The ISG Roadmap

2022 - 2024

Posted by Danny Jones on 21/09/2022

What to expect from the Information Sharing Gateway in the next two years.

We are working on some exciting developments and would like to share our ideas with you. Last week our team successfully released the single sign on functionality, this means you now have the option of linking your Microsoft account to your existing ISG profile to log in with the click of a button.

The Information Sharing Gateway (ISG) is an online platform designed to assist an organisation's compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and their responsibilities under the Data Protection Act; helping to ensure information is being shared, managed and processed correctly.

Here's a sneak peek at what you can expect to see soon.

ISG Roadmap

Single Sign On (SSO)

As mentioned, our Single Sign On (SSO) feature is now live. This allows ISG users to sign in with their existing Office 365 credentials, rather than having to remember multiple usernames and passwords. This will make it easier for registered users to collaborate and share information securely.

Organisation Merge Feature

The organisation merge feature will allow multiple organisations to easily merge into one new organisation without losing any of the pre-existing sharing agreements they have in place. This will be especially useful to support the formations of the Integrated Care Boards/Services.

Sign Off Enhancement

The Sign off functionality within the Data Sharing Agreements has not been improved much other than upkeep fixes since 2015, as such this feature of the website is showing its age.

To address this, we intend to implement a Sign off Enhancement as a short-term fix for the time being until we re-design the whole section of the site later on in the year, this will resolve a number of known issues that have been raised by existing ISG users. The full re-design will fall under the ISG Modernisation phase a little further along the roadmap.

Additional Platform Improvements - Improvement requests provided from the wider ISG community that are not large-scale developments but will provide real benefits to the user community.

Information Asset Register (IAR)

IAR - Currently within the system we have a section called the 'Inventory' this is functionality within the site that has not been updated since 2015. Since UK GDPR has been introduced there is more information that is needed within an Information Asset Register and the Asset in terms of assurances, compliance and detail that are not currently captured within the Inventory, due to this we will be re-designing the tab to allow for a better flow through the system.

WASPI Template - Creation of a WASPI template within the platform to comply with the WASPI framework.

Additional Platform Improvements - Improvement requests provided from the wider ISG community that are not large-scale developments but will provide real benefits to the user community.

ISG Modernisation Phase 2

Data Sharing Improvement - As mentioned in the Sign Off Enhancements above there are parts of the ISG which have not been updated since 2015. This development is about rewriting all pages on the website that are currently in an old development format called, "Web Forms".

By updating the website to MVC (Model, View, Controller), we can complete all future developments faster and more efficiently than ever as we are not having to plug old technology into new technology as they are often incompatible.

As a benefit to our users, we are also going to be completely redesign our current Data Sharing Agreements infrastructure to support a more fluid interaction between the user and the website, to do this we need the MVC work to be completed at the same time.

Ability to Copy DPIA/Activities - We are going to add in the Copy functionality in the same way as this currently works on the Data Sharing tab.

Platform Modernisation - Our users will see a progressive improvement to the look and feel of the system as we proceed through the modernisation phase(s).

Notification Improvements - Improving how the notification process works both internally and externally from the platform.

Additional Platform Improvements (cont.) - Improvement requests provided from the wider ISG community that are not large-scale developments but will provide real benefits to the user community.

ISG Modernisation Phase 3

We also have an eye on future development ideas that are fuelled by input from our valued users. Phase 3 of the modernisation plan encapsulates our longer-term vision for the platform:

  • APIs
  • Centralised User Community Section
  • Data Flow Mapping
  • Data Processing Contracts
  • Enhanced Reporting

If you would like to see any additional developments added to our plans or would like to discuss how the current development plans will work for you/your organisation,please let us know here.