Under Tonino Ciuffini, tech is emerging as a services saviour for Warwickshire Council. By delivering effective yet more efficiently resourced cloud-based services to citizens, his ongoing digital by default programme is shielding the council's other services from austerity's axe. And by using API-based apps development, he expects to bring in £2.9m in savings through a replacement social care system that will be a key test of the approach. Job titleHead of information assets at Warwickshire County Council. When did you start your current role?2006. What is your reporting line?Report to strategic director of resources, who reports to the chief executive. Do you meet with and discuss business strategy with the CEO every week?No. Are you a member of the board of directors?No. What other executive boards do you sit on?Warwickshire ICT strategy board, local CIO Council. Does your organisation have a CDO?No, there's no formal post; it is led by head of customer services. What non-technology responsibilities do you have in the organisation?All senior managers at my level have responsibility to support a locality, an area of the county, helping councillors in the area work with a public forum. How many employees does your organisation have?5,600 excluding staff working in schools. What number of users does your department supply services to?5,000 users in the corporate body. Our schools service also has over 80,000 users in terms of teachers, staff and pupils. How do you ensure that you have a good understanding of your business and how your customers use your business's products?We have a business partner for each of the key sections of the organisation whose role is to understand, give feedback and ensure we are meeting the customers' business requirements, but also to promote our services so that the business is able to exploit them where possible. In addition to this I have regular meetings with the senior managers in the organisation through management team and leadership team meetings, and via key programme boards. Warwickshire County Council technology strategy and agenda Is your organisation being disrupted by the internet, mobility or technology-oriented start-ups?Yes. Are you empowered by your organisation to disrupt from the inside?Yes. Describe a disruptive measure you’ve led or played a major part inThe adoption of cloud services to support more flexible working and improved partnership working was a big one. We followed up our Google implementation with cloud services for CRM and telephony, and our secure sharing of information with third-party organisations and citizens. These services are also supported across a range of devices, significantly increasing the flexibility of our staff. What major transformation project has been recently completed or is under way at your organisation?A digital by default programme seeking to create more cost-effective, customer-focused service delivery is still progressing. We are also replacing a key core business system in the social care arena; it will help the council meet the changes associated with the new Care Act, and also support increased sharing of information with the health services. We have also been the local authority lead in the Government Digital Services Verify UK project, which will lead to the use of a single citizen ID not only to access services, but also support key attribute exchange between organisations. What impact will the above transformation have on your organisation?The digital by default programme will not only deliver most effective services to citizens at a time and place to support them, and as a result will allow us to protect other services. The social care system is scheduled to deliver £2.9m of savings while protecting services as much as possible. In the Verify arena we have demonstrated the prototype for attribute exchange using the OIX approach of using private sector identity providers. This has shown that some citizen applications can be reduced from days to seconds. We are also planning to develop the first local government service in this area in 2015/16. This will again improve our efficiency but more importantly improve our service to citizens. How has your leadership style contributed to the outcomes of the transformation project?My commitment to joint working is reflected in all of the above, as well as a commitment to working in national arenas to test approaches for the wider local government good in the Verify project. My more risk-based approach to challenges has allowed us to overcome some barriers. And on a related basis I have shown willingness to learn from others and let other organisations lead joint projects rather than always having the lead. What key technologies do you consider enable transformation?Technology-wise, cloud, web services via APIs, and working with a variety of devices are critical to enabling the sharing and analysis of information to support more real-time service delivery. However, I would say that ultimately it is the processes and the exploitation of technologies that support what the business requires that really enables transformation. Are you increasing the number of cloud applications or infrastructure in use at your organisation?Yes. What is your information and data analytics vision for the organisation?We are still seeking to establish the single version of the truth in terms of information. However, our applications strategy of open systems and the use of APIs to share data is helping us make progress. In terms of analysis we are implementing a dashboard for key information and