Harnessing Technology to Benefit Nature: NatureScot Technology and Digital Services Strategy 2019 - 2024

Published: 2019

Foreword

We are Scotland’s nature agency. We work tirelessly across the length and breadth of the country to care for our natural environment and to inspire others to do likewise. We do this with a passion because we understand the benefits that nature brings; to Scotland’s people; to our economy; to our health and more widely as part of sustaining our precious natural world.

Harnessing technology to benefit nature is a vital part of NatureScot’s wider programme of transformation. Taking advantage of digital innovation and technological advances will be key to our success in the future. New technology and digital opportunities allow us to connect more people with nature. They will enable us to collaborate more effectively with an ever growing audience as more people come to understand the critical role that Scotland’s sensitive natural world plays when it comes to addressing global biodiversity and climate change challenges.

I welcome this strategy. It underpins our work to build a successful, sustainable and resilient organisation. In an age of rapid technological expansion, digital services will help us continue to increase our reach, visibility and influence, ensuring our evidence base, knowledge, expertise and passion continue to inspire, inform and shape Scotland’s future.

Jane Macdonald, Director of Business Services and Transformation

Our Vision: Harnessing Technology to Benefit Nature

To provide user-friendly, resilient and cyber-secure technology, digital services, skills and expertise to underpin delivery of NatureScot’s Corporate Outcomes. Our IT systems and services will transform the way we work.

We will leverage maximum benefit and achieve best value from technology and demonstrate our enthusiasm for innovation through the adoption of new digital and technology services wherever they can deliver benefit.

Introduction

Purpose

This document sets out the NatureScot Technology & Digital Services Strategy for the period 2019 - 2024. Our strategy is informed by wider Public Sector ICT strategy and Scottish Government guidance; it is closely aligned to NatureScot’s Information Management Blueprint; and it underpins delivery of the Corporate Outcomes laid out in NatureScot’s Corporate Plan, Connecting People and Nature.

Scope

The full range of NatureScot’s Technology and Digital Services is included under this strategy:

– IT Infrastructure;
– Software Development;
– Geographic Information Systems and Services.

Consultation and Review

The NatureScot Corporate Plan articulates a vision for Scotland’s nature and landscapes built around four interdependent outcomes:

– Outcome 1: More people across Scotland are enjoying and benefiting from nature;

– Outcome 2: The health and resilience of Scotland’s nature is improved;

– Outcome 3: There is more investment in Scotland’s natural capital and its management to improve prosperity and wellbeing;

– Outcome 4: We have transformed how we work.

This Strategy has been developed in consultation with the managers of each of these corporate Outcomes.

Further contributions have been received from:

– NatureScot Improvement Team

– Information Management Activity

– Trade Unions

This document and the associated Technology & Digital Services Strategy Action Plan will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that they continue to remain aligned to NatureScot’s wider strategic requirements.

Our Vision and Strategic Principles

Our vision is one of Harnessing Technology and Digital Services to benefit Nature and we aspire to provide:

– User-friendly, resilient and cyber-secure technology, digital services, skills and expertise to underpin delivery of NatureScot’s Corporate Outcomes; and

– IT systems and services that deliver benefit by transforming the way NatureScot works.

In doing so we will leverage maximum benefit and achieve best value from information technology, whilst demonstrating our enthusiasm for innovation through the adoption of new digital services and technology wherever it is possible and beneficial to do so.

The principles set out throughout this document which will help us to achieve this ambition are summarised as follows:

– We will continue to apply the principle of ‘share, before buy, before build’.

– We will ensure our technology remains aligned with that of Scottish Government and public sector partners enabling us to drive down costs to the public purse by collaborating wherever possible.

– We will reduce costs and maintenance overheads by using commercial off the shelf software (COTS) rather than customising applications to meet non-essential requirements and we will consider Cloud Technologies first when investing in new solutions.

– We will design our digital services according to principles of a Service Oriented Architecture to maximise flexibility and resilience.

