Image source: istock.com/leighcol
Swansea Council is set to invest more than £2 million over the next two years on improving and upgrading digital services.
It has said its cabinet will be asked to approve the investment next week as part of the plan to make Swansea a digitally connected city.
The plan comes from the council’s new digital strategy, which includes principles of people focused digital services, resilient infrastructure and systems, accessible data and a digitally skilled workforce.
The cabinet is being asked to approve the first round of investment, with initial projects in the pipeline covering the further automation of services and digital upgrades for commercial waste management and housing services.
Joint deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for service transformation, Cllr Andrea Lewis, said: "Over the last seven years we've delivered hundreds of digital projects, cutting out red tape and paper forms, automating activity and creating the Swansea Account so residents and businesses can log-in and access services without having to repeat basic information over and over again.
"It means people can do more business with us, more often and at a time that suits them whether that's online, on the phone or face-to-face. But it also means our investment in digital means millions of pounds in costs savings for us and more jobs done the right way first time."
Community hub
She added: "Digital services and support for residents will be at the heart of our new community hub at the former BHS store in Swansea city centre, where residents will be able to do business with us face-to-face as well as online.”
Among the action points in the strategy are to design new access channels, expand the Swansea Account with more online services, automate more routine tasks, provide a ‘cloud first’ infrastructure and software systems, carry out joint procurement with local, regional and national partners, deploy more business intelligence software and provide more open data.
