New Report - Oshawaapp.oshawa.ca/agendas/Finance_and_Administration/2011/06... · 2011. 5. 31. ·...

Report

To: Finance and Administration Committee Item: Date of Report:

FA-1 1-1 27 May 30,201 1

From: Rick Stockman, Commissioner File: Date of Meeting:

Department of Corporate Services A1600 June 2,201 1

Subject: lnformation Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP)

PUBLIC REPORT

1.0 PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to present Council with an lnformation Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP).

2.0 RECOMMENDATION

That the Finance and Administration Committee recommend to City Council:

1. That the lnformation Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP) as appended as Attachment 1 to Report FA-1 1-127 dated May 30, 201 1 be received for information; and

2. That funding needs identified in the ITSP for the maintenance and acquisition of information technology applications be referred to the Strategic Financial Plan.

3.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Technology has become crucial to service delivery and service delivery improvement, and is pivotal to the City's ability to meet its corporate goals and objectives. Most business processes in today's municipal environment are generally dependant on technology.

Demand for technology solutions from City departments continues to grow at an exponential rate, and exceeds the capacity of the available City resources. Thus the importance of agreeing on priorities and setting direction for information technology -the creation of a Strategic Plan - will ensure resources and efforts are focused in the right place, on the right initiatives that deliver the best value to the City's residents.

This lnformation Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP) outlines the key technology areas in which the City will be investing over the next three years, and presents a plan for the ITS Branch to prepare itself to respond to today's and future demands of the City. Partnerships, a key theme of this strategy, will be central to the future success of the City's exploitation of technology. The plan itself has been developed in partnership with departments and business units.

Report to the Finance and Item: FA-11-127 Administration Committee (Continued) - 2 - Meeting Date: June 2,2011

The requirement for additional funding to meet the needs of the corporation to maintain existing applications and equipment, to improve functionality of existing applications and introduce new applications is significant. That need has been referred to the Strategic Financial Plan.

4.0 INPUT FROM OTHER SOURCES

4.1 General

9 Development of the ITSP document is very much a collaborative initiative with input from clients obtained through surveys and discussions and review and endorsement by the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT).

4.2 Auditor General

> The Auditor General has reviewed this report and his comments are shown in Attachment 2.

5.0 ANALYSIS

5.1 Background

9 lnformation technology services at the City of Oshawa have evolved into a complex component of the City's operations and business. It is primarily administered by the ITS Branch who provide and support technology-related solutions to the entire organization, participating external agencies and the public. Key services include:

Business application development, implementation, upgrade, and support Including significant support requirements for key business applications such as Peoplesoft Financials and HR Systems, Geographic lnformation Systems (GIs), Oshawa Land lnformation System (OLI), Lagan Customer Service System, and CLASS Recreation and Point of Sale System; Internet and lntranet systems support including support of the development, integration, and support of several on-line self-service systems; Network, telecommunications, email and telephone system support and integration including high speed fibre optic communications connecting City facilities; Management of the day-to-day security of the corporation's technology resources including data security administration, network firewall administration, data back-up and recovery planning, system residency and disaster recovery; PC Hot Line support for the 800+ technology users ensuring maximum availability of hardware and software and assisting in troubleshooting and problem solving user difficulties; and Maintenance and update of the City's core GIs data, GIs analysis, and the production of GIs map products.

9 These services represent an investment in excess of $20 million and are absolutely vital to the operations and business of the City.


9 In addition to the services currently provided, there is a constant demand for adding new services as technology needs continuously change.

9 A systematic plan for evaluating, prioritizing, managing, and funding technology services is required. Consequently, staff undertook the development of an lnformation Technology Strategic Plan which supports the sustainability pillars approved by Council.

5.2 Plan Methodology and Organization

9 An interdepartmental ITSP Steering Committee was formed to guide the development of the strategy.

9 In developing this strategy, there was broad consultation with City departments and employees to assess the current maturity and satisfaction with technology solutions and technology services, to pinpoint key issues and gaps that must be addressed and identify future technology needs across the organization.

> The ITSP document is organized into 11 Chapters plus an Executive Summary and Appendix A, B, and C.

9 Chapters 1 & 2 - Introduction and Findings respectively

9 Chapter 3 - Supporting the Corporate Mission links the plan to Council's strategic goals.

9 Chapter 4 - Business Requirements develops the future business requirements through a review of the current corporate technology architecture and existing business systems, and through input from City departments regarding their future technology needs. These requirements were further grouped into a set of key themes listed below. -

Work and Asset Management Mobile and Remote Workforce Core Tool Updates and Unified Communications

= lnformation and Document Management Leveraging Existing Solutions

= Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

> Chapter 5 - Business and Technology Work Plan presents the business and technology work plan based on known and planned projects for the term of the plan. The amounts are daunting with $2.8 million identified for each of 2012 and 2013. Expenditures of this magnitude are beyond the current information technology funding envelope and it is recommended that the funding strategy be referred to the Strategic Financial Plan.


9 Chapter 6 - Corporate Technology Architecture provides a description of the technology architecture and some of the issues surrounding our major legacy systems supporting financial information systems (Peoplesoft), customer service (Lagan), tax billing (Manta), fire dispatch (Crysis), etc.

9 Chapter 7 - IT Service Delivery Model outlines the service delivery model grouped under five themes as follows.

Partnership and Engagement (relationships with clients) IT Governance Framework (structure for setting business goals and decision making) Standardization of Key IT Business Processes (processes for prioritizing acquisitions and projects) Policy and Standards

= Training

> Chapter 8 - ITS Resources and Organization Structure presents the organizational setup for the ITS Branch and identifies a significant shortfall in staff resources. This issue was presented to Council during the 2011 budget deliberations but deferred pending the preparation of a formal business case. This will be presented to Council in June.

9 Chapter 9 - Service Delivery Work Plan outlines the implementation plan for the service delivery enhancements.

9 Chapter 10 - Technology Expenditures and Funding provides comparative metrics on the funding levels for information technology operations and capital. It also identifies the looming funding shortfall described earlier in this report and reflected in Recommendation2 of this report.

9 Chapter 11 - Conclusion states how this strategy will result in the adoption of the following key elements.

Governance Framework Project Ranking Criteria 6 Key Business Requirement Themes 3 Year Business and Technology Projects Work Plan 5 Service Delivery Improvement Themes 3 Year Service Delivery Work Plan

9 The plan covers three years because planning more than three years out for technology does not usually result in realistic or accurate plans due to the rate of change in technology.

9 This plan does not introduce radical change rather it presents an incremental approach to improving services, based upon already solid foundations.


5.3 Conclusion

9 The ITSP represents a clear plan for the City as a whole. It outlines the key technology demand areas, establishes a new governance model to support IT decision making reflective of corporate priorities, and positions the ITS Branch to respond to these demands.

6.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

> There are no financial implications arising directly from this report as the funding shortfall for IT projects is being referred to the Strategic Financial Plan and the funding requirements for the staffing increases in 2011 and 2012 will be addressed in a separate report to Council.

7.0 RESPONSE TO THE COMMUNITY STRATEGIC PLAN

9 This report meets the Community Strategic Plan objective of a caring and responsible community by ensuring accountability.

- -~a'veMawbv. Director Information?ethnology Services

Corporate Services Department

Attachments

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1

Appendix A: Glossary

Appendix B: IT Governance Framework

Appendix C: Project Ranking Criteria

Chapter 1: Introduction 5

Chapter 2: Key Findings 7

Chapter 3: Supporting the Corporate Mission 11

Chapter 4: Business Requirements 13

Chapter 5: Business & Technology Work Plan 21

Chapter 6: Corporate Technology Architecture 25

Chapter 7: IT Service Delivery Model 35

Chapter 8: ITS Resources and Organization Structure 49

Chapter 9: Service Delivery Work Plan 55

Chapter 10: Technology Expenditures and Funding 57

Chapter 11: Conclusion 61

Executive Summary

Today, in all walks of life, technology has become all pervasive. Be it banking from a mobile phone, tracking a parcel to its destination or connecting and communicating with friends and colleagues, technology is at the centre of these transactions.

The same is true at the City of Oshawa. Technology is key to service delivery and service delivery improvement, and is pivotal to the City’s ability to meet its corporate goals and objectives. Service Oshawa exemplifies how technology has become central to the delivery of the City’s services. The CRM, Web and Telephony systems work in an integrated way to deliver streamlined and efficient services to customers – just as FedEx or CIBC would.

Demand for technology from City departments continues to grow at an exponential rate, and exceeds the capacity of the resources the City has at its disposal. Thus the importance of agreeing on priorities and setting direction for information technology. The creation of a Strategic Plan will ensure resources and effort are focused in the right place and on the right initiatives that deliver the best value to the City’s citizens.

This Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP) outlines the key technology areas in which the City will be investing over the next three years, and presents a plan for the Information Technology Services Branch (ITS) to prepare itself to respond to today’s and future demands of the City. The plan itself has been developed in partnership with departments and business units. Partnerships, a key theme of this strategy, will be central to the future success of the City’s exploitation of technology.

The City has made significant, but prudent, investments in Enterprise grade technology over the last 20 years and will continue to do so in the future in similar orders of magnitude. This plan does not introduce radical change; rather it presents an incremental approach to improving services based upon already solid foundations.

