The document outlines Oxford City Council's customer, digital, and technology strategy for 2019-2021. The strategy's vision is to place customers at the heart of the council and provide good service where it matters most. It details initiatives to invest in staff, help service users, ensure leading systems/processes, and make data dynamic. Over the next two years, the council will undertake projects like replacing legacy systems, increasing online services, and using data analytics to provide a unified customer view. The strategy aims to empower both customers and staff through a focus on customer experience, digital skills, reliable technology, and data-driven decision making.

1. 1
CUSTOMER, DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
2019 - 2021

2. 2Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Vision Statement
Placing our customers at the heart of
the City Council:
Our vision is to provide good service to
our customers, and be great where it
really matters

3. 3Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Vision Enablers
Investing in our people
o Creating the right
environment for
people and services
to develop.
o Role modelling
customer service
behaviours.
o Customer service
that provides
solutions not just
answers.
o Improving the
recruitment and
retention of our
staff.
Helping our Service
Users to take
responsibility,
understand our services,
and get involved
o Helping those that
can to help
themselves.
o Setting realistic
expectations about
our services.
o Getting customer
feedback on our
processes.
o Involving customers
in designing our
services.
o Adding value and
considering the
impact we have on
every customer
interaction.
Ensuring our systems
and processes are
leading edge
o Review of legacy
systems and
technical
approaches,
promoting the art
of the possible.
o Investment in
mobile technology.
o Transactional web
site, promoting self-
service.
o Intuitive, inclusive
and streamlined
processes that
maximise
automation.
Making our data
dynamic
o Providing and
managing business
solutions.
o Helping to set
priorities and make
choices.
o Promoting the
difference we are
making.
o Understanding who
our customers are.

4. 4Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Outcomes

5. 5Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
What Will Be Different
Our Customers
• Able to take control of their
issues
• Engaged/involved in
designing services
• Full understanding of what is
possible and what is not
• Equipped to take advantage
of the latest technologies
Our Staff
• Proactive in addressing
issues
• Empowered teams to make
the right solutions
• Collaborating across the
services and companies
• Equipped to take advantage
of the latest technologies

6. 6Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Our Approach
Our approach has been to design a framework that focuses on how efficiently (time, cost) and effectively (quality of
experience) services are delivered from start to finish. This approach, known as value-chain, examines the steps and
systems that make up a service and collectively considers how each contributes to the overall outcome.
The framework we have designed is shown in the infographic below. Each dimension of the strategy, customer, digital, and
technology, is divided into three categories. These in turn are further divided into subcategories. The resulting balanced
framework provides an easy reference guide to the key elements forming the strategy and associated action plan.
Customer
Customer Experience
Customer Journey
Demand Management
Customer Engagement
Service Delivery
Reduced Failure Demand
Unified View of Customer
Streamlined Processes
Organisational Culture
Employee Engagement
Leadership Behaviours
Customer Culture
Digital
Collaboration
Involving Customers
End-to-End Services
Digital Skills Development
Information
Data Management
Business Analytics
Media Channels
Innovation
Automation
Smarter Working
Internet of Things
Technology
Infrastructure
Reliable
Resilient
Responsive
Applications
Reliable
Future proofing
Ease of Use
Security
Compliance
Governance
Monitoring

7. 7Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Customer Principles
• Solve the customer’s problem completely by making sure that all the
services work together to do so.
• Provide skilled staff who not only solve customer problems but find root
causes and fix them.
• Don’t waste time – a poor experience sends a message to customers that
their time has no value.
• Design the service to adjust in response to demands so that you can
provide exactly what the customer wants.
• Provide value where it’s wanted – design services to maximise
convenience and minimise costs.
• Provide value when it’s wanted – align the interests of the customer and
the service provider.
• Continually aggregate services to reduce the customer’s time and effort.

8. 8Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Digital Principles
• Promoting inclusion
• Putting the customer in control
• Supporting business growth
• Using collaboration to develop

9. 9Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Technology Principles
A set of design principles will help guide our decision making to achieve the outputs set out in the strategy, as well as
ensuring our alignment to the Council’s overarching strategic objectives.
Out-of-the-box by Default
Our technology and solutions will be
standardised and rationalised, reducing
duplication, and using open standards, to
increase compliance and lower the cost of
delivery and support.
User Centric Design
Our IT and digital services will be co-
designed with customer engagement. They
will be easy to use – supporting users to
effectively deal with the Council at a time
and place that suits them.
Goal Oriented
Our governance will be aligned to business goals.
We will use industry benchmarks to ensure we
provide quality services. We will challenge needs
and manage demand, in support of the Council’s
strategic objectives.
Cloud First
We will consider the Cloud as a first option for
hosting software applications, where the total
cost of ownership shows clear advantages,
rather than maintaining systems on site.
Digital by Choice
We will promote online, joined-up, accessible
services, including “Bring-Your-Own-Device”,
enabling users to self serve wherever possible,
automating processes, and in doing so lower
the cost of service provision.
Value for Money
Our decisions will be evidence based.
Solutions will be commissioned, value
tested, with benefits measured and tracked
to deliver efficient, effective services.

