Councillor defends £12,000 iPad move
Sunday 31st July 2011, 12:28AM BST.
A Shropshire Council cabinet member today defended councillors and staff who have been handed iPads at a cost of £12,000.
Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith, portfolio holder for IT, claimed the devices would help make further savings on top of work carried out with Microsoft, which has already saved £1.2 million.
Mr Taylor-Smith claimed the £300 iPads were fitted with cameras so officials could use Skype to communicate for free.
The move has been taken to make it easier for councillors and staff to be contacted and to make long-term savings, according to Shirehall.
But critics have slammed the spending, claiming ma- ny councillors will be unable to use the tablet computers.
They also pointed out members already have taxpayer-funded laptops and BlackBerry smartphones.
However, Mr Taylor-Smith, who has 40 years’ experience of working in the IT industry, today said that equipping officials with iPads was the correct decision.
He said: “The 40 iPads have been given to about 15 councillors and the rest are staff members and group leaders.
“It’s running as part of a Microsoft roll-out which has saved £1.2 million already. Anybody who has ever used an iPad will know they are easy to use.
“These have also got built in cameras so they can be used for Skype calls. I was on holiday in America recently and contacted the council using the iPad and it cost me nothing.”
Councillor Taylor-Smith said the contracts for the Blackberry phones currently owned by councillors would not be renewed. He said the existing laptops would be sent to parish and town councils.
But critics have claimed the money spent on iPads is insensitive at a time of major cuts to services as well as staff being asked to take a 5.4 per pay cut.
Councillor Taylor-Smith said working from mobile devices would “drastically reduce” the need for printing reports, saving more than £100,000 a year.
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I have already posted part of this, but i am so passionate in my convictions about this story, i want the gentleman a decent change to see what the people who pay him think …
i work for a large private sector company IT Department, infact one of the biggest private employers in shropshire…
I deal with Microsoft Volume Licencing and while the council will have made savings on the volume licensing this is very unlikely to be linked to a condition they have iPads, infact microsoft would prefer you buy products running their OS.
In relation of the cost of Pages at £6 vs MS Office, yes that is true… but you will still need microsoft office and infact you have already purchased the licences for the existing laptops.
We use netbooks and a few iPads in our business, and yes they are useful but users cannot use the devices for long periods of time as the screen is too small for most users, so when they are using devices for a long period of time then it will just cause eye strain.
I think there is a case for greater integration, but if they already have laptops they can use them in meetings to view documents, and furthermore you will still make the paper savings you commented on earlier.
I work with Government IT Departments, and it is well known that in those sorts of department if you produce a well written document to a bunch of IT illiterate councillors or senior management then they will buy into the idea and you get to play with your shiny toys and server infrastructure.
In fact you don’t need those iPads and the very fact you are pushing them out in the current financial climate sends all the wrong messages out, and to be honest is very typical of the methodology of government IT Departments.
Our private company IT Department attitude with our pressure to make savings as well wouldn’t have even got into conversation about iPads because we knew it wouldn’t have been signed off.
You may read this with contempt of not having an understanding of how your department works, but if you stepped away and thought about it, you will see that buying iPads is poor message to send out for a cash strapped council.
If you have any desire to speak about this further i am more than happy to give my email address.
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Excellent post.
I’m afraid the councillor cannot justify the iPads when presented with such a thorough explanation.
I.T. is a large field with many specialist areas, so to say he has 40 years experience in this field is rather a bold statement. When he started the punch-card was in use and a mainframe computer took up a whole floor of a building!
Bottom line is there was no need to purchase these iPads when the current BlackBerrys and laptops are fit for purpose.
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Many thanks for your post. Feel free to contact me directly, as I am sure we could swap ideas that could help our Council make more progress, for the benefit of all.
We were very much aware of the adverse potential PR but believe it is the right thing to do to unlock major savings in the way we deliver services. I am confident time will prove us right.
Martin
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I don’t know why you’re quoting Microsoft in making a case for savings when your organisation is still using Lotus Notes for e-mail! To my mind, the waste of this money on ipads is further fragmenting your IT infrastructure and will lead to increased support and integration costs. Your users can Skype on their existing laptops (you can buy a webcam for £20 if the laptop hasn’t got one built in).
