Modernising ‘legacy’ processes a key challenge behind SIC digital transformation
COUNCIL services are said to be keen to engage on digital innovation and artificial intelligence (AI) but there is a need to modernise “legacy” ways of working first.
That was the message to elected members at a meeting last month as they heard an update on Shetland Islands Council’s (SIC) change programme.
One strand of the change programme is digital transformation and AI, with the hope that it could make SIC services more efficient.
A recent briefing to councillors said a business case was in the pipeline seeking “significant” recurring investment in Microsoft licences and external support as the SIC looks to accelerate AI capability and digital innovation.
The note also said the SIC has been testing a “proof of concept” conversational AI feature for workforce development.
A report to councillors at a full council meeting last month said, however, a key risk from digital transformation and AI was a lack of engagement from services.
Shetland North councillor Andrew Hall questioned if this was already being experienced.
He said digital transformation could be a “big change” for staff.
ICT manager James Cunningham said services are “really keen to engage with us, but we do understand the challenges that they have in delivering frontline services”.
He also said they acknowledged there is a challenge around the time and resources needed to implement something new and “something fundamentally different”.
Cunningham added that a lot of the challenges are around “legacy” processes in the workplace, such as documents and record management.
These are things that “need to be modernised before they can then start to take the next step with digital innovation and artificial intelligence”, he said.
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