West Dunbartonshire Council is spending £1.8 million in Information Technology (IT) to support and maintain their existing existing IT systems and services.
This annual investment will maintain the council’s current digital offer, ensuring that residents can continue to access all online services quickly and easily in a secure manner, and follows a significant increase in the number of residents accessing services digitally during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The spend also includes corporate licenses for key programmes, security technologies for scanning, protection and encryption, as well as device, application and policy management technologies.
Additional investment of over £800,000 will facilitate the review all technology hardware, including servers, switches, wireless access points, security infrastructure, cabling, telephone infrastructure, storage and multi-function printers and scanners.
In addition, West Dunbartonshire Council will invest £357,000 in replacing IT devices, a further £100,000 in renewing laptop/tablet provision and £50,000 to increase network bandwidth at some school and office locations.
The council reviews the annual maintenance and license payments regularly to ensure they represent best value and accurately represent the needs of the local authority.
Commenting, Convener for West Dunbartonshire Council’s Corporate Services Committee and Corporate Services Spokesperson, Councillor Ian Dickson said: “The council is committed to providing our residents with easy access to all of the services offered.
“At the moment, the main access to these services is via virtual meetings, telephone and our website, and so it’s pleasing that we are investing this money to enhance our technology to create conditions that will further support our citizens. It is important that our services are reliable, secure, cost effective and offer confidence to everyone who uses them.
“We must continually look at old, ageing and end of life technology and ensure we review and renew equipment and licenses that are essential to continuing services and supporting our citizens and our employees.”
Vice Convener of the Corporate Services Committee at West Dunbartonshire Council, Councillor Iain McLaren added: “The pandemic has changed the way many of our citizens interact with the council. It is vital that we have robust contracts and IT infrastructure in place to deliver first-class services to our residents.
“These plans will allow us to provide the best possible services to our communities and ensure our workforce who are working from home have the IT support available to them to deliver for our communities.”
