The first webinar in the Connected Citizen series. Fergal Coleman and John Nevins discuss what the council of the future will look like.

1. September 2021
The Connected Citizen Webinar
Series
Webinar 1:
The Council of the Future

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Welcome from Symphony3!
Fergal Coleman, Director and Co-founder, Symphony3
John Nevins, Strategic advisor and former CEO, City of Kingston
Who are Symphony3?

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Housekeeping
Webinar format over the 7 sessions
40 – 45 minute conversation
Guest panellists/cameos from industry leaders
Ask questions as we go and at the end
Ask your questions in the Q&A or chat box
Interactivity: Polls
Breakout sessions
Sessions will be recorded

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What you’ll learn
• Introduction to the series and why it’s
important
• Gain an understanding of where your
organization is on its digital journey
• Opportunity to discuss and think about
where that journey needs to go
• Learn about and discuss how technology
can advance your citizen centric
strategies
• Share thoughts and ideas on the
challenges and opportunities
• Questions

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Webinar schedule
1. What does the council of the future look like? 9 Sep 2021
2. Digital strategy and leadership 14 Oct 2021
3. Customer expectations in a digital world Nov 2021
4. Are your staff empowered for digital? Jan 2022
5. The API-enabled, hyper-connected council Feb 2022
6. Automating, reengineering and eliminating Mar 2022
7. If you can’t measure it, how do you improve? April 2022

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The framework for the series

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Each webinar discusses a piece of
the digital transformation puzzle…

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Webinar 2: Digital strategy and leadership
14
th
October – time TBD
Guest panellist: Prof. Mark Thompson
• Advisor to UK Government
• Professor in Digital Economy at Uni. of Exeter
Email fcoleman@symphony3.com to reserve
place.

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Let’s talk about Digital Australia?
“Accenture Digital Performance Index ranks Australia
2nd last of 37 OECD countries for investment, uptake
and output of digital technologies… we trail other
countries in cloud computing, automation, machine
learning, big data, Internet of Things, 3D Printing and
drones…”
AICD Company Director Magazine September 2021

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75%
of respondents said….
“Relative to other industry
sectors digital transformation
in local government is less
mature than other sectors.”
Attendee Survey

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Where do the leaders in the organisation fit in?

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Do your leaders have the right mindset?
MIT Sloan Management Review 2020

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The council of the future

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The future and change

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What is not going to
change in local
Government?

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The technology of the
future (today)

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How tech has evolved – lets pick an example
2000 - Client-server and early
internet
2010 - Internet-enabled Internet by default
Increase in scale and performance

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What does evolution look like for a Council?
Client-server and early internet
(Legacy approach)
Digitised
(Transitioning to digital)
Internet by default
(Fully optimised)
Low-performance <- Likelihood to be high performing -> High–performance
Higher costs: $$$$$$ <- Likelihood to be efficient -> Lower costs: $

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3 reasons why internet
by default is high
performing?
• Integration and automation by
default – massive internal
efficiencies and cost savings.
• The citizen experience – a single
exceptional customer experience
across all services.
(and employee experience)
• Better decision-making –
management and staff have the
information to make better
decisions faster.

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What are the
obstacles/common pitfalls?
• Complex service and regulatory
environment can stymie innovation.
• Councils are highly accountable to the
community and are resource constrained.
Change is viewed as risky.
• Traditionally Councils are reliant on
dominant ERP vendors. The adoption of
new technology has required their
support at the Council’s cost.
• Digital transformation can appear
complex and challenges existing
technology’s vested interests and
Council’s existing IT support roles.

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Are you on the right
path?
•Do you have a digitization strategy
that supports your performance and
service delivery objectives?

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Conclusions
We need to have challenging conversations about digital
We can plan around what is not going to change
Our enabling technology must evolve and change
There are challenges but the rewards are enormous
The next 6 sessions will continue the exploration…

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Next session: 14th October 2021

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Questions???
We’d love your feedback.
Fergal Coleman
fcoleman@symphony3.com
www.symphony3.com
John Nevins
jnevins@symphony3.com