10. 10Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
The Next Two Years
Sep 2019
Lagan Case Management System
replacement
Remote Working (Citrix)
replacement
SharePoint collaboration tools
available on general release.
Increasing online Direct Debits
take-up
Power BI reporting roll-out
Mar 2020
IT Recruitment Assessment Service
Data Analytics Service introduced
Office 365 Rollout
Academy (Revs & Bens) replacement
Business Process Optimisation full
rollout
Approach to streamlining
applications published
Jun 2019
Customer Service Skills Training
Face-to-face reduction initiative
AAREON Housing Management
System replacement
New smart phones rollout
complete
Mobile Working Strategy published
Artificial Intelligence Review
Mar 2019
IT Training Academy –
digital skills for staff
Failure Demand Reduction
Laptop/Desktop rollout
Business Process
Optimisation Pilot
Video conferencing
Customer call management
system replacement
Bring-Your-Own Device
policy published
Dec 2019
PARIS payments system
replacement
Mapping Services & Support
Leadership Behaviours
programme
Increased customer
engagement
Investing in Digital
Champions
Jun 2020
Corporate Telephony replacement
Review of the SCC data centre
contract
Sep 2020
Unified view of the customer
Using data to provide sentiment and
predictive analysis
Dec 2020
More to come…
We will be delivering major initiatives over the next two years. This is in addition to others including
innovation initiatives relating to business analytics, demand management and smart technologies.

11. 11Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Customer Initiatives 2019 - 21

12. 12Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Digital Initiatives 2019 - 21

13. 13Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Technology Initiatives 2019 - 21

14. 14Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Our Customers, Our City
• Oxford is one of the youngest, most diverse and renowned cities in England. It is at the forefront of technological innovation and
business growth. Oxford also has its challenges, with variations in health and wellbeing between wards, and high house prices.
• Oxford has a diverse and resilient economy, with education, health, research, and technology as key sectors. There is a highly
qualified workforce, and the unemployment rate is low. Yet the city faces potential challenges to growth, such as local labour
supply, and housing and infrastructure supply. There are 3,300 households on the city’s housing waiting list.
• In Oxford, the wards with the most health indicator significantly worse than Oxfordshire or England are Northfield Brook, Blackbird
Leys, Barton and Sandhills, and Littlemore. These wards have no indicators significantly better than average. Six out of 24 wards
have no indicators worse than average. Around 25% of Oxford’s under 16s live below the poverty line.
• 22% of Oxford residents are from a black or minority ethnic group and 14% are from a white but non-British ethnic background.
• 24% of Oxford’s adult population are students – this is the highest in England.
• 54 percent of Year 6 pupils in Oxford’s state-funded schools reaching the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths, lower
than the national average of 61%, yet improving from recent years. While 43% of Oxford residents have degree level qualifications
or above, 22% have no or low qualifications.
• 536,000 overnight visits to Oxford made it the 8th most visited UK city in 2017 adding £286 million to the local economy.
• At the 2011 Census over 88,000 workers worked in Oxford, 46,000 of whom commuted from outside the city, mostly by car or bus.
• Over 95% of Oxfordshire residents were online in the last 3 months, higher than the South East (92%) and national (89.8%)
averages.

15. 15Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Facts and Figures

16. 16Oxford City Council – Customer, Digital & ICT Strategy 2019-2021
Findings - Customer Data Gathering
• Non adherence/monitoring of corporate customer service standards
• Poorly worded communications & information that is hard to understand/out of date
• Being reactive to comments & complaints, and not using to improve
• Silo approach to resolving customer issues where there are service boundaries
• Lack of customer insight to inform service design
• Over 60% invalid planning applications received
• Poor visibility of applications across teams in Planning and Applications team
• Impact of Homeless Reduction Act
• Telephone answering in the back office
• Delay in processing web forms