– We will ensure that our systems are cyber secure and we will reduce technology sprawl to enable efficient network security management.

– We will use core Open Source technologies where appropriate to reduce licence costs and we will deliver business benefit through innovative use of new technology.

– We will place high emphasis on achieving best value for money. Our default position will be to procure services and systems through Government Frameworks and we will apply the Scottish Government Technology Assurance Framework.

– We will ensure that our ICT workforce is expert and highly skilled and we will look for opportunities for skills development and succession planning.

Background

NatureScot’s IS/ICT operating environment has always been shaped by a wide range of both internal and external influences and opportunities. However, the need to be agile, adaptable and cost effective has never been greater than during the rapidly changing and uncertain climate we face at present.

This strategy responds to a range of drivers including:

– Scottish Government public sector ICT and Digital Strategies;

– Technological advancements, most notably the commoditisation of IT and the universal move towards Cloud computing;

– Scottish Government’s “Digital First” agenda and the focus on user-centric design;

– Requirements for increased business and cyber resilience;

– Greening and sustainability;

– The need to achieve greater efficiencies and better value for money in light of pressures on operating budgets;

– Workplace transformation and the uptake of agile working/ mobile technologies.

External Drivers

National context – Public Sector ICT and Digital Strategy

These principles are also reflected in the Environment and Economy Leaders’ Group (EELG) Digital Strategy, to which NatureScot remains fully committed, under the 4 themes of:

– Citizen/ Customer Focus;

– Sharing Data and Information;

– Sharing Systems and Services;

– Sharing Skills and Knowledge.

Technological advancements

Recent years have been characterised by the commoditisation of IT and a universal move towards Cloud computing. The Cloud now offers a wide range of mature technology options and is core to wider Government ICT strategy. Cloud adoption features very strongly in the Government Digital Strategy for Scotland which mandates the use of Cloud hosting wherever appropriate.

Although costs and benefits will continue to be reviewed on a case by case basis, Cloud Technologies will be considered as NatureScot’s first choice option in favour of investing in any new on premise solutions.

We have also seen an explosion in rich media and unstructured data, placing increasing pressure on our ICT infrastructure to provide routes to access digital content. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the ever growing requirement for increased network bandwidth.

Hacking, phishing and other attacks against our staff, networks, systems and equipment are becoming more pervasive, and have greater impacts year by year. This requires a continuous review of our security architecture.

Rapid advances in consumer technology and mobile communications, together with continued miniaturisation of devices, will characterise the flexible workplace of the future. It will be shaped by ultra-thin client devices that permit users to carry their access to digital services with them wherever they are and whenever they want and to operate in an “always connected” manner.

Digital First

Recent years have seen a significant change in user expectations, be they staff or external customers. Users now expect to be able to utilise a range of technology to access streamlined services and, in most cases, their last experience of digital interaction (be that anything from an online banking transaction to use of social media or mobile messaging) shapes how they expect to interact with NatureScot systems.

The Digital First Service Standard aims to make sure that digital services in Scotland are continually improving and that users are always the focus. This standard has a number of criteria that all digital services developed by Scottish Central Government sector organisations must meet.

These criteria are based around the three themes of user needs, technology and business capability (having the skills and capacity to maintain services). They promote application and service development using Open Source and Open Standards to ensure extensibility, maintainability and reduce technology lock-in. They include criteria on cloud computing/ virtualisation as the preferred approach to the delivery of service data hosting.

Both Scottish and UK Government are promoting a fresh approach to the way digital services are built and Scotland’s High Level Operating Framework (HLOF) provides guidance to the public sector on how to design, develop and deliver digital services. The HLOF explicitly states that: ’wherever possible, design of any new or upgraded ICT solutions should use the principles of Service Orientation’. NatureScot has adopted in full the principles of SOA and they remain core to our IS/ ICT Strategy going forward.

Business resilience and cyber security

IS/ICT is business critical to NatureScot. IT systems and network services underpin all aspects of the organisations day to day operations and without them NatureScot is unable to operate. Because of this it is essential that our ICT systems are resilient and cyber secure.