It makes me sick that Shropshire Council can waste money like this – is that why you’re charging me full council tax on my old house which I haven’t sold yet and won’t give me a second home or single person discount when it is unoccupied? I resent paying Shropshire Council double council tax so they can let their councillors and senior management treat themselves to shiny new toys (and refurbished offices).
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The project is to move away from Lotus notes to a Microsoft environment. We are not replacing all PCs. For the casual user particularly, Ipads have a much lower ongoing cost.
We are moving towards CLOUD based core systems, including OFFICE. User based pricing for applications with less need for ‘heavy weight’ PCs is very much the future.
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In fact you don’t need those iPads and the very fact you are pushing them out in the current financial climate sends all the wrong messages out, and to be honest is very typical of the methodology of government IT Departments.
It has all the hallmarks of a local authority vanity project to me, particularly given the fact that it’s only a couple of years since councillors were given laptops and Blackberry phones.
As for sending out the wrong message, how must Shropshire Council’s workforce feel? Their terms and conditions of employment are being sacrificed while the bosses give all the appearance of continuing to have their snouts in the trough.
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One other point, have Shropshire Council considered the risk of not being able to access the cloud when a network connection goes down? At least if you run the software on your own servers you can keep HQ running if your internet connection fails. I expect the council will find their increased data charges will wipe out a lot of the expected savings.
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I totallty agree that this was an insensitive purchase and would like to know why people go for the most expensive option when it comes to taxpayers money. What was wrong with buying £20 webcams and putting Skype software on their laptops for free, like of those of us who have to spend our own money? When the eyestrain litigation claims start to pour in, who will pay the bill? They are also highly vulnerable to being stolen.
I also agree that an IT or computer “expert” is highly suspicious. It is a massive field of technology of which people master only a tiny part.
I have been unemployed for three months not because there is no work but because councils are unwilling to spend money. Front line services are being devastated when it comes to dealing with sight loss. That means I have to sign-on and I’m not paying tax. Meanwhile we can pay tens of millions in foreign aid to countries we don’t want to talk to because of their poor human rights and civil war and can afford to ineffectively ‘police’ the world with our troops, placing them in unnecessary peril, accidentally killing innocent civilians we are supposedly trying to protect! Imagine if the same had happened here – a French Foreign Legion coming to keep people apart in the Brixton riots or Northern Ireland. Sounds ridiculous? Yes, it does!
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Wow! Shame they havent got you to advise them, the Ipads may be worth having one or two in hand so they can be given out to someone who is travelling etc.
Seems a waste of money when people are loosing their jobs in far more important front line services.
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At last a public authority who recognises that Apple is the number 1 for use in business… Well done Martin, now how about the rest of us having Apple.
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Except they’ve just signed a contract with Microsoft and all other equipment in the Council is Windows based!
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In a previous post on this subject, a lot of people slammed the move. I think that Mr. Smith, with his 40 years experience in IT, knows a little bit more than those who opposed this.
The cost may sound high, but, if Mr. Smith is correct, the saving will justify this.
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Wrong!!
See above posts.
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Well he is not going to agree with his critics is he?, I as a ct payer want to see the figures on how much this will save and i mean actual figures not fantasy figures please.
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I still don’t see how it can be justified, everything mentioned by Martin could have been done on the existing equipment! Therefore instead of only saving £100,000, you could have saved £112,000.
Why has it not been mentioned that each of he ipads will have a 3g sim card at a cost of £21.28 a month, therefore the savings would be even greater.
I am all for change and working more effectively, but no evaluation of suitable devices was undertaken, we have brought ipads because that’s what we were told to purchase.
There is no connection to the microsoft agreement and ipads, that does not make sense! Is it a way of justifying it?
Can someone answer why the leader Keith Barrow also has an Apple imac? This is not going to be given back. How nice it must be to lead!
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The current blackberries are supplied by a mobile operator and we are able to swap them for Ipads. This works the same way as you changing your mobile phone at the end of your contract.
The link to Microsoft is through Exchange and is part of the Office 360 rollout. We did look at other devices and I suggest you talk to Neil or Alison if you want the detail.
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So councillors are going to be sending their iPad data over the mobile network then are they? Have you costed that in? Does the Council pay for broadband for councillors? If that’s the case, surely it would be cheaper to use existing laptops. I’m still not convinced this really is cost-saving and I hope the Council has considered the risk of users running up massive mobile data bills!
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Yes. We recently went out to tender on our mobile contracts and got major savings and generous data capacity.
