How I came to be on the DCP project?

It was only by chance that I came to be working on the DCP project.  I originally started at the Council as an apprentice software developer and was working in a completely different team but then Covid happened and I was moved to support the DCP project.  This spiralled me into the thick of it helping with the creation of forms for the Help Hub and Business Grants to support residents and businesses in the borough. This was challenging as we had to learn how to use a new customer portal system overnight nearly, so this meant lots of quick on the job learning.

This chance experience then put me in good stead when an opportunity for a job came up on the project, which I am pleased to say I was successful in and am now an official member of a very busy team!

What I do as a System Support Officer?

I help Service Designers with some of the more technical features of the system such as helping set up the page visibility of the different pages on a form or setting up the outcomes and setting them to be added to the service request.

I also help in building the workflow for forms that are more complex than ordinary workflow.

I assist in the configuration and set up of the tasks that will be created on the back of a service request being submitted for the back officer staff to complete the actions that they need to carry out.

What have I helped achieve in my new role?

Along with requests to provide digital services in response to Covid, I have been  working with Service Designers to move digital services on our existing customer portal, onto the new portal.  This has meant learning about new modules and functionality e.g. appointment bookings and schedules.  I have also played a pivotal role in setting up and testing the payment integration to provide online payment services, which required me to work closely with our portal provider and use my problem solving skills to resolve any issues identified.

I have created a system map of the system in regards to the different actions that can be carried out by customers, the business and what the system will do itself.  This was created to help not only the DCP Team see how the system fits together, but other service areas so that they can easily understand what they need to do to get the system to automatically carry out actions for them to reduce manual work.

I have helped to drive digital change by making sure that the right tool is used for the right job and implemented documents, processes and procedures to make sure that when users are using the system they use the right features such as Service Request and Tasks.

What have I learnt?

I have learnt that I am good at quickly learning what a system can do, how it all fits together, identifying new features and tasks to bring to the table, and using my skills to work through problems to provide solutions to enable the Service Designers to provide services that users need.

I can clearly see the benefit of what I am helping to achieve and how I can assist more services across the Council to meet our vision of having a single customer portal.