The key technology business needs for the next three years have been identified as:

1. Work and Asset Management: providing better solutions to support the stewardship of the City’s infrastructure.

2. Mobile and Remote Workforce: enabling the mobile and remote workforce with technology connected to back-office systems.

3. Core Tool Updates and Unified Communications: providing an updated core Office, Email and Windows operating platform and enhancing communication tools.

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4. Information and Document Management: developing better solutions for document management and collaboration.

5. Fully Leveraging Existing Solutions: ensuring applications are used to their full potential and consolidating functions into the major systems.

6. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: readying the City’s technology to be able to operate in the event of a disaster.

In support of the need to respond more effectively to department needs, the following Vision Statement has been developed collaboratively with the ITS team. The Vision provides the foundation for the delivery of services by ITS:

A dynamic team that provides advanced technology solutions to address the needs of tomorrow.

The Vision is supported by the following Mission:

With a commitment to excellence and due diligence, ITS is dedicatedto provide technical leadership, innovative solutions and support

to address the needs of the Corporation and the community of Oshawa.

ITS has also developed a set of Service Delivery improvement themes for the ITS Branch which are designed, amongst other things, to improve decision making transparency, IT planning and project delivery, as follows:

1. Partnership and Engagement: establishing closer working relationships and engagement between ITS and City departments.

2. IT Governance Framework: clearly defining IT decision making responsibilities, establishing a corporate IT Steering Committee to prioritize and select IT investments, involving department Directors in IT decision making, and establishing major program and application working groups to lead the full leverage of applications and technologies (such as mobile working).

3. Standardization of Key IT Business Processes: adopting industry standards for service delivery.

4. Policy and Standards: establishing standards and policies to support the best, secure and most cost effective use of technology.

5. Training: establishing a renewed focus upon basic and advanced training to ensure staff can get the most productivity out of the tools and technologies available to them.

Included in the body of the ITSP is a Service Delivery Work Plan that illustrates when and how these programs and projects will be undertaken.

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This ITSP represents a clear plan for the City as a whole. It outlines the key technology demand areas, establishes a new governance model to support IT decision making reflective of corporate priorities, and positions ITS to respond to these demands.

The Information Technology Strategic Plan will result in the adoption of the following:

Governance Framework (Chapter 7, Appendix B)

Project Ranking Criteria (Appendix C)

6 Key Business Requirement Themes (Chapter 4)

3 year Business & Technology Projects Work Plan (Chapter 5)

5 Service Delivery Improvement Themes (Chapter 7)

3 year Service Delivery Work Plan (Chapter 9)

Staffing increases for the 2011 Budget. (1 FTE staff member and 1 FTE contract position (2 years) as recommended in Chapter 8 of the Strategy)

Funding requirements for major initiatives will be considered as part of the 2011-2015 Strategic Financial Plan

Chapter 1: Introduction

The Oshawa approach to technology is simple; the City prudently invests in appropriate technologies to support efficient and effective City services. The ITS Branch works diligently to ensure available technologies are utilized to their fullest potential.

Technology is core to the delivery of City services. This is exemplified by Service Oshawa, where technology is core to the vision of delivering improved and streamlined services to Oshawa residents, businesses and visitors.

The intent of this strategy is to outline how the City intends to continue to effectively utilize technology to achieve its broader corporate goals and objectives over the next three years.

In developing this strategy, there was broad consultation with City departments and employees to assess the current maturity and satisfaction with technology solutions and technology services, to pinpoint key issues and gaps that must be addressed and identify future technology needs across the organization.

The strategy outlines the key technology themes that must be addressed and identifies changes to the way in which the services of the ITS Branch are provided to ensure the Branch can more effectively execute its mandate and deliver against the organization’s continually growing needs.

Approach to Developing the Strategy

The development of this strategy is indicative of the commitment of ITS to ensure the services it provides meets the needs of its customers. It has included a comprehensive service delivery review, and a broad consultation with key customers of IT services.

Through the development of this strategy, ITS has taken this opportunity to reevaluate the organization’s approach to information technology and assess how best ITS and the organization as a whole should be organized to make the most of its technology investments.

The process commenced in June 2009, with the formation of an interdepartmental IT Strategic Plan Steering Committee to guide the development of this strategy. The Committee was chaired by Dave Mawby, Director ITS and included the following representatives;

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Helen Break - Director, Corporate Strategic Initiatives, Office of the City Manager

Beth Mullen - Manager, Business Services, Community Services Department Jerry Shestowsky - Manager, Administrative & Accessibility Services,

Development Services Department Michelle Bretherick - Co-ordinator, Budget Services, Corporate Services

Department A broad consultation with over 200 staff throughout the organization through a number of structured surveys, has allowed departmental staff to provide insight into the current state of technology use, to identify issues and areas for improvement, and to identify future business/technology needs.

In parallel with the survey process, the ITS team was involved in a number of SWOT and visioning workshops to help shape the way in which the ITS Branch will deliver services in future. The team conducted a thorough review of current services and identified a variety of service delivery improvements. Vision and Mission statements were also developed for the ITS Branch.

An IT governance review was conducted by an external consulting firm, Prior & Prior Associates, and a revised IT governance model has been designed with their assistance. Prior & Prior also provided information and context for the IT resource and technology funding benchmarks and also assisted in the development of the final strategy document.

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Chapter 2: Key Findings

As part of the consultation process for the development of this strategy, three surveys were conducted:

General User Survey

Business Unit Survey

Business Application Survey

The first was a broad customer survey which was open to all staff and assessed satisfaction levels in multiple areas including ITS service delivery and generally available tools and technology (PC’s, photocopiers, email, blackberry). 147 responses were received.

The second, a separate and distinct survey, targeted 35 senior staff representing business units from across the user departments. This survey focused upon a similar assessment of business unit satisfaction with ITS services, tools and technologies, but also polled for future technology needs and requirements of departments and branches.

The Business Application Survey was also completed by representatives of business units. This survey focused on the use, availability, and satisfaction with existing business applications in use across the corporation. 205 responses were received.

In addition to the customer facing consultation, the ITS Branch also conducted its own review and self assessment.

What did we learn from the survey responses?

A number of key themes emerged which have contributed to the development of the strategy:

1. There is a high level of satisfaction with the core services that ITS provides (e.g. PC, Email, Office). ITS is responsive and provides a good level of support, solutions are reliable, and users are broadly satisfied with ITS services.

2. There is some frustration that customers feel when not being able to get a live answer at the helpdesk.

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3. Satisfaction with the provision of technology training is very low. Training demand is significant for some of the basic tools like MS Office, telephone, photocopiers, as well as application specific needs.

4. A broad set of smaller, but key issues were identified, including:

A need to improve the PC rollout/transition process

Citrix time out for mobile/remote access is too short

A broad demand for wireless provision in City facilities

Concerns about the effectiveness of spam filtering and firewall/internet connectivity issues

5. At a more strategic level, business unit level feedback clarified that departments are looking for more proactive help from ITS in identifying what technology can do and how it may be able to help them improve their business practices.

6. Departments also want ITS to become more effective at listening to their business requirements and to better address their needs. Departments are looking to work with ITS as a partner, rather than ITS simply acting as a supplier.

Application Satisfaction

The Business Application Survey targeted business unit satisfaction with the key software applications which support their business processes. The survey has created a performance/satisfaction baseline for future application satisfaction surveys, which will be carried out annually, and which will be used to monitor improvements.

Results highlight key areas of concern and areas where satisfaction is high. Lessons will be drawn from those applications that are performing well, and poor scoring applications will be targeted to establish where improvements can be made. Some key areas (including PeopleSoft Inventory, Crisys, Fleet and WinFuel) have been identified as applications which require some focus.

In addition to the scoring, there is a significant amount of qualitative detail associated with these high level survey results (describing problems and concerns). These details will be shared with the Solution Working Groups, which will use this information to develop work plans for the major applications.

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IT Services Review

In addition to the customer facing consultations, ITS also conducted its own review and self-assessment of service delivery. Branch activities were broken down into service delivery areas and detailed assessments were completed. For each service delivery area the following topics were explored and documented:

Service Components

Outcomes of Success

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)

Potential Goals For Improvement

Potential Service Metrics

Several strengths were identified through the process. Highlighted among them is the strength of the ITS Branch staff. They are a knowledgeable, dedicated, and customer service oriented team. This sentiment was also echoed in the satisfaction scores and comments of the General User survey.

Key weaknesses were centered on a lack of standardized and documented processes, communication, security management, and training.

Among the threats identified, there was recognition that the scope and complexity of the City’s IT environment is growing and resources are stretched to manage and support it while at the same time implementing new systems, infrastructure, and process improvements.

Another key strength to note is the fact that the City has invested significantly over the past several years in enterprise class systems and infrastructure, and has continued to maintain and upgrade those systems on a regular basis. This approach was also recognized as an opportunity in that as systems are upgraded or replaced, there are opportunities to improve processes and take advantage of new technologies.

The results of the services review contributed to the development of the Service Delivery Model and the service improvement themes included in this strategy. The service metrics will be used to develop reporting metrics for ITS.

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Chapter 3: Supporting the Corporate Mission

The City’s Corporate Mission presents a set of ideas and concepts which are intrinsically tied to technology. We believe this places technology firmly at the centre of the City’s ability to achieve its Corporate Mission.

