SOUTHEND-ON-SEA CITY COUNCIL
Tackling commonplace issues for the people of Southend never incorporated digitisation until recently . Now , as the organisation ’ s Director of Digital & ICT , Carol Thomas leads the digital transformation of SCC . She was able to take an underperforming IT team and turn things around during the coronavirus pandemic , which further tested the organisation ’ s ability to adapt to modern challenges through digitisation .
Not only is Thomas well-versed in IT systems , but her stint in business operations helped open her eyes to build understanding of how organisations operate and the potential areas for digital transformation . What ’ s more , she led a critical demand of SCC during one of the most challenging periods in terms of maintaining the integrity of processes , let alone implementing new initiatives to streamline actions to meet the future demands of its locality .
Since COVID-19 , the team has adopted more digital methods of working , including a work-from-home model , allowing employees to manage their own workloads and personal lives much better . This was a major part of rebuilding its leadership team , as well as adopting the right solutions to unlock the benefits of a legacy system overhaul .
Driving organisational performance and a digital culture Not only has the performance of the organisation changed throughout its transformation journey , but the culture itself has shifted to create a more committed and digital-focused environment — spending less time on the menial , mundane tasks and allowing the team to focus on the development of resident experiences with the council .
Discussing this on behalf of the organisation , Thomas confirms why transformation is such a critical movement for SCC , stating that it was shaped by “ the drive to do more with less across the whole council ; the drive to work a lot smarter ”.
“ We moved from an underperforming IT environment , which was not engaged with the rest of the council , to having an absolute desire to build a smart city — and we ’ re now working towards it .”
SCC ’ s first port of call for digitisation was to acquire solutions from Microsoft as the base of its hybrid-working model . Working with Microsoft Office 365 has been a gamechanger for the organisation , supporting
120 December 2022