Most councillors and staff have access to wi-fi networks including BT hotspots. This greatly reduces mobile data costs.
In parallel we also are working on rolling out broadband coverage for all, across the whole of the Council area.
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When upgrading a mobile phone, especially for business, there is no upgrade per phone costs due to the negotiation of the contract based on number of users. Therefore, £300 per phone would be highly unlikely, thus your analogy is a poor one.
I would also like the council to be totally transparent when reporting annual costs of each iPad verses the old laptop and BlackBerry.
What exactly are the budgeted costs for implementation and introduction of the iPads, including required compatible software, firewall security, integration bug updates, training, mobile networks? I ma sure this initial cost of £12,000 while increase five-fold!
You might hoodwink the majority, but there are people who know the real costs of implementing new hardware and software.
Quite honestly I don’t think you are aware of the maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Plus councils are synomonous of wasting tax-payers money on IT projects, FACT!
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40 years it experience ha iPads don’t like Microsoft wake up and smell the Sunday coffee! iPads also cost more the £300 even if you bought 40 let’s see the invoice please! So 25 of the senior management team have them not councillors why???? They will not be giving up blackberry or laptops oops you should really get you weak excuses correct before you publish or spend our cash?.
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It seems the only argument that is being used to justify this waste is the use of Skype.
Since when has it been essential to see someone to hold a VoiP conversation?
The laptops that they already have only need a £15 headset or hand piece to use any of the freely available VoiP services.
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Yes, and if they got together a decent deal with a mobile operator they could probably pay a fixed fee for all council mobile calls.
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how can Ipad’s, made by Apple, be part of a Microsoft rollout…
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The same way a BMW can be part of road building program. Microsoft is the operating environment (the road) and the Ipad (the car)is a tool for accessing information 7 x 24.
We are working with Microsoft on this project.
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What’s wrong with existing laptops then?
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Nothing. They have their place too.
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mmmm interesting.
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Odd and wrong analogy and ps you don’t need a BMW to drive on a road a ford will do the same job cheaper? iPad = BMW laptop = ford just in case you don’t get it!!
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what level of angry birds are you on Mr. T-S?
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Shocking that much wasted yet they still use tons paper and leave them on buses trains. Make claims on insurances if they get broken or lost it all adds up as tax payer paying the bills. should be made to pay as there own tools for the job like other jobs.
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Yes, I hope they’ve considered the data security implications and have sorted out suitable encryption! I don’t want my data lost on one of these by my local councillor.
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As previously said, Martin we haven’t got a problem with saving our own money surprise, surprise, so either pay for them out of the allowances you already receive or get your political party funds to stump up the cost. We don’t like paying twice.
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idiots
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Defending the indefensible. Can’t wait to vote you out.
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Why would the councillor take the council owned iPad on holiday to America? Skype may have been free but what about roaming charges? Or are they claimed as an expense?
Tut Tut!
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probably, just another way to screw more money out of the hard-pressed ratepayer.
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I purchased my own Ipad and am happy to use it for council business. As people in my ward know, I try to be readily available to help sort out issues. Sometimes even while on holiday!
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Well, I’m sorry, but if you have to access your iPad for council business on holiday, then it must be a pretty boring holiday! People go on holiday to escape work and relax.
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How will iPads save more paper then the laptops……they won’t! Oh 40 years IT experience Councillor? What was IT really like 1971….. Not much compared to now let alone 10 years ago!!!
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My experience SPANS 40 years. It includes running a 1200 person global consulting organisation before I was 40. Serving on the boards of European IT companies, including Managing director of Uk and US (part of the NEC group)companies.
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Is that supposed to make us feel inferior ?
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Consulting organisation, eh, Mr T-S? You know how Shropshire Council employees feel about consultants, and it’s not good.
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I have just retired from running my own electronics company for the last 35 years and had dealings with Lord Sugar and his Amstrad empire ,I therefore question Mr Smiths IT expierence for over Forty Years. I dont recall it being anywhere like it is today even twenty years ago.
We all seem to be losing the plot here, I don’t object to progress but when we are constently being told there is no money for this and no money for that, then the council should be working with the tools they already have at there disposal and not spending on what I think is just another gadget. It’s easy to claim that they are saving this amount or that amount of money but if this gadget is being trialed how can they claim that at this early stage.