With the ever changing threat profile we will ensure that our systems, equipment and software are patched and updated as required to maintain security, and our key gateway devices have support contracts in place.

Efficiency, Greening and Sustainability

Scottish Government has published a Green Digital Strategy which sets out guidance to all public sector organisations in Scotland on cost effective, sustainable and energy-efficient digital services, together with a Data Hosting and Data Centre Strategy that sets out a vision for carbon-neutral Scottish public sector data hosting.

This guidance includes recommendation on ways to ensure ICT infrastructure is deployed in an energy-efficient manner so that the impact of public sector ICT operations on the environment can be minimised, particularly in respect of energy usage and emissions.

Key to these are: the reduction of power consumption, use of energy management software tools and recommendations around virtualisation together with a data hosting road map that moves organisations through the rationalisation of data centres to co-location and, ultimately, to the Cloud in order to achieve greater efficiencies and financial savings (e.g. in power consumption).

NatureScot has already set a strong example by demonstrating best practice in greening the workplace. Our ICT solutions and infrastructure will continue to play a critical role in contributing to this objective.

Internal Business Drivers

NatureScot’s Technology and Digital Services Activity is business-led and will continue to take direction from the Corporate Plan, Connecting People and Nature whilst working towards the to-be vision set out in NatureScot’s Information Management Blueprint. This will ensure that the organisation’s investment in technology & digital services remains strategic and enables the achievement of our Corporate Outcomes.

Value for Money

In the face of ever growing pressure on Public Sector finances and on-going reductions in our operating budget, the drive to deliver greater efficiencies and better value for money will only increase. This Strategy is one of enablement and NatureScot’s approach to investment in technology and digital services will allow us to achieve further efficiencies across the organisation.

Internal Application Reviews

In line with a public sector wide approach, NatureScot’s own Strategic Application Reviews (SARs) have highlighted a need to:

– Rationalise, reduce and consolidate the cost and number of software applications;

– Focus valuable internal developer resource on line of business systems;

– Develop fewer bespoke applications;

– Pursue packages/shared systems for common business services;

– Accommodate greater flexibility for mobile working within applications;

– Avoid customising packages to meet non-essential needs.

Workplace transformation

NatureScot’s Transforming Workplaces Programme (TWP) is part of a much wider business change programme. Its purpose is to develop NatureScot’s workplaces so that they support new and more efficient ways of working.

Transformation journey

Under Shaping the Future of IS and ICT - 2014-2019 NatureScot made great strides in our journey of transformation, delivering a broad range of business benefits.

We now benefit from a highly talented pool of specialists working across the entire remit of the Technology and Digital Services Activity. This team provides a flexible, agile service, is able to react quickly to changes in priority and emerging requirements and has strong connections within the wider Scottish public sector ICT and GIS community.

We have maintained the skills needed to support legacy systems, whilst growing the expertise required to future proof critical infrastructure in order to remain at the public sector forefront of wider technological developments – particularly when it comes to embracing Cloud IT.

We have an enthusiastic and extremely competent Software Development Team, now operating at full strength to modernise and re-architecture the business critical internal software applications portfolio to bring it in line with the approach advocated under the Digital First agenda and in keeping with the priorities of the NatureScot Strategic Applications Review.

Within the Technology and Digital Services Activity Team we also have Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Earth Observation (EO) specialists who continue to apply their considerable energy and expertise to the delivery of innovative geospatial solutions and the wider promotion of spatial information about Scotland’s varied nature and landscapes.

Achievements – What has worked well?

We have made significant progress in updating NatureScot’s IT infrastructure (server virtualisation, consolidation of storage and early adoption of the Scottish Wide Area Network, SWAN). This prepares NatureScot for more widespread adoption of Cloud services.

We have become both a consumer and provider of Cloud Data, Infrastructure and Platform services (DaaS, IaaS & PaaS), allowing us to realise efficiencies and achieve greater service resilience.

