronic customer service roles.
  3. Addressing some immediate systems and functionality shortcomings including agenda management, improved GIS services whilst embracing cloud services for hardware deployment;
  4. Establishment of formalised ICT Governance in the shared services environment, including application management, project management, and ICT Steering Committee/s.
  5. Planned harmonisation of systems across all 3 councils.

The strategy was completed in June 2017 and adopted by all Councils.


Outcomes

Key outcomes to date include:

  1. Delivery of the ICT Strategy and ratification by all three councils.
  2. Tendering for replacement of all existing physical server and storage infrastructure with cloud services using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) facilities.
  3. Detailed and ratification of a formal ICT governance framework to govern the deployment of ICT services for the RG3A.

Further stages of the overall program focus on the continuing implementation of the ICT strategy including:

  1. Implementation of a modern agenda management system for all three member councils;
  2. Development of a mobile computing strategy to maximise the investment in current systems for mobile workers;
  3. Planned harmonisation of systems across all three RG3A councils.

Director CSS, Phil Bourke continues to actively work with the RG3A stated,

“Having developed the ICT Strategy for the three councils, we were impressed with the level of existing informal cooperation between the councils as part of the overall RG3A.

We have been able to effectively build on that informal cooperating into an effective joint shared service for ICT services which allows all three councils to plan for leading digital service delivery to their customers.”