Digital Toolkit

Introduction

What is the Digital Toolkit?

The Digital Toolkit is a suite of shared tools developed over the past 10 years to help Northern Ireland Civil Service business areas digitise and enhance their business processes without having to go through the full procurement process. Digital Transformation Service (DTS) in the Department of Finance (DOF) work with other NICS business areas to help them realise the benefits of shared services that can be rolled out across NICS and the wider Public Sector.

There are two project pathways;

1. Core Services, where you can benefit from off-the-shelf reusable tools such as room and appointment booking and SMS services. These come at no cost to the business area, other than project resource. You can read more about the core services by clicking on the links below.

• Booking Services - Appointment, Desk, Room, Carpark, Event Booking
• Notify
• Payment Gateway
• Tell us
• Rate it
• Secure Messaging
• Identity

2. Bespoke projects, where the business area requirement is unique and/or complex, and there are likely to be reusable elements that can be used across other services. Digital Transformation Services will work with the business area to develop requirements, thus building a library of re-useable components that may have the potential to be re-used across NICS. The business area will require an approved business case and funding before the project can proceed.

• Bespoke Projects & Services

A suite of guidance and forms has been developed to support business areas from project initiation to project closure, including support and subsequent work packages/change requests.

For more information on how to engage with us, contact the product owners listed below.

For more information on the Digital Toolkit Managed Service and SLA's for incident management for live services, contact the product owners listed below.

Benefits

The benefits of adopting the Toolkit are manifold. In using a shared service you may not be required to develop a business case or go through the procurement process. As each service is enhanced, you will be able feed into (via the product backlog) and benefit from new and enhanced features. Additionally, we are required to maintain the toolkit to the highest government standards of security and accessibility, so you benefit from this also.

The reusable tools can be used flexibly, such as ‘Payment Gateway’, combined in a user journey, e.g. Book It + Payment Gateway (e.g. booking a space in a caravan park) or integration with an existing line of business application (e.g. applying for a Blue Badge). Another benefit of using the tools is rapid deployment. For example, integrating the ‘Payment Gateway’ to an existing online business application could typically take two-three days development as opposed to traditional approaches taking approximately four weeks.

Of course, a further benefit is through the economies of scale. Each time a reusable service is adopted the cost per transaction for all service users is reduced because the service has only had to be developed once.

Tip

All Digital Toolkit services are backed by online help and support services.

Contacts

We would encourage you to browse the Digital Toolkit Pre-Engagement information, before getting in touch, for an understanding of roles and responsibilities. For further information you can contact;

• Emma Penney emma.penney@finance-ni.gov.uk
• Tracey Kelly tracey.kelly@finance-ni.gov.uk