We’ve highlighted the key concepts of the City’s Mission which are supported by technology.

A strategic, innovative, performance-based organization committed to continuous improvement.

A leader in environmental management.

An employer of choice that empowers staff to provide customer-focused, cost-effective and quality services that support community needs.

Innovation, performance tracking and reporting, and continuous improvement are all supported through the adoption of technology. A new generation of employees expects technology to underpin their day-to-day activities. Efficient access to pertinent information to support decision making is key to empowering staff. In many industries, including government services, technology improvement lies at the heart of cost-effective service delivery. The customer-focused approach of Service Oshawa is built upon solid technology foundations, such as the CRM, telecom systems, and integrated back-end processes.

Several of the business and technology initiatives proposed in this strategy would directly support the Corporate Mission.

Initiative

Supports Corporate Mission

Work Management Strategic Innovative Performance Based Empowers Staff Continuous Improvement Cost Effective and Quality Service Supports Community Needs

Mobile Workforce Strategic Innovative Performance Based Continuous Improvement Employer of Choice Empowers Staff Customer Focused Cost Effective and Quality Service Supports Community Needs

Core Tool Updates Innovative Employer of Choice Empowers Staff Cost Effective and Quality Service

Lagan – Future Phases Strategic Innovative Performance Based Continuous Improvement Employer of Choice Empowers Staff Customer Focused Cost Effective and Quality Service Supports Community Needs

Corporate Performance Reporting

Strategic Innovative Performance Based Continuous Improvement Empowers Staff Cost Effective and Quality Service

In addition, the proposed Governance Framework would ensure future IT investments are in line with the business priorities and goals of the Corporation including the Corporate Mission.

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Chapter 4: Business Requirements

The City has increasingly relied upon technology to support the delivery of its core services. Recent major initiatives, such as the Service Oshawa business transformation, have placed technology at the centre of achieving the vision of a customer-centric organization through the implementation of Lagan, Telephony and Web technologies. CLASS too is a key example where technology is central to the delivery of City services.

The City has made significant investments in a number of large Enterprise grade applications, such as PeopleSoft, Lagan and OLI, and in contrast to some other municipalities Oshawa has been reasonably successful at re-using these tools for a broad set of business processes and functions. The solutions Oshawa has implemented are large, complex solutions in use by large organizations (City of Toronto uses Lagan, Region’s of York and Durham use PeopleSoft) and require significant resources to operate and maintain.

In developing this strategy, the IT team synthesized information provided by departments regarding future needs into a set of key business requirement themes. These themes can be commonly met across the departments with corporate solutions.

For each of the themes, a program of work (a set of interrelated projects) will deliver against the key themes. Working groups will be established to address these major work programs.

Key Business Requirement Themes

1. Work and Asset Management (Maintenance Management System Replacement)

PSAB 3150 has been a key driver requiring the City to shift its attention towards the stewardship of City infrastructure.

Work management is a key component of asset management. To date, the City has extensively leveraged PeopleSoft for work management purposes to track a vast array of data associated with the maintenance and upkeep of assets. However, for most areas these tools are primarily financially focused, not asset based, and so many of the benefits that accrue from a Work Management System (such as an asset history) are not available. As a result, it is anticipated that a Work Management System will be required to replace and/or augment the Work Management functionality currently available in PeopleSoft.

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The full implementation of Work Management solutions (including asset registers, service requests, work order management, GIS integration, mobile and online deployment) and Asset Management solutions (including decision support tools) across all departments who manage City infrastructure is a huge, multi-year commitment. The effort and organizational change management impacts of implementing work management are significant, and may take many years to fully embed themselves in the organization.

This will be a major undertaking, which must begin with a broad corporate strategy and assessment of needs, before focusing in more detail upon requirements across the organization.

2. Mobile and Remote Workforce

To fully accrue the benefits of a Work Management System, there is a requirement to provide technology to the mobile workforce – the field crews who are conducting the work. Indeed, there is a widespread and growing demand throughout the organization to empower the mobile workforce, to allow those who work in the field, remotely or who are based out of their homes, to utilize technology to facilitate their work.

The City has already implemented a number of technologies which support mobile working for some groups, including Municipal Law Enforcement and Licensing Services (MLELS). However, there are a number of areas including Building Inspectors and maintenance crews which could benefit from mobile working tools.

It is important that this is approached in a coordinated and integrated way:

Each function will have different requirements meaning different form factors (tablets, netbooks, blackberries), access to different applications, fixed in vehicle, portable, remote and mobile printing. It will be key to co-ordinate an approach which allows for the re-use of key components (network connectivity, authentication, security, support) to ensure costs can be controlled.

Solutions in the field must be connected and integrated with the back office solutions that receive, process, and track work requests to offer the full end-to-end solution and to avoid implementing redundant solutions.

The workforce is changing and the expectations of a newer generation of worker are that technology will be available to allow them to work anytime, anyplace, anywhere. The trend in the municipal sector is a cautious support for more tele-working, typically driven by office space challenges. In positioning itself as an employer of

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choice, the City must be able to provide technology tools and services that can accommodate changing attitudes and approaches.

By re-using the tools and technologies to support the mobile workforce, we will be able to provide tools which allow staff that wish or need to work outside of City of Oshawa offices to access networks and applications. Such staff include:

Day extenders or those who wish to check email and carry out work on key applications in the evenings and weekends.

Employees who wish to work from home occasionally or permanently (we recognize this is not currently supported or promoted by corporate policy and differs between departments)

Employees without access to PC’s at the office who may wish to access IT solutions and resources from their own PC at home.

To meet the needs of a mobile and remote workforce, effort will be made to ensure the City’s technology tools and applications are accessible anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

3. Core Tool Updates and Unified Communications

The core tools most staff use everyday including email, Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and the desktop operating system, will all be updated during the course of the next three years to Office 2010 and Windows 7. The City has extended the life of the existing office and operating system tools for some time, which has saved the City a significant amount of money. Upgrades are now necessary to remain within a support window for the products, to simplify the management of the tools, and to provide additional functionality. However, the new tools, Office 2010 and Windows 7, represent a significant change from the current environment, and will require investment in training of staff to ensure they are comfortable with the tools and aware of the new capabilities.

We have also identified a broad set of needs for improved collaboration tools between City staff and locations, such as access to fax from a PC, Instant Messaging, online meetings and inter-office video conference tools. These are tools that are now in widespread use in consumer technology and could be brought into the City’s technology environment.

These fit into a broader set of technologies called Unified Communications. Unified Communications integrate “real-time communication services such as instant

messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax”.

The initial priority is to deliver Office 2010 and Windows 7 upgrades, followed by voicemail and fax integration into the PC. This will provide the foundations for an integrated Unified Communications environment, which will allow further potential benefits for video and other real time communication services to be explored.

4. Information and Document Management

Like many other organizations, Oshawa is swimming in information, much of it unstructured and stored in documents, emails, and other media. Many staff are overwhelmed by email volumes and find it challenging to be able to manage project collaboration and document access. Being able to access relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information in a timely fashion is critical to the effective operation of the City.

Regulatory responsibilities also provide municipalities with a set of obligations. The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act requires that all municipalities maintain a Directory of Records and a Directory of Personal Information Banks.

Collectively, over the next 2-3 years, it will be important to address the information overload challenge, comply with legal obligations, more effectively access and share documents, and become a more collaborative organization.

The immediate need at the City is for document management. Document management includes both hard copy and electronic documents, including emails, text messages and other types of e-messaging. Drawing management also falls into this area – being able to manage, reference, and archive large scale drawings is also a key requirement.

However, many document management projects fail or stall because of a poor understanding of the implications of undertaking such a project and everyone has a different view of what document management should deliver. It is important that any document management project is effectively scoped to ensure everyone is clear about the intended purpose and outcomes, and there is a clear distinction between Content Management, Records Management, Workflow Management & Document Management, all separate and distinct concepts, for which different solutions are available.

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The following illustration, taken from the MIKE 2.0 Framework, an open source framework for Enterprise Information Management, illustrates the complexity and wide reaching issues and topic areas associated with information management –a complex and interwoven topic.

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As a result, establishing a program working group for information management and engaging an external consulting organization to assist in a broad assessment of information management needs, and the development of the detailed plan would be a priority. Further work could then be undertaken in specific areas, such as Enterprise Content Management or document management, specifically.

5. Fully Leveraging Existing Solutions

The Corporation has made significant investments in a number of major solutions including, but not limited to PeopleSoft, OLI, CLASS, GIS and Lagan. In many cases, significant effort has been made to fully leverage these solutions and expand their utility in other areas and for other business processes. This approach (over buying new, best of breed solutions for each business area or business requirement) minimizes complexity of the technology environment, reduces costs of integration and support, and ensures systems are used and widely adopted. This is a central principle which underlies the corporate technology architecture, which is discussed in more detail in Chapter 6.

The Working Groups (outlined in the Governance Framework) will develop roadmaps and work plans for each of the major enterprise applications. Furthermore, when considering new requirements for solutions, effort will be made to rationalize the application environment by extending the use of existing technologies already in operation.

6. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

In recent times, a number of events including terrorism, natural disasters and blackouts, both here and abroad, have been a reminder of the importance of planning for the unexpected or unanticipated. With an increased reliance upon technology to support day-to-day business operations, the City is exposed to an increased vulnerability.