have recently significantly increased our use of HR information to support workforce planning. The use of the new social care systems to deliver improved service planning and decision-making information will be a key element of this project. How is mobile and social networking impacting operations and customer experience?The use of mobile devices by both staff and customers has increased beyond predictions over the last few years. We have ensured that our website is rendered accessible for mobile devices, and our use of Google Apps for Business has meant that staff have increased mobile access. We anticipate that all services must be enabled for this platform in the future. While the council uses both Twitter and Facebook to promote and communication about services for citizens, it really is just operating as an additional channel reaching a slightly different audience. We have used video streaming via Twitter for questions at some key public meeting but still have very limited take-up of this approach to date, Describe your strategic vision towards shadow IT and BYOD. How do you influence and engage executives and employees around choice?Our adoption of Google Apps for Business two years ago has let us avoid the significant challenges of shadow IT because we support the use of cloud for mail and documents across a range of devices. Staff have not needed to adopt alternative devices or technologies such as Dropbox or iCloud as our business options deliver the requirements. We also support and indeed encourage the use of cloud in the applications arena, so once again the business can work with us rather than seeking its own solutions. BYOD has been more challenging due to compliance guidance about the storage of information on unmanaged devices in the government arena. We have been able to address this through the use of council-supplied devices where the business case justifies it, but recent developments in the Android operating system may help us explore more formal BYOD again in the near future. What strategic technology deals have been struck and with whom?In the last 12 to 18 months we have entered into the following key contracts:• Supply of social care system – Corelogic• Supply of network under West Midlands joint arrangements that we helped develop – Virgin• Superfast broadband for citizens of the Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire subregion that we have led – BT• Renewal of Google Apps for Business – Google• New mobile contracts – Vodafone Who are your main suppliers?As above.• BT for BDUK broadband• Virgin for network• Google for apps,• Vodafone for mobile services• Oracle for HR system• Agresso for financial systems• Microsoft for desktop and Sharepoint Warwickshire County Council IT security and budget Has your organisation detected a cyber intrusion in the last 12 months?Yes. Has cyber-security risen up your management agenda?Yes. Does your organisation understand the potential cyber-security threats it faces?Yes. Has this led to an increase in your security budget?No. What is the IT budget?£10.6m. How much is the IT operational spend compared to the revenue as a percentage?3%. What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?We continue to face reduced budgets due to the cuts in public service funding, with a 20% cut in the IT budget 2014 to 2018. As a result, a major element will be reviewing sourcing strategies and considering alternative delivery models that can help us maintain our existing levels of IT service despite these budgetary reductions. Technology trends help us face this challenge and we have seen improvements in customer satisfaction despite reducing the budget by 8% over the last two years. We also see the replacement of the key social care system as a test of our more API-based approach to applications, and a chance to demonstrate the benefits of our strategy in this area. Are you finding it difficult to recruit the talent you need to drive transformation?Yes. Has recruitment and retention risen up your agenda as a CIO?Yes. Are you looking for recruits in the EU to fill the skills shortage you have?No. Does your IT organisation operate an apprenticeship scheme?Yes Warwickshire County Council technology department How would you describe your leadership style?I like to lead by example, encouraging collaborative working both within my department and with outside organisations. Customers only view us as IT, but it is how we work together that matters and this includes supplier relationships. I also like to engender a solutions-focused approach, looking at what we can deliver rather than what we can't and why we can't. While I would never claim that my IT team, or indeed the IT industry, is perfect, I do believe we should celebrate the important contribution that we make to a better organisation, and indeed society today, though our ability to help people exploit the never ending opportunities offered by new technology. I encourage my staff to take a pride in that. Explain how you’ve supported and developed your senior leadership team to support your overall objectives and visionIn the last few years the senior leadership team have endorsed our presentations of our ICT strategy, our early adoption of cloud and Google, and promotion of the digital by default agenda. We have already demonstrated some key benefits of this, as we are the top council in the SOCITM Benchmark in response to the question 'Does the ICT provided allow you to work flexibly'. How many employees are in your IT team?210. What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff?200/10