Things seem to be getting busy here in Barnsley this month, I’m not sure if it’s because I’m not so new anymore, or just the natural order of things.  In any case, it means there’s plenty to report, although I should say this editions a bit later than I’d have liked.

Hopefully you’ll notice a couple of changes to the blog this time.  Not least of which is the opportunity to sign up for an email update when the blog is updated.  If you want to be ‘alerted’ in this way, simply send an email to ReGS@barnsley.gov.uk, with the word ‘update’ in the subject line.  Any feedback or queries you may have are welcome at the same address.

Stoke Rochford APP User Group Conference
As the Civica APP (formerly Flare) users reading this may know, the APP user group conference was held at Stoke Rochford Hall last week (17th & 18th Oct).  Judging by the comments so far on the APP user group website, I think it’s fair to say others enjoyed the opportunity to meet new and old faces as much as we did.

Despite being the final session of the conference, Ken’s presentation was well attended [Ken Eastwood, Assistant Director at Barnsley and ReGS Project Executive].  Ken described the development of the ReGS work, from the beginnings of NOMAD and the e-Gov projects, Barnsley’s successful cemetery headstone inspection implementation, through Gershon and t-Gov, to the ReGS work you are reading about here.  We followed the presentation with a hands-on demo, giving the experience of using the dashboard, live, on real mobile kit.  Certainly in my group, there was a lot of interest on both a practical and technical level, despite a bit of an embarrassing struggle to get a usable signal from my 3G card.  I think the wireless thermal printer distracted them…

For those that didn’t make it to the conference, a copy of the presentation is available at the bottom of this blog.

Dashboard Pilot
As I mentioned last time, we’ve been trialling the mobile working dashboard with our Pollution Control Team.  The idea behind this pilot is not only to test the software, and highlight any issues with its use, but also to help the team get used to a new way of logging time, and activities, and of course use of the handheld devices themselves.

Inevitably, perhaps, there’s something of a mixed view within the team.  Certainly, having spoken to them in some detail it’s clear that the purposes of the dashboard (i.e. being able to access data outside the office, and facilitating communications within and outside the team) fit well with the team’s view of their approach to work.  The dashboard itself was seen as an effective approach to supporting more flexible ways of working. 

The issues that have been reported so far, seem to reflect our teething troubles with the VPN solution, which we need to allow access to the dashboard from outside the council network (i.e. from a wireless device, or home PC).  Adam and Wayne in our IT service have been very helpful so far in addressing these issues, so I’m confident we’ll have that resolved soon. 

The other aspect causing frustration is the use of the devices themselves.  In retrospect, the choice to give the team the devices to try out might have been better preceded by some basic training and an overview of what’s possible.  I’m going to join the next team meeting to try and tease out some of the underlying issues, and address any training needs.

The Day Job
Back in the office, it was no surprise to find that the day to day project management of ReGS was still waiting for me.  The last couple of weeks have been full of issue logs, risks and budget monitoring.  I’ve always been ok with sums, but for some reason find it much more complicated when there is a pound sign involved.  Having wrestled the budget into submission, I’ll be pleased to report our solvency to the board next week.  I’ve been doing some work on the communications plan, which I’m about to circulate for comments – no surprise that this blog is mentioned…

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