Business continuity planning is largely focused upon how to continue to operate in the event of a disaster. Disaster recovery focuses specifically upon the processes, procedures, tools and technologies to recover or continue the operation of information technology infrastructure after a natural or human induced disaster.

Most organizations have developed a business-led Business Continuity Plan at the senior level which the IT organization uses as a basis to develop a detailed disaster recovery plan.

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In the absence of a corporate business continuity plan, ITS has invested in disaster recovery capabilities by constructing a second/backup redundant data centre at Fire Hall 5, and by implementing technologies that would allow for failover to that facility if and when an interruption occurs at the City Hall data centre. ITS is in the process of implementing failover capabilities for certain systems (e.g. email and file services, telephone systems and data storage) using virtualization and a number of other technologies. ITS is also making significant investments to ensure the resiliency of the Corporate network can be enhanced.

The goal is for ITS to develop a comprehensive and formally adopted technology disaster recovery plan for technology, which would seek to clearly define needs and establish a formalized program of investment in disaster recovery capabilities.

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Chapter 5: Business & Technology Projects Work Plan

Major technology initiatives and other known projects are shown below in a Business & Technology Work Plan. It is important to stress that this list of projects represents a snapshot of the known initiatives at this time that likely need to be undertaken during the course of this IT strategy. Additional items will undoubtedly materialize in the future, and some of the initiatives included here will not come to fruition. The timelines suggested are provided to indicate a sense of when each of the initiatives may be undertaken.

A three year time horizon has been adopted for the work plan, simply because planning more than three years out for technology does not usually result in realistic or accurate plans.

2011 2012 2013 $000s $000s $000s

New Business & Technology Projects Lagan – support of Phase 2, 3 and 4

Lagan – Back office system integration (OLI, forestry)

Lagan – Online Service Request

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Work Management strategy and requirements definition

Work Management Implementation (including GIS integration)

1,500 Work Management Implementation (including GIS integration)

1,000

Fleet System Replacement (potential to evaluate reuse of WMS)

500

Document and Records Management Assessment

Information Management Strategy / Plan

50 Document Management Implementation

500 Document Management Implementation

250

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2011 2012 2013 Mobile Strategy and Work Plan Mobile Solution

Implementation

50 Mobile Work Management Implementation

50

Fire / CAD Dispatch Replacement (partnership w/ Whitby) (including AVL and Remote Access)

500

Licensing System Implementation OLI Enhancements and Extension to Additional Business Processes

OLI Enhancements and Extension to Additional Business Processes

Finance – Review of Budgeting, Processes and Tools

Implement Budget Solution

Finance – Review Procure to Pay Process

HRMS – Time and Attendance (Lieu Time Tracking) HR - Scheduling Solutions

50 HRMS - Training Tracking and Licenses and Certification

HRMS – Succession Planning

Public WiFi (downtown, parks, city facilities)

501 Public WiFi (downtown, parks, city facilities)

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1 Note that the scope and quality of service of WiFi provision will have significant impact on costs.

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2011 2012 2013 Corporate Performance Metrics / Performance Reporting System

100

Expansion of Online Services

15 Expansion of Online Services

15 Expansion of Online Services

15

Line of Business Technology Solutions

200 Line of Business Technology Solutions

200 Line of Business Technology Solutions

200

Subtotal 365 2,490 2,515 Technology Infrastructure Projects Office 2010 and Windows 7 deployment (project funding in place)

500

Unified Communications Strategy & Planning

UC Implementation 50 UC Implementation 50

Print Consolidation Strategy

20 Print Consolidation Implementation Operating impact

Integration Technology strategy

Integration toolset implementation

150

Disaster Recovery Planning

50 DR Implementation 50 DR Implementation 50

Subtotal 70 100 250 Technology Upgrade Projects

Lagan (2 Years) 200

Nakisa (2 Years) 10

Network Switch Upgrade (4 Years)

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PeopleSoft Financials (4 Years)

400

GIS + OLI (3 Years) 100

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2011 2012 2013 Telephone System (3 Years)

100

CLASS (3 Years) 50

Crisys (3 years) 60 Subtotal 710 210 50

Total 1,145 2,800 2,815

It should be noted that the IT Governance Framework, which is discussed in detail in Chapter 8, is designed to be responsible for allocating the annual technology budget and for developing an annual technology work plan to ensure the IT service delivery model is responsive to changing and emerging needs. Each of these projects will need a detailed business case to be developed for consideration through the governance framework.

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Chapter 6: Corporate Technology Architecture

Corporate Technology Architecture: How it all Fits Together

The Corporate Technology Architecture is how all of the technology components fit and work together. It is no longer appropriate to think of the technology environment (the myriad of applications, for example) as individual, stand alone elements. Each component is part of a broader technology environment, which, to be effective, must co-exist, interoperate, integrate, share and reuse data.

Customer Service Driven Architecture

With the creation of Service Oshawa and the implementation of Lagan CRM, the organization is pursuing a customer service driven technology strategy. The goal is to deliver integrated, end-to-end services to customers through a centralized customer service organization.

In an integrated scenario, a member of the public would place a call to Service Oshawa about a stop sign being knocked down as a result of a minor accident, the issue would be logged into the CRM, from the CRM a work order would be created in the Work Management system, which would be automatically allocated to a nearby crew and dispatched to the crew’s in-vehicle device. The crew would investigate the issue, and may even repair the issue immediately. On completion of the job the crew would record their work time on the job, manage the inventory used and update the status of the work order. The status change of the work order would trigger an update to the service request in the CRM, which would close the customer’s service request (and notify the customer of the resolution).

To achieve this seamless customer service, all of the technology components, including multiple applications, mobile technologies and communications must work together.

The corporate architecture is an underlying component of the governance framework for information technology. The architecture provides the blueprint to ensure technologies integrate and share data as required, application proliferation is avoided, common toolsets can be adopted corporately, and, ultimately, IT costs can be reduced.

The Director of ITS is responsible for the development of the corporate architecture, with input from key stakeholders and other users. The principles and the IT governance structure must reinforce the importance of the architecture, and

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exceptions and deviations from the architecture need to be fully justified and documented.

The following diagram describes a standard model for information technology architecture and the subsequent text and diagram describes the City’s current corporate technology architecture in detail.

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There are four key layers, which are interconnected and rely upon each other to deliver services to internal and external clients, as follows:

1. Infrastructure: The core underlying infrastructure (such as networking, servers, PC’s, database, data storage, telephony and security) which keeps the computing environment operating.

2. Business Systems: The end user systems (such as OLI, CLASS, PeopleSoft) which are used to support the departments’ day-to-day business operations. These systems rely upon infrastructure to allow them to operate.

3. Integration: These are tools, technologies and data standards that allow information from all of the separate business systems to be combined together. For instance, GIS combines data from different sources to provide an integrated view of City activity that is happening in a single location.

4. Customer Facing Systems/Customer Access Channels: These are the services that face the customer, such as the website, telephone and face-toface services. Typically web services and a CRM utilize the information in the business systems, aggregated using the integration technologies to handle, resolve and route customer enquiries.

Without a stable, secure, infrastructure layer, reliable business applications cannot support efficient and effective service delivery. Without these back-end business applications delivering integrated end-to-end transactions, customer facing on-line services cannot be achieved. And, without the integration layer, information remains locked within the individual business application silos and customer facing systems suffer.

Architecture Gaps

The following diagram provides an overlay of the City’s technology environment over the standard model described above. Key technology gaps have been highlighted in red. The gaps identified, including Work and Asset Management, Document Management and an extension in the services available online correlate closely with the initiatives identified in the business requirements section of the strategy. There are also some gaps in supporting integration and data mining tools which also need to be addressed. As outlined in the section above, work programs and other projects will be initiated to address these key areas.

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Major Applications

As noted in the above architecture diagram, the City currently maintains a handful of key major business applications. A brief summary of these applications and key issues are described below.

Lagan

Implemented in 2008, Lagan is a web-based application used primarily in Service Oshawa to monitor and track all incoming service and information requests. The system is comprised of 4 key modules. The CSP (Customer Service Portal) is used by Service Oshawa staff to enter and track all incoming service and information requests. Scripting functionality within this module assists staff in answering customer questions and directing service requests. The SRP (Service Request Portal) is used by City staff outside of Service Oshawa to administer the various service requests and update status. The Knowledge Base provides information search capabilities to assist Service Oshawa staff in finding information and answering customer inquiries. Business Intelligence Reporting (BI Reporting) provides a wide range of statistical reports based on the cases being created as well as the status and efficiencies of the various City branches in terms of the effectiveness in dealing with the cases.

The Lagan system is currently integrated with the City’s Geographic Information System (GIS) to provide location information and allow for geographic assignment of cases. Integration with the Oshawa Land Information (OLI) system is currently being implemented.

As Service Oshawa expands into new service areas, ITS is providing technical support and development of the business process and integration software components. Future planned enhancements also include citizen self service.

CLASS

The CLASS system was originally implemented in 1999 for program registration, membership tracking, and facility booking. Several upgrades and new features have been added over the last several years. In 2005, the system was significantly enhanced with the addition of an integrated Point-of-Sale module and the implementation of the Leisure-On-Line (LOL) web-based registration module.

