Here we are - Show & Tell #12 with Digital Team, and the first of 2017. With a room full of refreshed attendees from the festive break, it’s time to see what’s been happening across the lastest sprint of the Digital Customer Programme with Newham Council.

The Digital Customer Programme launched last year, with a mission of transforming the way key digital services are delivered to the 325,000 local residents of the London Borough of Newham. An Unboxed team is currently working in collaboration with the Digital Team to run a number of the council’s services through an Agile design and delivery process aligned with the GDS Digital Service Standard.

Digital Customer Programme: Sprint 12

Show & Tell duration: 20 minutes

Led by Boris (Service Designer) and Dawn (Website Product Manager), the Digital Team began by sharing the good news that the team is now growing. Expanding by two additional members, the team are welcoming a new developer and a customer services representative. As some services are moving into (and through) the Alpha Phase, as well as additional services due to enter into the Discovery Phase, a larger team is now required to continue delivering results, keeping the momentum of the project going.

Alpha Phase: Homelessness service

Homelessness is the first service to progress into Alpha, having successfully passed through the Discovery Phase in the weeks leading up to the Christmas break. With Sprint #11 used to begin preparing for this upcoming Phase, progress made across this last sprint includes:

• Kick-starting progress with an initial workshop, getting all key stakeholders together to discuss, agree and set the main goals of the Alpha
• Welcoming a new developer to the team to begin exploring the technical side of the service and how this might look
• Planning the prototyping and testing of web content, the booking system for Homelessness Triage Centre appointments and exploring the technical integrations with existing systems through APIs

Alpha Phase preparation: Housing Account service

Working towards taking the second service of the Digital Customer Programme through the Alpha Phase, this sprint has focused mainly around the preparation, including:

• Defining the service scope for the Alpha
• Prioritising a list of main themes to begin exploring with user stories
• Focusing on engaging residents via digital channels, increasing the digital take-up of common tenant transactions (i.e. checking rent balances)
• Preparing to procure additional the resources required for Alpha

Other activities

• A workshop was held around the Housing Account service - addressing areas including tenant services, compliance and rent
• Further data gathering around understanding requirements of the CYPS (Children’s and Young Person’s) service

What’s next on the roadmap?

As well as pushing forward with the two Alpha Phase services, there is a lot more discovering to do as the next few weeks unfold. With a list of key residential services in the pipeline, all ready and raring to launch into the Discovery Phase, the team will be working on addressing the prioritisation of each services, based on the potential savings to be achieved.

With Sprint #12 wrapped up, the team shared the other upcoming activities on the project roadmap:

• The continuation of the Homelessness service Alpha Phase
• Setting up a range of meetings with key stakeholders to begin prioritising the pipeline of service Discoveries
• Arranging workshops to kick-start each of the new Discoveries

Attend a Show & Tell

If you work within a local government team and would like to come along to a Show & Tell session with Newham Council, get in touch with Martyn (our Head of Product) at martyn.evans@unboxed.co to attend as our guest.