This page provides an introduction to some of the technical skills which contribute towards council’s digitalisation objectives.
How to use this page:
This page provides an introduction to some of the technical skills which contribute towards council’s digitalisation objectives.
It is not intended to be comprehensive. Instead, it illustrates how different skills – when applied strategically, cohesively, and with consideration of a council’s context - might work together to achieve an objective.
Heads of Service can use these lists to facilitate more detailed conversations with IT and Organisational Development teams.
SO1: Reduce manual or transactional tasks for the workforce, creating efficiency savings and enabling a focus on more creative tasks
- Redesigning processes to promote accessibility and efficiency.
- Reviewing existing systems for automation opportunities, and automate business processes and routine tasks to allow teams to focus on more complex tasks.
- Streamlining internal procedures and eliminate duplicate functions.
- Ensuring processes are digital by default, to reduce paper usage.
- Reducing the number of applications and promote technology reuse.
- Standardising and optimise IT tools and services.
- Creating an integrated digital infrastructure, with systems that communicate with one another.
- Providing consistent access to systems and information.
Understanding what the business needs from technology:
- Business analysis - this enables councils to analyse business needs and identify opportunities for improvement in manual processes.
- Benefits management – this enables councils to clearly state the benefits which a new process or way of working could bring, and identify ways to track those benefits.
- Business process improvement – this enables councils to streamline or re-design business processes in ways which can meet business needs.
- Service catalogue management – this enables councils to keep track of available systems, software, and tools. It supports the identification of existing tools which could be operationalised in new ways to improve processes.
- Emerging technology monitoring – this enables councils to track and identify new tools, technologies, products, services, and techniques which could help to create efficiencies for services.
- Innovation – this enables councils to identify ways to implement new and emerging technologies, products, services, methods, or techniques, so that the council can capture their benefits in practice.
Understanding what users need from technology:
- User Experience analysis – this enables councils to understand the context of use for existing processes, and set out goals for their improvement based on what the user is trying to achieve.
- User experience design – this enables councils to create prototypes of new and improved processes, so that users can try them in practice. This helps the council to understand whether the new process enables the user to meet their goals.
- User experience evaluation – this enables councils to systematically check whether new ways of working are helping users to achieve their goals, and to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
Data strategy and data insights:
- Data architecture – this enables councils to design the overall structure of its data assets in a way that supports business needs. This can make it easier for datasets to be shared or joined up across a council.
- Data engineering – this helps to ensure that the technologies for gathering, processing, and delivering data, support the services to access, input, and use data as intended. This can help to reduce the need for duplicate data entry.
- Database administration – this enables councils to maintain, secure, and operate databases to optimise their performance and availability.
- Data management – this enables councils to take a structured and consistent approach to storing and tagging data, which means that data can be used more effectively across services. This reduces the need for repeated data entry.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- Information governance – this enables councils to implement governance practices to ensure data quality and integrity in automated processes.
- Information security – this enables the council to implement security measures to protect automated systems and data.
Implementing systems and solutions which are fit for purpose:
- Solution Architecture - this enables councils to create detailed plans and specifications for solutions to address business problems, and to set out how the different components of the solution – such as hardware, software, and networks – will work together.
Supporting people through change:
- Organisational change management – this enables councils to set out a strategy for supporting the workforce to adopt new ways of working.
SO2: Implement working methods which allow for a more mobile and efficient workforce
- Implementing organisational processes such as hybrid meetings.
- Enabling off-site working and data entry, to reduce duplication in processes and enable a mobile workforce.
- Expanding internet-based services and simplify local infrastructure for hybrid working.
- Equipping staff with modern, reliable, and usable tools, to enable more efficient working.
- Reviewing and utilising technological advances.
Understanding what the business needs:
- Business analysis - Analyse business needs and advise on changes to enable a more mobile and efficient workforce.
Understanding what the user needs:
- User experience design - Ensure a positive and efficient user experience for mobile working interfaces.
Systems strategy and implementation:
- Enterprise and business architecture - this enables councils to ensure that their technology strategy - their data, applications, ways of working, and technologies - align with business objectives.
- Solution architecture – this enables councils to design solutions that support mobile working methods and enhance efficiency.
- Systems design – this enables councils to ensure that new systems are compatible with existing council systems or software, and that overall business needs are being met.
- Asset management – this enables councils to keep track of their assets, including hardware, software, and data. It can help to ensure that the technologies needed for mobile working are properly stored, distributed, and disposed of, and that their use is compliance with legal and security requirements.