The system is now used by Recreation, OSCC and Parking to monitor and maintain facility booking, memberships and program registrations. The LOL module now accounts for approximately 30-35% of all program registrations, and

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the vast majority of all in-person cash transactions across the City now flow through the CLASS Point of Sale module.

There are several interfaces built around the CLASS system to facilitate the financial transactions of the point of sale (e.g. Manta, PeopleSoft, Royal Bank, etc)

Planned new features include on-line facility booking and membership renewal.

OLI

The Oshawa Land Information system (OLI) is primarily used to manage property related information and to track land management processes. It was purchased along with upgrades to the City’s GIS environment in 1999. The system consists of several viewers, each supporting a land management process, built on the Novalis development framework. The system is primarily developed and supported by ITS staff although the Novalis development framework is supported by the vendor and the GIS integration components are supported by ESRI. Since the initial OLI implementation, many new features and functions have been added to the software, including the addition of several new viewers to support growing business needs. The Novalis development framework has also been updated several times. In addition to the property related viewers, OLI has also been developed to track Corporate Agreements and Cemetery Plots.

Novalis Technologies, the company supporting the framework, was sold to Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) in 2005. In 2010, ACS was acquired by Xerox. Although the company continues to provide support for the product, changes in ownership of the underlying technology causes concern regarding the long-term support of the product.

PeopleSoft – HR / Finance (including budgeting) / MMS

The PeopleSoft Financial Management System (FMS) and Human Resource Management System (HRMS) were implemented in 1999 as a Y2K project. The original system functionality did not include some of the required components for maintenance tracking and financial budgeting. The Maintenance Management System (MMS) and the Corporate Budgeting System were developed and implemented within the original implementation project. The PeopleSoft systems have been upgraded over the last several years and the City has taken advantage of newly available features. The systems are now web-based.

The MMS system was initially used primarily by operations staff to allocate costs (time, equipment, and inventory) to activities and to track accomplishments. The

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system also includes a budget module that allows operational groups to budget according to planned accomplishments and costs. Over the past several years, many customized enhancements and interfaces have been developed and incorporated into MMS including work order tracking and self-entered time. The number of staff using the system has also grown significantly. Due to the detailed data requirements that come with a maintenance tracking system, a significant amount of staff resources are utilized to enter and maintain MMS data. Community Services, ITS and Finance staff are in the process of reviewing the requirements and use of the MMS system across the Corporation. The implementation of a corporate work management solution would also have a significant impact on the requirements and use of MMS.

The PeopleSoft systems are a very large and complex application. The features and functions have been built to support very large organizations with international operations. Significant set-up is usually required to take advantage of new modules and features. Upgrades to the system are also complex and significant staff resources are required to implement, upgrade, and test the new environment.

In 2005, Oracle Corporation acquired PeopleSoft. With this acquisition, Oracle has several parallel product lines for financial and human resource management. The company has announced the development of a Fusion system to combine these product lines. Although Oracle has committed to development and support of the PeopleSoft systems for the next several years, it is expected the City will be required to move to a Fusion product at some point in the future. It is unknown whether any of the custom MMS or budget systems will be portable to the new development environment.

ESRI/GIS

The Geographic Information System (GIS) software tools provided by ESRI Canada form the geospatial infrastructure for the City’s land related data. The sophisticated mapping and analysis tools are used in decision support, work planning, and visualization of land related information. Originally implemented in 1989, the system had a major upgrade in 2000 as part of a renewed focus on land related information systems. Over the last few years, ITS has upgraded the component tools to keep the system current.

CriSys

Implemented in 1999 the CriSys system is used by Fire Services to provide Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Incident Management and Reporting. Oshawa

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Fire Services’ joint dispatch provides services to Oshawa, Whitby, Scugog, and Uxbridge. The system is fully supported by CriSys Limited. Integration components from the City’s GIS system is supported by ITS. Fire Services staff have expressed concerns regarding the performance of the system and its reporting tools, and the ability of CriSys Limited to respond to changing legislative and operational changes.

Manta

The Manta tax billing and collection system was originally purchased in 2000 from Sierra Systems. Sierra subsequently changed business direction and dropped support for the product. The City has been provided with the source code and ITS has taken over development and support for the software. Several enhancements have been incorporated into the system to accommodate new legislative and operation requirements. Manta is currently the only software in the City’s portfolio that is developed and supported using PowerBuilder development tools.

Implications

Just as a city needs development controls, by-laws and approval processes to ensure the city is developed appropriately, similar controls and processes need to be put in place to ensure the technology architecture develops and grows in a structured and sustainable way.

Over the years the Corporation’s technology architecture has evolved organically. With the growing need for data sharing and mining, real-time data access and mobile access to systems, the importance of planning how the architecture evolves in the future is increasingly important.

This IT strategy articulates the technology architecture as a whole for the first time. This is an important step as it reinforces the importance of the overall technology architecture, and recognizes the need to establish processes to safeguard the sustainability of the technology environment. ITS will be focusing upon developing processes and standards to ensure the technology architecture is sustainable. A number of the governance processes which will be put in place by this strategy are designed to ensure the technology architecture can be proactively managed in the future.

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Chapter 7: IT Service Delivery Model

This section of the strategy outlines the service delivery model the ITS Branch will put in place to support the delivery of the business requirements outlined in the previous chapter.

The changes outlined here have been identified by the ITS team through a detailed SWOT and service review exercise, and through the comments received through the customer survey process.

ITS Vision Statement

The following vision statement was developed collaboratively by the ITS Branch. It clearly states a renewed vision for the Branch, and provides the foundation for the delivery of services by ITS:

A dynamic team that provides advanced technology solutions to address the needs of tomorrow

The Vision is supported by the following Mission:

With a commitment to excellence and due diligence, ITS is dedicated to provide technical leadership, innovative solutions and support

to address the needs of the Corporation and the community of Oshawa

In developing the Vision and Mission Statements, the team identified the following goals to improve service delivery of the ITS Branch. These concepts are key and are threaded throughout this strategy.

ITS must become a recognized and respected Corporate partner

ITS must provide proactive IT leadership

ITS must ensure its customers are satisfied

ITS must provide an innovative and technically advanced environment

ITS must ensure a structured technology environment, supported through policies and improved processes

The ITS team must work within ITS and with departments to create a more collaborative work environment, which will lead to valued, appreciated, satisfied and happy employees

IT Service Delivery Themes

In response to the SWOT analysis and input from the customer survey process, the key service delivery areas that ITS will focus on improving are:

1. Partnership and Engagement 2. IT Governance Framework 3. Standardization of Key IT Business Processes 4. Policy and Standards 5. Training

1. Partnership and Engagement

A key concept behind this IT strategy is the need for ITS to make the transition from being a simple supplier of services on demand, to more of a partner, who works jointly with the departments to identify and deliver innovations and opportunities for service enhancement through the use of technology. In this new role, ITS will need to become more proactive and engaged with departments, to develop a better understanding of their needs, and also to work more closely with them to help shape their plans.

This new approach is borne from the philosophy that the effective use of technology relies upon its adoption and acceptance by staff in departments and that most projects which are perceived to be ‘technology’ projects are in fact business projects supported by technology, an important and not semantic distinction.

Larger municipal organizations have devoted resources to managing relationships between ITS and departments who can translate the needs of departments and business units into technology plans and initiatives. However, additional resources would be required if Oshawa’s ITS Branch was to adopt this model. In its place the IT Management Team will engage the management and director level more frequently and more effectively by meeting with colleagues and peers to discuss plans, strategies and current initiatives.

The proposed IT governance changes, discussed below, are key to establishing a closer more engaged relationship between ITS and departments, to establish an enhanced and defined role for key stakeholders in IT decision making, and to engage The Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) in Corporate IT decision making.

The Corporate Working Teams will also be key to have departments and ITS work together to develop and deliver longer term programs of work.

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2. IT Governance Framework

Currently, IT decision making is fragmented amongst many groups including Council, CLT, department management teams and ITS. This makes it challenging to align activities and ensure standards can be met.

In support of the drive towards a stronger partnership between ITS and the departments is the development of a new IT Governance Framework. This framework seeks to engage key stakeholders in IT decision making.

The IT Governance Framework defines who makes technology decisions and how these decisions are made (such as how technology investments are decided). It defines the groups and individuals who are accountable, responsible and involved in IT decision making. It also specifies which decisions are the responsibilities of which groups.

The following diagram and subsequent text describes the roles of each of these groups. A more detailed description of the governance framework, including terms of reference and suggested membership of the key groups is included in Appendix B.

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Information Systems Steering Committee(ISSC)

Corporate Leadership Team(CLT)

Quarterly Reporting

Ad-Hoc ProjectTeams

Used on an ad-hoc basis to co-ordinate IT activities in departments/business units – such as PC rollout or MS Office implementation.

Corporate Solution Working Teams

CLASS GIS OLILAGAN PeopleSoft

Recommends to ...

IT Management Team

Recommends to …

Departmental Management

Teams(Branch Heads)

Recommends to ...

Joint IT & departmentally led groups working to fully leverage existing and new enterprise level solutions. Meeting up to 6 x per year to identify opportunities and develop/propose priorities.

Dept. IT Coordinating

Teams(optional)

CLT: senior management responsible for establishing the Corporate IT principles and desired outcomes from IT investments; and for reinforcing the primacy of the IT governance framework.