I use an iPad it has many functions but to say it will relace all the current tools, phones and laptops is taking things a bit far, yes ideal on the sofa, the bed, the pub or kitchen table or even on the sun lounger while holidaying in America. In these environments the device comes into its own as a casual web browsing tool, a video viewer, a social device for sharing media between friends, and a gaming gadget, but not for using as the main tool in a business.
If Mr Smith purchased this device himself fine but I would never let my staff take a piece of equipment belonging to my business on his or her holiday, a holiday is a holiday no one is so indispensable unless like me you are the General Manager!
I have had many dealings with council’s over the years and find they are excellent at talking the talk and finding figures to suit the situation.
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See 13 and I purchased my own.
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I,m glade Mr Taylor-Smith can go on holiday to America? unlike a lot of people at the moment.
Lets sack Mr Taylor-smith I’m sure that will save some money.
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How much money are the claiming can be saved by using Skype, There is absolutely no justification for this kind of frivolous spending of our money.
Many people in the council are very worried for their livleyhoods and this kind of spending on unnecessary devices is rubbing salt into the wounds.
I would like to see the actual documents used to justify the decision to spend this kind of money.
I have a feeling that this is typical of an organisation that has not real control over it’s own spending.
It shows incredibly weak leadership, we would never get away with misleading our company into investing in equipment that is clearly going to be for the personal use of staff.
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Staff and Councillors have a clear understanding, that equipment is for council business and there are restrictions on personal and political use.
When equipment is issued, we sign for it on this basis. It is one of the reasons why I and others, have purchased our Ipads.
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OK the good people of Shropshire voted for the council and government, we have to standby them.
I think it only fair that we should assign not just Apple ipad2′s but lets go one further and give each user an apple variety name..so Martin if your were an apple what variety would you be?
perhaps a Granny Smith or a Lord Derby or maybe a Nickajack…what would Mr Ryley be let’s see… a cooking apple perhaps or maybe a Grenadier described as..”Possibly one of the weirdest of all British apples: it is ribbed and lumpy with a tough coat, looking as though it has taken a beating. Makes good sauce”.
If we know the names of the Members and Staff who have been given Apples then I could assign varieties to them.
It’s just a bit of a joke, silliness, unlike managing our budget!
Mike
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Well I have to say Mr Smith you have a high degree of experience in IT. I can see now why with all your contacts the council are determined to spend whatever it takes to upgrade the systems and purchase gadgets.
It will be nice when the people of Shropshire feel the benefits of all this spending and of course all the savings the council are to make.
Watch this Space.
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i dont beleive the £100,000 saving figure given is DIRECTLY attributable to IPads, sure IT can save the council money on printing and paper but this could be achieved with a laptop or a smart phone too.
the choice of Ipads is style over substance and vanity over practicalities
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Do the rest of the council use skype to save money, or are they told not to because it does not comply with government information security requirements? And why is it then ok for these selected iPad users to not comply with this regulation?
Still waiting to read a valid reason why you are spending our money on expensive toys Mr Taylor-Smith.
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This really is a joke. Martin Taylor Smith has not stated a single thing that iPads can do that their existing 2-year old laptops cannot. The £100,000 saved from not printing reports is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You do realise your laptop has a screen too?
Pretty much all laptops in recent years also come with a built in camera/microphone, and Skype can be installed on them for free. And if they don’t, we’re talking £20 of equipment to add to it.
Then you top it off by saying you were aware of the potential negative PR. What, so you go ahead and do it anyway? The council staff already had a rock bottom opinion of the people running the council, and now the public do too.
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I agree they can do many of the same thing and we will have a mixed environment of both. Where the IPad scores is with mobile frontline staff, where it is more portable and has a lower cost of ownership compared to a PC.
iPads have for example inbuilt GPS, which together with the inbuilt camera means that staff can photograph, for example a pothole and the position is automatically logged and then sent to the depot. Much quicker than email. We are also rolling this facility (love your street) for members of the public, using smart phones and is an example of why we want to use off the shelf technology.
iPads have over 250,000 apps, many of which we will be using to help in the delivery of services. Applications for PCs, if you can find them, are more expensive to buy and maintain.
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Does that mean you are regarded as a frontline staff member?, what possible use will you have for gps location logging and image capturing? wouldn’t it be better to give these devices to the real frontline staff?
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Councillors are very much in the frontline sorting out issues in their wards.
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…guess what, you haven’t answered the question. Didn’t think you would somehow! Again, what possible use will you have for gps logging etc?