Data strategy and insights:
- Data Management – this enables councils to structure and catalogue their data assets, so that access, combine, and analyse data from a range of locations.
Managing risks to the council’s data and assets:
- Risk management – this enables councils to consider the risks associated with new ways of working, so that they can make decisions which balance beneficial outcomes with risks to e.g. security or finances.
- Security architecture – this enables councils to ensure that security considerations are reflected in the specification and design of new or changing solutions.
- Security operations – this enables councils to identify the potential security risks from hybrid or mobile working, and implement technical controls which mitigate those risks.
- Information security – this enables councils to understand the security implications of different ways of processing and storing data, e.g. cloud-based storage, and to choose appropriate controls to protect data confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
- Information governance.
IT service and support:
- IT infrastructure management - this enables councils to maintain or improve its hardware, software, and networks, and make sure that they are performing well enough to meet a mobile workforce’s needs.
Supporting people:
- Methods and tools – this enables councils to ensure that new methods and tools are easily usable – for example, by automating the use of certain tools, or tailoring them to the needs of the organisation.
- Learning design and development - this enables councils to develop training programmes to enhance the skills of staff in using mobile technologies.
SO3: Develop digital, self-service routes for customers, creating efficiency savings and reaching more residents
- Promoting a “digital by default” organisation, i.e. digital is the default mode of customer interaction. Facilitate channel shift to digital services, including the use of self-serve platforms.
- Redesigning processes to proactively anticipate and support citizen and business requests.
- Prioritising usability in digital service design, ensuring completion at the first attempt.
- Ensuring that services are intuitive, accessible, and cater for diverse customer needs.
- Providing easily accessible and always available information online.
- Establishing performance measures to ensure digital services meet expectations.
Understand what the business needs:
- Business analysis – this enables councils to analyse business needs and requirements to ensure digital solutions meet customer and efficiency objectives.
Understand what users need:
- User research – this enables councils to understand what residents need from a service, and helps to ensure that the design of new, digital self-service routes supports users to achieve their objectives.
- Content design – this enables councils to ensure that online content is easy to use, understand, and navigate, so that residents are incentivised to use online services.
- Interaction design – this enables councils to design online services which are intuitive to navigate.
- Accessibility design – this enables councils to ensure that online services comply with accessibility standards, so that they are easy to use for everyone.
- Frontend development – this enables councils to write their own website code, to build and test new online services.
- Testing – this enables councils to evaluate websites before publication.
- User experience evaluation – this enables councils to assess whether new online services are being used and are usable as expected.
SO4: Enable residents to communicate with services and access information about themselves in one place
- Developing and enhancing end-to-end digital services for a positive customer experience.
- Establishing a “single sign-in" customer account for easy access to information.
- Implementing personalised online information availability for both customers and workforce.
- Achieving and maintaining end-to-end automation and updates.
- Minimising the number of times residents need to input data, ensuring information collection efficiency.
- Ensuring that back-office processes are engineered to support seamless customer journeys.
- Integrating digital principles across policies, strategies and services.
Understanding what the business needs:
- Business analysis - Analyse business needs and requirements to ensure effective integration of resident communication and information.
Understanding what users need:
- User experience design - Ensure a seamless and user-friendly experience for residents accessing information and communicating with services.
- User research - this enables councils to understand what residents need from a service, and helps to ensure that the design of a new online service supports users to achieve their objectives.
- Accessibility design - this enables councils to ensure that online services comply with accessibility standards, so that they are easy to use for everyone.
Data strategy and insights:
- Data architecture – this enables councils to design the overall structure of its data assets to feed into a single, online, customer-facing portal.
- Data ethics – this enables councils to assess whether they are fair, transparent, and accountable in the way that they are using residents’ data.
- Data management – this enables councils to establish data management practices that support a consolidated view of resident information.
- Data modelling and design – this gives councils a blueprint for organising and understanding complex data, to enable its efficient storage, retrieval and analysis in service of an online portal.
- Data engineering - this helps to ensure that the technologies for gathering, processing, and delivering data, support services to access, input, and use data as intended.
- Information management – this supports councils to ensure that they are only collecting information which is relevant, correct, and valuable, and that unnecessary information is disposed of correctly.
Systems strategy and implementation:
- Systems integration and build – this helps to ensure that online systems are integrated properly with the council’s wider technology, data, and applications.
- Solution architecture – this enables councils to design solutions that consolidate resident communication channels and information access points.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- Information governance – this enables councils to obtain assurance that any risks to information from online services have been properly identified and managed.