ISSC: a director level committee charged with IT decision making regarding strategic directions, IT investments (project prioritization), IT policy and approving corporate IT architecture and standards.

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ITS Director: responsible for leading the development of technology strategy and policy, for overseeing the operation of the IT governance framework, and acting as an advisor to the ISSC regarding the effective use of technology. Has management responsibility for ITS and facilitates IT decision making, by providing insight and transparency to the ISSC in the overall IT environment, processes and resource utilization.

IT Management Team: the director and management staff of the ITS Branch are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Branch. The IT Management Team provides leadership on the effective use of technology and the allocation of technology resources, and makes decisions on smaller scope IT requests.

Departmental Management Teams: each department has a senior leadership team comprised of the commissioner and branch heads. A representative from this team would participate in ISSC and would communicate to and from the Departmental Management Team.

Departmental IT Coordinating Teams: (optional) departments may wish to form a staff team to coordinate technology needs and priorities, and to facilitate technology discussion across the department.

Corporate Solution Working Teams: these groups are convened around large corporate scale systems or programs of work such as mobile working, web, and information management. They are responsible for developing strategies, work plans and prioritizing projects (for proposal forward) within program areas to ensure projects and initiatives are complementary and aligned.

Ad-Hoc Project Teams: project teams formed to manage and coordinate a specific technology project. Projects would typically have defined objectives and timelines. Project team members may include staff from ITS, Corporate Solution Working Teams, departmental technology users and external resources.

3. Standardization of Key IT Business Processes

There are a number of key IT business processes, such as the project initiation and management process, and the management of helpdesk and change requests which need improvement.

Where applicable ITS will focus upon adopting proven industry standards. A variety of frameworks including ITSM, ITIL, PMBOK, COBIT have been adopted by the municipal IT community. These best practices will be reviewed to selectively apply

those that are right for Oshawa. ITIL, which is an IT Service Management framework, is becoming more widely adopted primarily because it provides an easy to adapt framework that can be scaled to different size organizations. Also, it is more focused upon the internal operation of the IT organization.

The City will not adopt these frameworks wholesale, as they are simply overkill for an organization the size of Oshawa. However, COBIT has been used as a guiding framework for the development of this strategy, and ITIL principles underpins improvements to the IT helpdesk service.

3.1.Service Request, Inventory and Knowledge Base

Just as the City strives to provide live answer assistance to customers who contact Service Oshawa, ITS also strives to provide the same service to its internal customers. With the current resources this support level is not possible at all times. The customer survey process identified the need to improve in this area.

In response, ITS is implementing a technology solution to manage, process and resolve helpdesk calls. This integrated system, a tracking system for ITS which is based upon ITIL principles, will, in time, allow customers to log and track their helpdesk requests online, and will provide access to the knowledge base for both ITS staff and for staff to resolve their own questions. It will also provide the important metrics to enable ITS management to be able to effectively manage the helpdesk and support services, and improve service levels.

From an asset perspective, it will also allow ITS to more effectively track IT assets (e.g. PC’s, servers, printers and other devices) and manage their lifecycles thereby reducing costs and achieving the optimum useful life for those assets.

The successful implementation of this system is key for the IT Management Team to be able to manage IT assets and technology resources more effectively.

3.2.Change Request Management

One of the key issues the City faces is that ITS is a limited resource which must be allocated effectively. In reality, there are too many small ad hoc activities being undertaken which divert attention and resources away from key priorities. Currently, anyone at the City can request a change, or request some work time from ITS, without any approval or authorization or consideration of workload or impact.

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Establishing better controls around change requests, ad-hoc development and small projects which can consume significant amounts of time is key to freeing time for defined priorities.

It is a logical next step from the formalization of the helpdesk processes, to formalize ITS change requests to ensure these requests are reviewed, approved and prioritized appropriately. This will ensure ITS devotes their attention to the right priorities and everyone understands how these activities are prioritized.

3.3.Project Selection

As described in the Governance section, selecting the right technology projects which deliver most value to the organization, is a key concept. A proposed Project Approval process in the following diagram illustrates how technology initiatives will be assessed and evaluated.

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Projects of different sizes require different levels of due diligence, and this approval process accommodates that.

The preparation of a business case to explore project options and fully justify projects is a common practice in many municipal organizations. A business case is used to develop the concepts of a project, outline implications and potential costs, evaluate the resourcing requirements and identify options. The Corporate business case template will be used for initiation of major projects.

For selected projects (typically the larger solution acquisition projects) the use of Return On Investment (ROI) measures should be used to help define the goals of the project and to quantify the payback period for a project. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), another industry measure, should be used to establish the full costs of purchasing and operating a solution (including acquisition, setup, support, ongoing maintenance, service and all operating expenses), not just the upfront ticket price. The responsibility for using these tools will vary depending on the project sponsor and nature of the investment. IT should be involved in the review and validation of these documents. The governance model builds upon this concept, ensuring all business cases should be evaluated by ITS before proceeding for approval.

A project scoring mechanism has been developed which will be used to support the decision making and prioritization of the project portfolio. The details of the methodology, including the ranking criteria can be found in Appendix C. The output of the assessment would be a ranked project listing, which will be used to support investment prioritization decisions. ISSC will own this methodology, and will be responsible for initiating and approving changes as necessary.

3.4.Project Management

Delivering IT projects successfully is challenging in any organization. Many organizations have faced similar challenges as they have grown and begun to implement corporate grade software, instead of simple packaged solutions. One of the most common ways of addressing this issue has been the adoption of a formalized project management methodology.

The City will adopt a standard around the approach to managing IT projects so that the entire organization can understand what is involved in delivering a successful project, the roles of the client and ITS staff, and begin to adopt a common language. The project management methodology will ensure the major project phases (initiate, plan, control/monitor, execute, close) are completed appropriately, that the right resources are allocated to complete each stage, etc. The project phases will be

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gated to ensure appropriate controls are in place and conditions are met before projects may proceed to the next phase.

3.5. Improved Documentation and Formalization of Processes

Formalizing processes and spreading knowledge throughout the ITS team is a key objective for ITS to improve its overall service delivery. The ITS Branch will focus upon improving its own processes such as patch management, data maintenance procedures, and documenting and communicating key processes, both to staff in ITS and to staff in departments, where appropriate.

In addition, an increased focus of the ITS Management Team will be documentation of operating procedures and support manuals to ensure application or infrastructure specific knowledge can be more effectively shared among ITS staff.

3.6.Security

With the increasing amount of personal information and other confidential information being managed in our information systems and networks, the importance of effectively managing security risks has grown. The City has legal and regulatory obligations that it must meet, including MFIPPA and the Payment Card Industry requirements, in order to conduct its business. The risk of a security breach could result in fines, legal challenge and damage to the City’s reputation.

Currently, the City’s approach to managing IT security requirements is ad-hoc and integrated into a number of individual’s day-to-day responsibilities. As this area has grown in importance, it is no longer acceptable to address this in such a piecemeal fashion. A broader municipal technology trend is to focus resources on this issue.

Proposed organizational changes (discussed later in this chapter) are designed to release some of the duties of an existing staff member so they may take the lead on security, to focus upon developing policy, and implementing appropriate processes and tools to ensure the risk of a security breach are mitigated against.

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3.7.Metrics (internal management metrics, IT governance metrics)

The IT Management Team will work to become less operational and tactical, and more strategic and process management oriented. In support of this, a set of internal management metrics and KPI’s will be developed to help the management and improvement of key business processes such as service and change requests.

In addition to these, a set of metrics which are tailored to provide insight to the IT Governance groups on areas such as project portfolio, performance reporting, IT staff utilization and capital spending, will be developed to ensure the IT governance forums have the right information to aid in their decision making processes.

3.8.Formalization of After Hours Service

Despite the fact that many City services operate outside of business hours, ITS provides no formal support or services outside of normal business hours namely 8:30am – 4:30pm, 5 days a week. However, ITS Management Staff are available and have been contacted in off hours. Outside of office hours, in the event of an incident, there is no guarantee a problem will be fixed. Other ITS staff members, who often will be needed to help fix a problem, are not formally available to resolve issues. Staff do frequently assist if they can be contacted, however, none of the staff are on call, and so the service relies upon the good grace of staff.

The increasing reliance upon technology and the extension of operating hours (e.g. extension of Service Oshawa hours to 6pm and Saturdays), suggests a need to review the IT support services. This review should look corporately and review whether an appropriate service could be established, if deemed necessary. With the assistance of business partners, a business case, which balances the risks and costs associated with downtime vs. the cost of providing service outside normal business hours should be prepared and considered by the ISSC.

4. Policy and Standards

To manage the technology environment cost effectively, policies and standards are required to set out the expectations of how the technology is used, and how the technology architecture fits together.

The work to develop standards and policy will largely happen in ITS, but in consultation and collaboration with users and business leaders in the departments. Formally approving technology standards and policies will be done through ISSC.

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Working with the governance framework, ITS will develop a policy and standards framework and subsequently develop the key policies and standards. Examples include a technology purchasing process and policy, security standards and policy (e.g. password standards, generic accounts, etc.), corporately agreed maintenance / downtime periods, and file and email storage.

In the past policies have been defined by ITS, but they have not been adopted corporately, or ITS simply has not had the authority to enforce the policy. As a result, the enforcement role will also be the responsibility of ISSC.

