{"id":1131796,"date":"2026-08-05T11:55:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1131796\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T11:55:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:55:17","slug":"modernising-legacy-processes-a-key-challenge-behind-sic-digital-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1131796\/","title":{"rendered":"Modernising \u2018legacy\u2019 processes a key challenge behind SIC digital transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>COUNCIL services are said to be keen to engage on digital innovation and artificial intelligence (AI) but there is a need to modernise \u201clegacy\u201d ways of working first.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>That was the message to elected members at a meeting last month as they heard an update on Shetland Islands Council\u2019s (SIC) change programme.<\/p>\n<p>One strand of the change programme is digital transformation and AI, with the hope that it could make SIC services more efficient.<\/p>\n<p>A recent briefing to councillors said a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2026\/07\/07\/significant-recurring-investment-required-sics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">business case was in the pipeline seeking \u201csignificant\u201d recurring investment in Microsoft licences and external support<\/a> as the SIC looks to accelerate AI capability and digital innovation.<\/p>\n<p>The note also said the SIC has been testing a \u201cproof of concept\u201d conversational AI feature for workforce development.<\/p>\n<p>A report to councillors at a full council meeting last month said, however, a key risk from digital transformation and AI was a lack of engagement from services.<\/p>\n<p>Shetland North councillor Andrew Hall questioned if this was already being experienced.<\/p>\n<p>He said digital transformation could be a \u201cbig change\u201d for staff.<\/p>\n<p>ICT manager James Cunningham said services are \u201creally keen to engage with us, but we do understand the challenges that they have in delivering frontline services\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also said they acknowledged there is a challenge around the time and resources needed to implement something new and \u201csomething fundamentally different\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham added that a lot of the challenges are around \u201clegacy\u201d processes in the workplace, such as documents and record management.<\/p>\n<p>These are things that \u201cneed to be modernised before they can then start to take the next step with digital innovation and artificial intelligence\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shetland News<\/strong> is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Removal of third-party ads;<\/li>\n<li>Bookmark posts to read later;<\/li>\n<li>Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;<\/li>\n<li>Hide membership messages;<\/li>\n<li>Comments open for discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of <strong>Shetland News<\/strong> by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2026\/08\/05\/modernising-legacy-processes-key-challenge\/\" title=\"Sign in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Sign in<\/strong><\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/payments_horizontal_2.png\" alt=\"Payment methods accepted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COUNCIL services are said to be keen to engage on digital innovation and artificial intelligence (AI) but there&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1131797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3163],"tags":[323,1942,5034,32453,24931,113446,53,16,15],"class_list":["post-1131796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-council","tag-islands","tag-shetland","tag-sic","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117042777270638955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1131796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1131797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1131796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1131796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1131796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}