As part of a novel online strategy for the next three years, Hillingdon Council will invest £9 million to improve the way residents access services.
Agreed on 10 October, the strategy sets out four key principles, which include prioritising residents ‘ needs, carrying out an efficient approach to delivery, delivering new business models driven by data, and adopting a “one council” approach by creating project teams and shared goals.  ,
The strategy will also create five different workstreams, which will focus both on building services online by default, sourcing better data to make better decisions, modernising council infrastructure and systems, building electronic capacity and inclusion, and delivering a modern place.  ,
The West London council will use these principles and workstreams to simplify residents ‘ experience when using services and information so they can perform basic transactions quickly and only speak with the council once. It will also develop a modern, digitally skilled council workforce and learn residents ‘ needs using data insights to influence the service improvements.
The strategy will also make an effort to improve the services while also preserving or lowering total costs.
” While we have, to date, already made a host of modern improvements, this new strategy and investment of £9m in electronic technologies will significantly propel our vision of being a more modern council into reality and greatly improve our resident, visitor, business and staff experience”, said councillor Douglas Mills, Hillingdon’s cabinet member for commercial services.
The document provides a large, overarching framework for efficient business planning and powerful performance management within the council to encourage the transformation of services to continue to meet the evolving needs and expectations of our residents and facilitate quicker and more effective dealing with the council.
Making services available online by default will include a redesign of the council’s website so that it is apparent and user can find information without having to contact the council, according to the strategy document itself. It added that users can access the website using a second sign-on and get there in two or three clicks.
Making the council digital for all but the most disadvantaged residents will also be done for all paid services online.
Hillingdon added that it would improve its data warehouse to provide insights and” a single view of the customer” and make use of machine learning ( ML) and artificial intelligence ( AI ) to improve customer experiences and make the council more effective. It also added that it would engineer its systems data so it’s easier to combine and analyse.
The council’s data capture and collection efforts will be used, for example, to track the performance of assets, such as boilers in council housing, energy use and responsible energy management systems.
Additionally, the council will implement a data cleansing and reduction program to eliminate duplicate records and ensure that data is both accessible and appropriate.
The strategy called on the council to create a” clear architectural vision and mapping for all council technology systems” to include automating existing systems, as well as ensuring that any newly acquired systems use open application programming interfaces ( open APIs ) to make their future integration easier.
This will also entail a “review and reset” of all back-office systems so that they can be transitioned to “modern, cloud-based technology”.