5. Training

In many ways, technology tools are becoming commonplace. Technology is part of our everyday lives, be it through online banking or airline check-ins. An assumption has been made that City staff are becoming more and more comfortable with the use of technology and as a result the approach to technology training has been largely application project specific and/or tied to significant changes in core technologies, such as the rollout of new versions of the Microsoft Office suite.

However, the customer survey process appears to counter this notion. One of the key messages received was that staff across the organization feel they are not effectively trained to take advantage of the technology available to them. This is a broad level dissatisfaction which involves the basic technology tools such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and the business specific applications such as PeopleSoft and OLI. There is not one particular problem area; it is a more widespread, endemic issue.

There is also broad evidence of staff using the ‘wrong’ tools for the job in many basic areas (e.g. using a word document in place of a spreadsheet, a spreadsheet in place of a database, etc) and as a result making the maintenance and use of data far more labour intensive than is necessary.

ITS will commit to focus effort on the provision of effective training to all staff to ensure they are equipped to utilize all of the tools at their disposal.

There are no specific training resources available in ITS, and so, moving forward ITS will focus more attention and funds toward bundling sufficient training opportunities with project initiatives. The rollout of new Office versions, including Unified

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Communications tools and the adoption of Windows 7 represent an opportunity to demonstrate this commitment.

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Chapter 8: ITS Resources and Organization Structure

In support of the service delivery changes described to this point, a small number of changes to the IT organization are suggested.

The following diagram illustrates the current IT organization design. In total there are 22 IT staff within IT Services.

The structure has a comparatively steep reporting structure, with 2 Managers reporting to the Director of IT Services. The Managers and Director are focused on ITS service delivery and day-to-day responsibilities. Adequate time is not available

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to focus on process standardization, service delivery improvement and strategic planning.

Oshawa operates a very centralized IT service delivery model. Support for all applications, GIS and the maintenance of the City’s website are all responsibilities of the ITS organization, where in other organizations there has been a tendency toward decentralization of these roles. The current model will continue, as it provides efficiency, co-ordination, economies of scale and effective cost control.

The following ITS organizational enhancements are designed to address some of the key topics identified in the strategy namely IT Planning and Standards, Security, and Live Answer on the helpdesk. It is also a key objective to release the IT Management Team from some of the day-to-day administrative tasks so they can focus on managing and improving ITS service delivery.

1. The current management team within ITS is heavily operational and at capacity. The team lacks the time to implement the service delivery enhancements proposed in this strategy. As a result, it is recommended that a 2 year IT Planning, Standards and Policy Project Manager contract position at the management level be established, to bolster the IT management group and to lead a focus on industry standards, process management and policy.

2. Furthermore, the creation of a Technical Administrator role reporting to the ITS Director is proposed. The Technical Administrator would provide broader administrative support to the branch as a whole, thereby relieving the Managers and Director of some administrative and contract administration duties. In addition, this role will assist in 1st line helpdesk support (which will support the live answer service objective) and will release resources elsewhere to allow an increased focus upon security.

3. Proceed to recruit for the currently vacant Business Analyst positions

4. In a broader technology resourcing context, it is important to recognize the significant resource demands of major projects, such as Work Management, Document Management or Fire Dispatch System implementation. Future projects should provide for contract staff, funded from capital as part of the overall project, to resource the project and to backfill existing resources both in ITS and the departments.

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In summary, it is recommended that ITS resources be expanded to include the addition of one Technical Administrator FTE and an IT Planning, Standards and Policy Project Manager engaged on a two-year contract basis.

The key organizational changes have been highlighted in yellow in the diagram below.

Director IT Services

Manager Applications Support

(13)

Manager Systems & Security Operations

(6)

Business Analyst

Business Analyst

Business Analyst

Business Analyst

Business Analyst

Business Analyst

Business Analyst

GIS Supervisor

GIS Analyst

GIS Analyst

Webmaster

Webmaster

Database Manager

Support Analyst

Technical Administrator

Support Analyst

Support Analyst

LAN Manager

Network Administrator

IT Planning, Standards and Policy Project

Manager (contract) Support

Analyst

ITS Branch Resource Considerations

1. Technology Resource Benchmarking

In reviewing the IT complement, ITS asked Prior & Prior to review Oshawa’s peer municipalities to assess whether the addition of new resources is warranted.

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Prior & Prior have pointed out that establishing reliable municipal comparisons is challenging, largely due to the differing services that are offered by each municipality, the variations in the split of upper and lower-tier municipal responsibilities which tend to vary by Region, and because of the different ways in which each municipality organizes and delivers IT services. Specifically, with regard to the delivery of IT services, for some organizations the Web is run from communications, GIS is in Planning or Engineering and systems administration staff are based in departments.

As discussed earlier, the City operates a centralized approach to IT resourcing such that the majority of technology resources, including GIS and Web resources are centralized within ITS, while others in this comparison set do not. Furthermore the City operates a number of large Enterprise systems, which other comparable organizations do not.

Two of the key measures for comparing technology resourcing are IT staff as a percentage of total municipal employees, and the number of IT staff per 100,000 population.

The following table summarizes the comparison.

City Population Mun Staff

Total IT Staff

IT Staff % of Mun Staff

IT Staff per 100,000 pop.

Whitby 119,700 617 13 2.1 10.9 Waterloo 114,700 675 19 2.8 16.6 Oshawa 142,000 827 22 2.7 15.5 Barrie 135,000 530 24 4.5 17.8 Burlington 165,000 790 24 3.0 14.5 Cambridge 120,371 629 24 3.8 19.9 Brantford 90,192 1,619 26 1.6 28.8 Richmond Hill 162,704 1,200 28 2.3 17.2 Guelph 114,943 2,000 29 1.5 25.2 Kitchener 204,668 2,044 45 2.2 22.0 Oakville 166,000 1,353 45 3.3 27.1

It is extremely important to note that comparing the City with other municipalities, who are also struggling to resource the increasing demand for technology, may provide a false indicator. However these benchmarks establish whether the request for additional resources is reasonable.

52

Comparatively, the City has fewer IT staff than peer municipalities. The City is on par with other municipal organizations of similar size with regard to the proportion of IT staff to overall municipal staff. With regard to the IT staff in relation to the population size, the City is at the lower end of the comparison set with 15.5 IT staff per 100,000 population.

It is recommended that the addition of one permanent Technical Administrator and one contract Planning Standards and Policy Project Manager is a prudent and reasonable approach, which keeps the City in line with other peer organizations.

2. Library IT Resources

The Oshawa Public Library currently has 2 IT staff to support their internal systems and provide frontline support to Library staff. ITS staff are increasingly working more closely with the IT staff at the Library. Much of the Library’s technology environment is closely integrated or maintained by the City’s IT staff (e.g. networks, PC and server replacements, email, phones). Also, the recently implemented new Integrated Library System was completed by a joint team of Library and City IT staff and is being hosted in the City’s environment.

A corporate review of Library support service resources is currently underway. The result of this review notwithstanding, it is expected the two IT groups will continue to work more closely on technology issues. Although it would not have a significant impact on the resource recommendations in this strategy, both organizations could benefit from having IT teams work more closely together or combined. The Library would get access to a broader resource pool, to provide better support and coverage and access to new services. The City would also benefit from the broader resource pool, with expertise in particular areas.

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Chapter 9: Service Delivery Work Plan

The following table outlines the implementation plan for the service delivery enhancements identified in the strategy. It should be noted that the vast majority of this work will be carried out by the ITS team, led by the proposed IT Planning Standards & Policy Project Manager.

2011 2012 2013 IT Service Delivery Strategy IT organization changes (Project Manager & Technical Administrator)

Review ongoing requirements for GIS data services

Establish IT Governance structure

Educate and reinforce the authority of IT Governance structure

Educate and reinforce the authority of IT Governance structure

Develop revised IT investment prioritization methodology

Run budget through IT Governance process

Run budget through IT Governance process

Business case methodology agreement, adoption and operation

Develop IT policy framework and key policies

Develop additional policy components

Develop IT security framework and associated policy (aligned with policy framework)

Key customers to evaluate and develop business case and funding options for off-hour IT Support

Implementation of off-hour IT service

Develop and adopt of an IT project management methodology

Adopt an IT project management methodology

Adoption and enhancement of IT project management methodology

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2011 2012 2013 IT Service Delivery Strategy Formalize, document and improve internal IT processes

Formalize and improve internal IT processes

Implement formalized relationship management between IT and departments

Sustain formalized relationship management between IT and departments

Complete implementation of Service Desk Management Solution

Implement self-service and change request management

Share knowledgebase with customers for self-service purposes

Develop internal management metrics and key performance indicators

Application Lifecyle plan development

Infrastructure lifecycle plan development

Integrated application and infrastructure lifecycle planning

Develop, approve and deliver an annual broad training plan

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Chapter 10: Technology Expenditures and Funding

In addition to the Technology Resource Benchmarking described in chapter 8, Prior & Prior was asked to benchmark the City’s technology expenditures, both operating and capital.

IT operating costs, which include staff salaries, software and hardware maintenance, support costs and licensing for the last three years are shown in the table below.