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Reporting litter, potholes, etc using the ‘love your street’ app. Often you the devices at our surgeries, parish council meetings to access services.
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How many potholes/instances of litter etc, have you (truthfully) reported via your ipad?
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If I see litter in my street (well, rural environment, as I live in Powys) I generally try to pick it up myself.
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Admirable for buying your own iPad. Maybe Everyone else can do the same and the Council can save even more money.One question – How will SC manage personal devices and the associated risks? Our company would never allow such devices to be used for business use.
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The risk is being managed and we are working with suppliers on this. As you say it is an industry issue, which given that there are now more smart phones in the world than PCs has to be handled. Adopting a Canute attitude will not work in the long term, as companies are discovering.
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What happens in 13 months time when the iPads break down just like every other Apple product?
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How come senior managers and councillors are enabled to be efficient, when the rest of the staff have to make do with outdated IT and then will get accused of being slow and inefficient!
I am staggered about the lax approach to IT Security too when staff arent allowed to use hotmail or even USB memory sticks
Can any of you real people out there in real offices around the county, can you seriously imagine in this day and age trying to do your job without being able to burn files to a disc or memory stick?? How could you work from home or move to another office or even go out into the community and give a presentation or save some photos of your camera or any of the basic day to day office administration tasks which you have to do in a modern office job.
Of course for our elite this isnt a problem they just use their blackberry or Ipad but for the real people doing the work you cant even function properly, its a joke!
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Email me the details and I will get back to you. My job is to knock down walls, to make carrying out your day to day job easier.
Martin
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Well, this story has certainly brought the gnomes out in force…
Funny how most are unable to read and understand the basic tenet that this is part of an overall cost savings programme. I think it boils down to most commenters being peeved that they personally haven’t got an iPad (or bought their own), and can’t see why anyone should get a free one if they haven’t.
Good on you Mr Taylor-Smith for coming on here to answer queries and take personal criticism (often quite rude). But you are on to a loser – people don’t like facts when they can get instead get on a hobby horse and wind tehmselves up into a froth of righteous anger.
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Or maybe these people do have iPads, smart phones and laptops and can appreciate the technical differences in hardware and software? Thus knowing the true costs of introducing such new initiatives.
People, especially taxpayers, are entitled to an opinion, as are you.
As for the facts, yes we may have some of the technical ones from Mr Taylor-Smith, but he is not forthcoming with the overall fiscal facts. If he was, then maybe people would understand better?
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Postscript:
I do admire Mr Taylor-Smith’s refreshing attitude and willingness to answer critics, a lesson to all other councillors.
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No, we’re not peeved that we don’t own iPads, we’re just concerned that the council think they’re going to save all this money when in fact they are likely to run up huge data costs and be subject to more risks than they are at the moment. I bet it won’t be long before you ring the Council and they say, ‘Sorry, we can’t access that letter we sent as the internet’s down so we can’t access our cloud’.
The only cloud this council’s got is cloud 9!
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The figures I have quoted are minimums as we are working up the overall solution building blocks at the moment. Renegotiation of network, software and hardware contracts have already contributed major savings, some of which we will reinvest.
We are about to go out to tender on some of the core systems and I am confident that we will make further savings while delivering major improvements in how we do things.
Thank you for your comments.
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can I also add “hats off” to MTS for coming on here (though i dont agree you need Ipads to save paper – any old PC will suffice) but I do admire him for being on here and not anonymously like so many others
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Hear, hear!
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Well, that’s my vote gone MTS! Total waste of OUR money on mere frippery. Absolutely no requirement whatsover for all those iPads, except to show the family photos round Shirehall, download 250 free Apps to fill in those long hours of sheer boredom, download leisure reading material,Skype friends and family,take sly photos of people at work (or not)
and of course be totally unable to all those sites connected with your work that require a flash interface, which Apple happily (for you lot) does not have – along with USB ports and other missing devices. Useful on yer hols tho’ as MTS happily points out. What a joke, Mon!
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Given my workload, I do not recognise your statement re long hours of boredom. I spent 8 years of my life defending people’s right to have views that might be different to mine. I am sorry to loose you vote but as a comviction politician I stand by an honestly held view that what we are doing will improve services to our electorate.
Time will tell. If I am wrong, throw me out of office. If I am right, hopefully you will change your view.