Progress has included work to migrate key business applications:

– Corporate Website – moved to Cloud PaaS.

– Cloud Hosted Library System.

– Finance & HR Systems – implemented Oracle Fusion.

– Digital Asset Management (DAM).

– Email & Office Productivity Tools – Cloud migration plan approved under the Information Technology Implementation Programme (ITIP).

In 2017, following criteria defined in SG’s Digital First Service Standard, we assessed several frameworks to identify a replacement for NatureScot’s ageing Oracle APEX environment so that our Developers could build applications that are easier to use and maintain.

– AngularJS was chosen and implemented alongside other new technologies to enable improved source code management/ version control.

We have also increased efficiency and resilience through the adoption of Continuous Integration (CI) workflows and begun to build responsive apps, enabling seamless access from different platforms and mobile devices.

Our Geographic Information Systems have also been enhanced:

– Our authoritative GIS information about Scotland’s nature is publically available as Open Data.

– Our website mapping is underpinned by Cloud GIS platforms, making it far easier to maintain.

– We are implementing Cloud GIS, allowing workflows to be streamlined and efficiency savings to be made.

– We have reduced spatial data admin overheads and improved data currency by switching to external web map services.

NatureScot’s use of Earth Observation technology has also increased dramatically with several high profile projects making innovative use of the EO data available to the public sector (e.g. Copernicus). This is an area prioritised for action in 2019/20.

Over the course of the last 5 years we have seen major improvements supporting NatureScot’s programme to Transform the Workplace:

– Rollout of laptops across the organisation to underpin flexible working;

– Major Telephony upgrades;

– Improvements in the quality and reliability of Video conferencing;

– Wi-Fi refresh (now in its second phase); – Design and rollout of standardised ergonomic work stations.

On business and cyber resilience we have:

– Implemented secure Remote Systems Access;

– Worked with SG Network Operations Centre to improve network security;

– Implemented new network security tools;

– Replaced our firewalls, proxy and email gateways;

– Successfully achieved Cyber Essentials Plus Certification.

Work has continued to drive down IS/ICT operating costs, lower the carbon cost of our ICT infrastructure and to reduce our environmental impact:

– Through virtualisation, consolidation of storage and sharing data centres we have reduced both our physical footprint and power consumption.

– By offering data centre co-locations to other public sector organisations, we have driven down the costs to the public purse.

– We continue to make full use of government frameworks when procuring technology and digital services and we succeeded in our ambition to be an early adopter of the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN).

The last 5 years have seen much closer alignment between our Technology and Digital Services Strategy and the Information Management (IM) Programme. Our IT Implementation Programme (ITIP) is now closely tied to IM governance arrangements and the formation of an IM Programme provides a strong business lead for work undertaken by the Software Development Team and Geographic Information Group. This ensures our focus remains correct.

Overall, NatureScot’s strategic approach remains very closely aligned to Scottish Government ambitions and wider public sector ICT Strategy. Our achievements to date clearly show this, as well as demonstrating success in meeting NatureScot’s internal business requirements.

Challenges – Where do we face challenges?

Current challenges include those of:

– Affordability;

– Dispersed operating model;

– Technology and business change;

– Risk of shadow IT;

– Pace of technological change;

– Capacity and Digital Skills.

Digital technology, data and services offer ever more opportunity to transform the way we work. However, this comes at a price and, at a time of significant pressure on budgets, NatureScot must expect to see licence and hardware costs continue to rise. This is something over which we have no direct control and so we must ensure that spend on technology & digital services remains strategic, achieving best value at all times.

Whilst Cloud migration allows us to increase resilience and addresses many of the issues associated with maintaining physical ICT infrastructure, it pushes much of what was previously funded through capital expenditure into operating budget. This basic tenet of IT service commoditisation does not sit easily against a background of continuing pressure on operating budgets.

