Hey everyone, I’m David, I would like to start by saying this is my first blog post (ever!)
I have been working with Luton Council since August 2023 as part of the outsourced Civica team before transitioning to be part of the internal DDaT team.
What is my role?
My main role revolves around the email infrastructure, Exchange servers, email security, Egress etc. Along with ticket escalations as a “Technical Services Analyst” I also get involved with a large aspect of Office 365 and its administration, working with IG for investigations and ensuring some of our tech policies are adhered to. I can turn my hand to pretty much anything I need to and am happy to help anyone if I am able to do so. Recently I have acquired two new exciting opportunities of being a “Teams Champion” and a “DDaT Change Agent” will only further our position of change and improvements.
A bit of history.
Prior to my council affiliation I was working within the private sector, supporting the business across the EMEA region at an enterprise level. Working my way up, gathering a wide array of skills, both technical and interpersonal. Luton is diverse, our service offering is diverse and my background over the last decade puts me in a strong position to help the council achieve the 2040 vision.
I love what the council stands for, its ambitions, its goals and with the staff I know, I see no reason that it will not be achieved.
This has been proven to me on a personal level over the last couple of months and beyond. My mother and Alzheimer’s, my father with COPD, his partner with Huntingdon’s along with myself going through a divorce!. The people I work with have all shown empathy, compassion and incredible support, its that kind of environment that makes me feel privileged and is huge driving factor, to help all those that I can.
A sprinkle of wisdom.
Although you may be in a dark place right now, light still exists, its just that sometimes you need help to reignite the flame of life. One thing I have learnt recently is that Luton is full of light bringers, there is not a single day that goes by that I do not smile or laugh.
Something to shout about!
DDaT had its first away day last week, held at the University of Bedfordshire’s Post Graduate Centre. Unfortunately, not everyone could make it, but there was still a good turn out with managers and their respective teams doing well to cover BAU.
Opening by the CEO
Robin Porter (current Chief Exec) opened up, going into a few key areas, stating how well DDaT have done in such a short space of time and how it will be beneficial going forward. A pew people had questions around the football stadium – power court and the Vauxhall/Stelantis situation, giving us a bit of an insight to the future of those areas along with a brief history on what we have done as a council to try and ease the situation and any information that was put forward by the owners.
Ice Breaker
After Robin’s fabulous introductions we then had a 10 minute ice breaker, to see what team could build the tallest structure with a marshmallow ontop. The winners were Service Desk, proving they can work under pressure and at speed while communicating effectively, there were some other amazing creations, but there can only be one winner. Do you think you can do better in 10 minutes or less?
DDaT vision, objectives and key results
Atika lead the next section and spoke about the “Golden Thread” taking Luton’s 2040 vision and outcome plan, feeding into our DDaT vision onto objectives building into a roadmap and finally for a delivery plan. It is still early days, but the service is still young!
A few key areas of focus going forward are improving our maturity as a DDaT service, working better together will enable us to better support, guide and develop the wider organisation essentially becoming digital and data led. The final main focus is to support local businesses and residents though technology and data, it is apparent that within tech it is not uncommon to neglect the user experience and after care, assuming everyone will know how to use it and want to use it. We can see the benefits, but we should also be there to support those who may not have the same passion or skills we do.
Team introductions
There was then an opportunity for each team to stand up and explain what they do in a little detail, I think we all know of someone in another team as our roles will require us to work with one another, some more than others. However, this was the time to show everyone what we really do, not so much on the individual skill sets, but going forward I personally have a better understanding of who does what, and if I am thinking about a project or task, it makes it that much easier to reach the right team for the job.
Roadmaps
Keeping with a similar theme to the team introductions, around the room were placed some of the projects each team were working on. We were asked to score what three were “the most important to us” it was apparent that there were some very clear overlaps on projects, but there were also a few “Ahh” moments I could hear around the room, finding out that another team have started a project while another only just starting to think about. From that the conversations started flowing and many of them will continue to develop and evolve now that the away day is just a memory!
Transformation Team
We had the new head of Transformation, Chantel Hampton, come down and talk to us about the programme as a whole, including an important milestone that the second phase had not only been shared with and approved by the executives.
Some of the key achievements were around residents experiences, where a new housing hub has been agreed to be implemented.
Another way DDaT are helping with, is the telephony system, to help implement and improve the resident self service wherever appropriate and freeing up time from the customer service team to help others that need it.
It doesn’t end there though, as we can all get involved and submit new ideas to: [email protected]
DDaT Change Agents
Sarah explained what the DDaT change Agents were all about, and what is on the agenda over the coming months, from gathering the ideas and working with SMT for any approvals as required.
So far 67 items have been put in for review from the staff workshops held by Atika at the beginning of the year, assigning owners to those tasks and pulling out more detail on how it can be achieved.
Sorting priority and assessing any items that can be selected for those quick wins that will boost moral!
A few of the upcoming items that are up for review is the M365 suite of products, what our current licencing gets us, and how we can best use this within the organization to either improve or replace existing products.
OneDrive for the DDaT team as a general quick win, many already are using it, so have decided to put forward the plan to get it rolled out to the rest of the team.
Another large area of concern was around training, so this will be reviewed and materials put together and shared once ready.
Teams Champions
Me, I am a Teams champion! I briefly explained who we were, the members of the team and our goals, that of being a Teams first organisation, there is a lot Teams can do, but we are simply not using it to its full potential.
We are here to change that, by giving better guidance and training where its needed, we can help people become more collaborative, create structured communication, workflows and much more.
Leveraging OneDrive more effectively to share and using Teams where multiple people can work on the same document at once is a great feature that the corporate file share lacks.
Using information from the recently completed Teams survey we obtained some valuable data that will enable us to build the right platform and effectively onboard.
2040 Team
We had Jane come in to talk about the 2040 vision, the latest updates along with the role DDaT plays in all of this. Although 2040 seems a long way away, I can see the importance of setting out the vision early, sharing the details of the roadmaps and pillars of what we need to achieve are essential, it was a great opportunity to see first hand how much detail is in these plans and over the coming years being able to actively contribute and drive this plan to success is an amazing feeling.