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Apple created the iPad to invent a new market that didn’t currently exist. It is not designed to be a replacement for either mobile phones or laptop computers. At 10 by 8 inches in size it can hardly replace a mobile phone and relying on Skype to make calls will be totally useless to people in the field. Therefore all those issued with it will still need mobile phones as well. While it is quite good for browsing and viewing documents it is horribly frustrating to try and create or edit documents on it. You can forget editing databases or spreadsheets and writing and formatting a simple letter is awkward in the extreme. So all those issued with it will still need a laptop as well. Where then is the saving? Paperless documents and cloud computing can all be managed perfectly well with laptops and smartphones that already exist. Oh, and all the ipad apps MTS mentions cost money on top of the £12000 for purchasing the devices, whereas SC already has microsoft licenses for all the software needed.
While I admire MTS for coming on this forum and fighting his corner his claims of cost savings just make no sense whatsoever.
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We will have a mixed environment of PCs (for heavy lift applications, such as spreadsheets), thin clients and handheld devices such as IPads.
Most of the applications we are using are free apps, including one developed by a local college student. Ipages, used to update documents etc, was less than £6. Total cost of apps per IPad is less than £15, much less than a PC would be.
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“Mr Taylor-Smith, who has 40 years’ experience of working in the IT industry”
Which is why Mr Taylor-Smith is so gung-ho for more and more IT stuff.
I know people in IT. They are mostly: “Ooh! It’s new! It’s shiny! We must have it!”
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You can all relax now folks – Matt is here to solve all our problems with his sweeping and startling insight into human nature. No need to employ experts anymore – we’ll just ask Matt.
Invest in IT upgrade programmes to improve functionality and save costs? Nah – better not – Matt says those IT people only do it because it’s shiny. Best not bother.
Invest in creating new buildings or housing? What’s that you say Matt? Oh – builders mostly spend their time drinking tea? Well let’s knock that on the head then. Sorted.
Wow – this is proving really easy. Thanks Matt
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I think, Pickaxe, I will take more note of the cogent and well-thought through reply by Shropshire Taxpayer and voter rather than your response.
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As a former MD, who is very bottom line focused, I am not one of them.
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I am a happy council worker that is really pleased with my cast off computer from Oswestry Borough Council (remember that place) which replaced the PC given to me all those years ago at Oakley Manor (lovely housing development). It gives me enough time in a morning to make a cup of coffee, read the paper, plan my shopping list and catch up on last night’s tele with my mates in the office while it boots up. Heaven forbid that I should be given any IT equipment to help me do my job more efficiently as a front line officer protecting the public . It would spoil the image that I am a lazy fat cat worker on parr with a benefit scrounger due a big private sector pension (NOT).
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I, like most repliers on here I suspect, am a shropshire council tax payer and voter. This is important to note councillors.
The biggest issue here is the decision to use the IPADs. Why was it made? To reduce costs? No – as everything mentioned could already be done with the existing equipment that the councillors have – so quickest reduction in costs would have been to have stopped using the laptop for printing (I believe that’s one of the biggest reasons give for making savings and you don’t need an IPAD to do that). Surely the laptop screens are of a similar resolution to IPADs to read? And windows can flip the screen sideways if you prefer to read in portrait?
Skype then? Er, my experience of skype (sorry I only have 30 years experience in various IT roles) is that it is very unreliable and insecure – so nope that doesn’t sound like a convincing reason for IPADs either, especially as I believe they have perfectly good Blackberry mobile phones. Also how many members of the public will know how to use Skype to contact their councillor?
Linking to Microsoft Mail – hmmmmm, again what’s wrong with the existing laptops and blackberries for that – both can do that at no extra cost.
Microsoft 360 (my 30 years experience think that should be Microsoft Office 365) – er again I thought the whole idea was you could lengthen the life of older laptops/pcs still running Windows XP etc by giving them cloud access to latest versions of office applications – again a good reason to stay with the existing laptops longer than their predicted life, not IPADs.
Ease of use of conectivity – oh no they are not – yes they are great at connecting to wi-fi to watch you-tube and surf the parts of the web that don’t use Flash, but again in my experience of using IPADs to connect to any non-apple systems they are a pig to get working, so I can only guess this will cause the council’s IT provider with quite a few headaches (and IT headaches cost time and money which could be better spent on projects to improve the quality of life for the citizens Shropshire.) Not lower ongoing support costs.