- Information security – this enables the councils to choose the right security controls to protect residents’ data.
- Security architecture – this enables councils to ensure that security considerations are reflected in the initial specification and design of new or changing solutions.
Ensuring quality processes and outputs:
- Quality assurance – this helps to ensure that residents are receiving consistent, reliable, and high-quality services.
SO5: Improve data-driven decision making
- Maximising the value of data and information assets. Promoting smart data utilisation, including “collect once, use many times”.
- Developing effective business intelligence. Leveraging data for innovation, efficiency, and service improvement, designing services and making decisions based on evidence of outcomes.
- Facilitating effective and securing data-sharing and data integration between council areas and councils and partners, to enable collaborative service delivery and enhance outcomes.
- Using data and insights to proactively offer support to residents.
- Ensuring data security, and compliance with data protection legislation and ethical considerations.
- Ensuring transparency and accountability in the way that data is used.
Understanding what the business needs:
- Research – this enables councils to articulate the questions which they are trying to answer, and to select appropriate methods for answering these questions.
Systems design and implementation:
- Enterprise and business architecture - This helps to ensure that the council’s data, applications, and technologies, and ways of working are set up in a way that supports the delivery of its business strategies.
- Solution Architecture – this helps the council to design solutions that support effective data collection, storage, and analysis.
- Systems integration and build – this helps to ensure that systems using data are properly integrated with one another and with the council’s wider processes and technologies.
Data strategy and insights:
- Data analysis – this enables councils to utilise data analysis techniques to extract meaningful insights and patterns from available data.
- Data science – this enables councils to carry out complex analysis on large datasets.
- Data architecture – this enables councils to design the overall structure of its data assets in a way that supports business needs.
- Data modelling and design – this gives councils a blueprint for organising and understanding complex data.
- Data management – this helps councils to develop and implement data management practices to ensure data is available and accessible for decision-making.
- Data visualisation – this helps councils to make decisions on the basis of data, by displaying them in ways which are easy to understand.
- Data ethics – this enables councils to assess whether they are fair, transparent, and accountable in the way that they are using residents’ data.
- Machine learning – this enables councils to conduct sophisticated analyses with large quantities of data, to help make decisions.
- Data engineering – this helps to ensure that the technologies for gathering, processing, and delivering data, support the services to access, input, and use data as intended.
- Information management – this supports councils to ensure that they are only collecting information which is relevant, correct, and valuable, and that unnecessary information is disposed of correctly.
Managing security risks to the council’s data and assets:
- Information governance – this enables councils to understand what data it holds, have assurance that it’s being processed in compliance with legal obligations, and take steps to ensure that processes are robust enough for compliance to continue.
- Information security – this enables councils to understand the security implications of different ways of processing and storing data, and to choose appropriate controls to protect it.
SO6: Ensure continuous and strategically-informed improvement
- Maintaining resilient, secure, and appropriate infrastructure.
- Reviewing the use of legacy systems, including providing ongoing support or maintenance where needed.
- Finding new ways of using technology, exploring opportunities for technical development and emerging technologies.
- Rapidly responding to changes in customer demand and market opportunities.
- Ensuring that new innovations and improvements are introduced or expanded in a strategic way, focusing efforts on high-value projects.
- Evaluating, trialling, and implementing new technologies efficiently, based on user needs, performance, costs and technology.
- Challenging suppliers for functionality-rich, cost-effective, and customer-centric digital systems.
Understanding what the business needs:
- Business analysis – this enables councils to maintain an ongoing understanding of business needs and opportunities for improvement.
- Business relationship management – this enables business areas to identify their respective and mutual objectives and ensure that solutions align with these objectives.
- Strategic planning – this enables councils to create a systematic approach to achieving their objectives.
- Emerging technology monitoring – this enables councils to track and identify new tools, technologies, products, services, and techniques which could help to create efficiencies for services.
- Supplier management – this enables councils to collaborate effectively with suppliers, to identify solutions which help the council to solve its problems or exploit opportunities.
- Innovation – this enables councils to identify ways to implement new and emerging technologies, products, services, methods, or techniques, so that the council can capture their benefits in practice.
Understanding what users need:
- User research – this enables councils to maintain an understanding of users’ needs and identify new opportunities to meet those needs.
- User experience evaluation – this enables councils to make continuous improvements to services based on user feedback.
Managing projects and programmes:
- Project Management – this enables councils to take a systematic approach to achieving specific objectives, and to establish the scope of work.
- Governance – this ensures that there is leadership, oversight, and overall direction for improvement programmes.