Gloucestershire County Council is laying the ground for a new digital and IT operating model and strategy.
The move follows a commitment to making more of digital and data in its recently published Looking to the Future strategy.
The approach is still in its early days. The council has identified three work packages to pursue, one of which is to define the current and future state of IT to support the digital aspirations of itself and Gloucester City Council.
The others are to develop a target operating model for digital and IT services; and the development of options for a sourcing and procurement strategy. It has emphasised the importance of the latter as a number of its current IT agreements are due to expire by April 2021.
Looking for partner
As the next step, Gloucestershire is looking for a digital transformation partner to help develop its programme. The procurement notice emphasises the transformation of the digital experience for staff, partners and the public, and says some initial stakeholder mapping has already begun.
The Looking to the Future document contains few specifics on digital plans, but points to the need for a customer access strategy with clear, joined up service pathways, and an overall increase in the provision of digital services.
There are also references to harnessing the potential of AI and using 5G to provide an infrastructure for self-driving and semi-autonomous vehicles.
Image by Elliot Brown, CC BY 2.0