Councillor Tayor-Smith also in one breath, says this is a pilot (and I assume a pilot is to prove whether the tool is suited to the job or not?) but then talks about it like it is a done deal?
But the most infuriating thing of all, is the total lack of understanding of the timing of such a poor decision. At a time when the council is having to make cut-backs, including closing day centres, schools, and making all staff take a pay cut, aswell as further redundancies to follow. Surely someone could have spotted that this might upset the taxpayers and voters of Shropshire? That is beyond belief. Why not wait until the existing equipment had reached predicted end of life, and (hopefully) the financial position of the council was in a better position, then investigate/pilot new technologies? Who knows Microsoft may well have a small tablet device by then that works seamlessly with their back-office and cloud offerings? That would have made perfect sense.
Of course time will tell – will this pilot prove to be a very bad PR decision? Well I suspect the voters of Shropshire will answer that.
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Parts of this pilot have been going on for about 9 months and this is very much phase two of the rollout as part of the move off Lotus notes to a full Microsoft environment.
This PR was kicked off by a failed Lib dem PPC trying to score political points and does not reflect the hard work put in by many staff over a number of months. I agree time will tell.
PS yes you are right it should be Office 365, I was thinking of Norton.
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“Councillor Tayor-Smith also in one breath, says this is a pilot … but then talks about it like it is a done deal?”
You sound surprised. This is how Shropshire Council operate. Public opinion is irrelevant.
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I think the whole range of views have now been aired, and I too commend MTS on his openness towards the decision and the factors behind it. Technically I could not challenge the decision, what I would say and I know it will never happen, is that those interested could take a look at the business plan behind the project with all of the commercial and financial solutions, and in the future look at the actual results pitched against the forecasts. As tax payers we must surely be afforded this transparency ? In the private sector people are held accountable for these decisions and we should get behind MTS to do his job and trust his employers to ensure that those responsible for poor performance are held accountable in a truly transparent fashion.
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At the last full council, papers avaiable through our website, I reported back on progress across my portfolio. As a cabinet member we do this formally at least once a year. In addition we are benchmarking both externally and internally the effectiveness of we are doing. Not just in financial terms.
Just like we publish all expenditure over £500, I will make certain most of this information is made available to members and public alike.
Commercially sensitive information is the exception.
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Most of the Cllrs cannot even use the basic email facility they have nevermind an ipad. There are no front line staff who been given ipads, so yet again the cllrs drain the tax payers money for very little results.
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Both statments are incorrect.
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What a total waste of money surely it could have been better spent adding a wide screen telly and a personal toilet into the west wing for Mr Riley.
Whats that Oh apparently this has allready been done. !!!!!!!
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I think for most people the timing couldnt be worse.
I personally agree with those above who say all of the functions could be performed on existing laptops with minimal modification.
I also question the data security/hacking issues.
The timing of this is extremely wrong, its fine to make plans and aspire to these changes when there are funds available, but right now there are not. Cut backs are being made and job losses seem to be on the horizon, it really is not the time to be upgrading equipment. Any other company would wait until thangs are a bit more stable and use this time to reseach the best deals/options etc.
I urge you to wait a year or two and keep the frontline services stable before fixing things which are not broken yet.
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I think that a general point may be being missed here. The numerous negative press reports concerning Mr Ryley and the senior managers & members at the Council have created a public relations disaster, which taints us all.
The Chief Executive and those responsible for PR and Reputation Management should be ashamed of the ways these announcements have been both timed and handled. Front line staff who fail in their work in this manner would normally be subject to disciplinary action.
I am still waiting to see evidence of this happening, or some improvements being made. They are seemingly unaccountable.
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shropshrie council is a walking timebomb of bad news they are clueless staggering from one pr disaster to the next with no clue
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i dont mind private sector firms using ipads but in the public sector they should be made to go without because its our money by definitiion they should be paid less, have less nice cars and be using older computers, that way it makes the private sector more attractive and so you get the best most creative entrepreneurial people going into the private sector where their talents wont be wasted and they can really help the country grow, the public sector should not be competing with the private sector it should be serving it
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most of the council lot are on enough money to buy their own i reckon, they are all over paid and underworked the lot of them all they do is drink tea and day and go on strike, they need to get off their ipads and pick up a brush and go and sweep the streets for a bit see what its like to do a real days work for a change, i would like to see them come out here and do a day in a mans job in agriculture for basic pay and then they wont complain i tell you
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