NatureScot’s presence at a local level, delivered via a network of Area Offices, is of continued importance to our many stakeholders. The requirement for continuation of this dispersed operating model, which has costs and impacts for technology & digital service provision, has been tested under the Transforming Workplaces Programme. Discussions are on-going about the future business model and the choices made will continue to impact on NatureScot Technology & Digital Services Strategy.

The move from on-premise systems to Cloud hosting brings issues associated with systems integration. NatureScot’s in-house systems were built to be tightly integrated with each other. Although the benefits offered by Service Oriented Architecture and an API first approach will allow some integrations to be re-established, in the future the degree of integration previously in place will not always be possible. This has both technical and business change implications.

The availability of third party online services and ease of subscription to Cloud services presents real licencing, data management, systems integration and technological sprawl risks, especially if service subscriptions are taken out without clear oversight. Additional work around communication of approved services, monitoring or restricting certain internet traffic and in the management of bandwidth is necessary to prevent the risk of ‘Shadow IT’ undermining work to deliver the NatureScot Information Management Programme.

The rapid pace of technological change also presents the question ‘when is the right point to invest in new and emerging technology?’ In line with obligations as a responsible organisation, to date NatureScot’s approach has been one of ‘Leading Edge’ not ‘Bleeding Edge’. This will remain our strategy going forward. However it is important to recognise that knowing ‘When’ will always be a challenge, particularly as new disruptive technologies emerge and in the face of increased desire to realise efficiencies through digital innovation.

Within the Technology and Digital Services Activity we have significant challenges around our capacity and workforce demographic. Vacancies in the field of Technology and Digital Services have always proven difficult to fill and in recent years, against the background of digital skills shortages across the wider sector, this has become a far greater challenge to NatureScot.

We also face a bigger ‘digital capability’ challenge. Technology is changing ever more rapidly and never before has there been such a requirement for a digitally competent workforce. However recent work on Digital Priorities and Opportunities has highlighted repeated concerns that the wider NatureScot workforce does not have all of the necessary skills to take full advantage of the technology and digital services provided.

Further skills development work is needed, both to address this issue and in preparation for new digital solutions, especially Cloud services, which place greater onus on our staff to use them responsibly and to be cyber security aware. Failure to address these digital capability challenges presents risks and will prevent benefits of future IT/ ICT investments being realised in full.

Delivering the Strategy

Looking forward, this Strategy is defined by three themes:

– Enabling delivery;

– Technology and innovation;

– People and Talent.

Enabling Delivery

Technology & digital services will continue to be critical to delivery of the NatureScot Corporate Outcome “We have transformed how we work”.

As well as sustaining the technology and services required by our organisation to function on a day to day basis, through our Technology & Digital Services Strategy we will enable NatureScot’s continued business transformation.

Our initial focus during the period covered by this Strategy will be to consolidate work already undertaken to deliver agile, any time/ any place, working. This consolidation necessitates further server side technology enhancements, together with a major desktop upgrade and bandwidth improvements in preparation for the move to Microsoft Office 365 and this is reflected in the Technology & Digital Services Action Plan (Appendix I).

We will also continue to deliver expert specialist technical services in the areas of Geographic Information and Earth Observation; IS Helpdesk support; and Software Development. This will include investment in Earth Observation and the development of greater technological expertise to allow NatureScot to take full advantage of new technologies in surveillance and monitoring work.

Technology and innovation

n line with the priorities set out in the Strategic Application Review, further work to re-architecture all NatureScot applications identified for investment will be undertaken using the SOA approach over the course of the 2019-24 Technology & Digital Services Strategy.

This re-architecture work marks the single biggest change to NatureScot’s application environment in more than a decade. The period covered by this Strategy will be about the consolidation of SOA, together with the development of the new public facing APIs that are needed if NatureScot is to take advantage of opportunities offered by GovTech Catalyst, Civ Tech®, Citizen Science and further shared service and partnership working.

Continued managed/ controlled adoption of Cloud services will permit NatureScot to take advantage of further technological innovation, for example Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning whilst mitigating against the risk of tech sprawl/ shadow IT solutions emerging.

We will continue our journey into the Cloud. NatureScot’s approach to the adoption of cloud solutions will be evolutionary rather than ‘big bang’. This aspect of our Strategy remains very strongly aligned to both the Scottish Public Sector ICT/ Digital Strategy and to wider IT industry direction.

Our next steps in Cloud adoption require a repositioning of the ‘edges’ of our IT network and a revised Infrastructure Technical Architecture. We will implement new infrastructure services (Cloud AV, Cloud Proxy and Cloud Firewall Services etc.), as well as making continued improvements to Wi-Fi capacity/ network bandwidth, whilst ensuring protection of devices and staff regardless of work location.

Together, these incremental steps will deliver the underpinning IT/ ICT architecture that NatureScot will require to be able to access the technology and innovation services of the future.

People and Talent

As we move away from maintaining our IT infrastructure in-house in favour of Cloud technologies, we will be required to develop new skills in key areas including:

– Cloud Architecture;

– Cloud Service Level Management;

– Commercial contract negotiation and management; – Cyber-security.

The drive to reduce costs by taking greater advantage of new technologies such as Earth Observation places a requirement to acquire additional expertise in other areas too and this will be reflected in annual Technology & Digital Services Activity Team training plans.

Throughout this strategy we will focus on talent management and the reduction of single points of failure within the Technology and Digital Services Activity.

We will develop our ‘IT Talent Pipeline’ though engagement with local universities/ learning providers and address the challenges of talent management by means of training, work shadowing and continued Graduate Placements in the Leveraging Digital & Technology Services Activity team. We will also establish an IT Graduate Apprenticeship.

Externally we will maintain momentum in our support and promotion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiatives through the work of our STEM ambassadors.

Internally we will work to address wider technology skills issues, to improve cyber-security skills and ensure a level digital capability commensurate with the new technologies being utilised/ deployed. Wherever possible we will achieve this by assuming competence and signposting our internal systems users to help and online support / resources.

Our Technology & Digital Services Strategy Action Plan to support the next 3 years of this roadmap is provided as Appendix I.

Governance and Accountability

This Strategy has been developed under the umbrella of NatureScot’s new Organisational Development Framework.

The Technology and Digital Services Activity reports to the Director of Business Services and Transformation and is accountable to the NatureScot Senior Leadership Team.

Resources required for Technology & Digital projects are bid for in the same way as all other projects in NatureScot and subject to approval by the Outcome 4 Manager.

IS/ ICT infrastructure projects are governed by a single project board, the IT Implementation Programme (ITIP) which links to Workstream 2 (Technology Strategy and Architecture) of NatureScot’s Information Management Programme, responsible for delivery of the NatureScot Information Management Blueprint. Progress against the Technology & Digital Services Strategy Action Plan is managed by ITIP and monitored under Workstream 2 of the IM Programme.

Business-led projects with a Technology, Digital, GIS or EO component will be project managed by business managers with support and representation from the Technology and Digital Services Activity provided as appropriate.

What will success look like?

When we are successful:

– We will be regarded by the rest of the organisation as a strategic partner, underpinning delivery of Outcome 1, Outcome 2 and Outcome 3 and instrumental to the transformation of NatureScot’s workplaces and working practices.

– Our digital services and ICT infrastructure will be cyber secure, resilient and carbon efficient.

– Technology & digital services will facilitate new ways of working that enable staff to engage more easily with colleagues and the public alike.

– NatureScot data and information services will be widely available through Open web based services and our organisation will be regarded as an active contributor to a vibrant online information community.

– The generic systems, tools and services that NatureScot needs to function will be Cloud based and the bespoke systems that remain essential to day to day operations will be based on modern, open and standards compliant platforms and technologies.

– Staff will be more confident in their use of available technologies, maximising the functionality at their disposal.

Picture credits @ elliothartley: p2 ESA: p7 H.Fluck: p17 Lorne Gill/NatureScot: p5, p15, back cover Shutterstock: Cover, p2, p3, p9, p13