Operating Total City

Expenditure

IT Operating Costs as % of Total City

Expenditure 2008 $3,584,175 $132,425,800 2.7 2009 $3,644,132 $138,043,600 2.6 2010 $3,802,834 $142,362,500 2.7

Unfortunately, reliable direct comparisons of Ontario municipal spending on technology are not available. However, against a number of industry comparators (from Gartner and InfoTech), it appears the City’s operating costs for IT are comparable. Using 2008 as the example, the total IT operating budget as a percentage of total City expenditure was approximately 2.7 %.

It should be noted the ITS operating budget includes a number of items which are typically expensed to departments in other organizations, including all photocopying and call charges.

The capital budget, which is wholly funded from the IT reserve, covers capital costs for key upgrades and new system implementations. A significant portion of the approximately $825,000 which is available annually, is already committed to upgrades and other replacements based on the technology lifecycles. This leaves approximately $350,000 for discretionary allocation to projects per annum.

Again, against industry comparators the IT capital budget as a percentage of total City expenditures is approximately 0.6%. This compares favourably against other local government organizations, where the average is around 0.5% (Gartner, 2005). However, it should be noted municipalities invest significantly less than almost all other industries in technology.

57

Looking more broadly, total technology expenditure as a percent of total City expenditure is approximately 3.4% at the City in comparison with the local government average of around 3.7% (InfoTech, 2007/2008).

Technology Reserve Funding

Funding projects through a technology reserve has delivered the City a number of benefits, namely the ability to control where technology investments are made. The central oversight of technology funding ensures key concepts such as re-use can be applied to technology decision making and to smooth out funding requirements over a number of years.

As a result, it is recommended the City continue to use this practice; however it will be the responsibility of ISSC to recommend the allocation of technology capital funding for inclusion in the capital budget for review by CLT and Council.

Currently, all funds in the City’s Information Technology Reserve have been committed to existing technology projects. The annual tax levy contribution to this reserve is $820,500. As identified in Section 5 of this strategy, the City will require approximately $6.8 million to implement the new projects and upgrades referenced in the Business & Technology Projects Work Plan. Depending on the ability of the City to confirm funding from other funding sources, the City may need to look at increasing the annual tax levy contribution to the Information Technology Reserve. This need will be included in the 2011-2015 Strategic Financial Plan, which will be presented to Council for their consideration and validation against the City’s other financial requirements.

Major Initiative Funding

One important point to note is that the City will likely need to undertake a number of sizable projects in the coming years, such as Work Management, Document Management and the possible replacement or major upgrade of the PeopleSoft system. Each one of these projects has the potential to be multi-million dollar projects, which exceeds what can be sustained by the current Information Technology Reserve.

A review of potential funding sources to support these initiatives including Federal gas tax revenues and other outside funding sources will need to be undertaken.

58

As discussed above, an increase in funding to the Information Technology Reserve or one time funding for IT projects will be addressed in the 2011-2015 Strategic Financial Plan.

59

61

Chapter 11: Conclusion In reviewing the business needs of the departments, the commonalities between departmental needs are striking. This IT strategy identifies a key set of projects and initiatives which are common across the City, such as Work Management and Mobile Technology, all of which are significant undertakings, which will in return deliver significant efficiencies and productivity savings. A cross-departmental working partnership with ITS will be critical to delivering solutions which benefit the City as a whole. In support of this partnership the strategy introduces an IT governance model, which is designed to ensure that ITS resources and funds are allocated to projects which deliver the greatest value for money, and can be exploited corporate wide. The strategy also introduces concepts, processes and policies which ensure the City gets the best returns on its technology investments and uses its technology cost effectively. Approval and implementation of this strategy will put the following key elements in place:

Governance Framework

Technology Project Selection Criteria

Key Business Requirement Themes

Business & Technology Projects Work Plan

Service Delivery Improvement Themes

Service Delivery Work Plan

Staffing Resources to Support the Plan

This will provide a guide map for information technology over the next three years. Most importantly, it will provide an agreed upon framework to base technology investment and decisions moving forward.

Appendix A – Glossary

CObit –The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is a set of best practices (framework) for information technology management, created by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and the IT Governance Institute (ITGI). COBIT provides managers, auditors, and IT users with a set of generally accepted measures, indicators, processes and best practices, to assist them in maximizing the benefits derived through the use of information technology, and developing appropriate IT governance and control in a company.

CRM - Customer (or Citizen) Relationship Management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers (citizens). The goal of the CRM is to respond quickly, succinctly and accurately to citizen requests for services or inquiries for answers to questions and general information about policies, practices, and procedures.

Data Mining - Data mining is the process of extracting patterns from data. Data mining is seen as an increasingly important tool by modern business to transform data into business intelligence giving an informational advantage.

Failover - Failover is a backup operational mode in which the functions of a system component (such as a processor, server, network, or database, for example) are assumed by secondary system components when the primary component becomes unavailable through either failure or scheduled down time.

ITIL - The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of concepts and practices for Information Technology (IT) development and IT operations. ITIL gives detailed descriptions of a number of important IT practices and provides comprehensive checklists, tasks and procedures that any IT organization can tailor to its needs.

ITSM - IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing information technology (IT) systems, philosophically centered on the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business.

OLI - The Oshawa Land Information system (OLI) is primarily used to manage property-related information and to track land management processes.

Presence Information - Presence information is published by individuals to other systems’ users to indicate their communication state. Presence is defined as the "availability and willingness of the user for communication". A user may publish a variety of presence states to indicate their communication status. This published state informs others that wish to contact the user of their availability and willingness to communicate.

PMBOK - The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI). The complete Project Management Body of Knowledge includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied, as well as innovative practices that are emerging in the profession.

PSAB - Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) is a recognized accounting standard setting body for municipalities. Recent changes have required municipalities to change the way tangible capital assets are reported.

SMS - Short Message Service (SMS) is the text communication service component of phone, web or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices.

Appendix B

R E P O R T

City of Oshawa

IT Governance Framework

September 2010

Appendix B

IT Governance Framework

1. Objective This document outlines the IT Governance Framework for the City of Oshawa, including setting out the key decision making forums, and documenting their terms of reference and membership.

2. Background The IT Governance Framework defines who makes technology decisions and how these decisions are made. It defines the groups and individuals who are accountable, responsible and involved in IT decision making. It specifies which decisions are the responsibilities of which groups.

The goals of the IT Governance Framework are to:

• Establish a clear mandate and authority for IT decisions • Establish a more rigorous evaluation of projects – to ensure a focus upon

‘high value’ projects • Better coordinate corporate initiatives, for which wider benefit can be derived • Engage stakeholders directly in technology decision making • Ensure more effective resource utilization within ITS by focusing upon the

right priorities

Inclusive Framework The IT Governance Framework is intended to address a wide span of technology; not just that which has been considered the domain of Information Technology Services in the past.

The IT Governance Framework is responsible for decision making related to all City technology.

Commissioners and directors are accountable for ensuring initiatives in theirdepartments are appropriately considered by the IT Governance Framework.

The definition of technology includes;

• Hardware (e.g. server, personal computer, network switches, laptop, bar code readers, Point of Sale machines)

• Software (e.g. MS Office, PeopleSoft, OLI, CLASS, Acrobat Reader) • Web (e.g. content management system, online applications & services

[parking tickets], hosted applications)

Appendix B

• Telecoms (phone, voicemail, cell phone) • Communications (email, instant messaging, blackberry service) • Data, Information, Processes (data standards, information sharing, common

process management) • any device (of any kind) which is to be connected to the City’s corporate

network – e.g. PC’s, fuel system pump readers, RFID readers, bar coding

devices, card readers, handheld data capture devices, Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) devices, in vehicle computing devices

• any solution which requires data to be stored in a database (of any kind), regardless of whether the database is stored locally or on the network

• any initiative which may necessitate changes or additions to existing technology solutions (e.g. upgrades, enhancements, the purchase of an additional module)

• any solution which utilizes the web (either on the City’s website – or using a free or paid online service)

• any initiative which will require City IT staff time to be allocated

Thresholds and Routing Thresholds have been defined to ensure the project approvals process can be as efficient and effective as possible. This ensures the appropriate individuals and/or groups are empowered to allocate resources and make technology decisions that are in keeping with corporate priorities and principles.

For example, where ITS resources are available and can be allocated to smaller projects, such projects may be approved at the discretion of the ITS Director. These smaller project items will be included as part of the overall IT portfolio (and reported) to ensure the ISSC is fully apprised of where technology resources are being allocated.

The thresholds are defined as follows:

Service Request = a response to an incident (timeframe to address may be seconds – days) or request raised by a user. This would be related to an existing live application, technology or hardware. This includes resetting passwords, changing permissions, adding a new user. Deploying fixes and/or workarounds to address the issue may be sufficient to close the service request, but generate a subsequent change request or project (problem management) to address the root cause of the problem.

Appendix B

Change Request = a response to a considered and less time sensitive new requirement or change request. A change request threshold can arbitrarily be defined as a task or collection of tasks that takes from an hour to 2 days to complete. Changes may include a request for a new report, or an amendment to an existing report, a change to a configuration item in a database to provide additional options in a drop down list or to change a workflow.

Projects = Projects are defined as those unique and temporary tasks which in total exceed 2 days of ITS resources effort. This determination is made by the ITS Director or ITS Manager primarily responsible. Projects are then further subdivided into small, medium, large and enterprise based on a combination of project size, importance and/or significance. The rigor required to evaluate and justify projects increases as the project size increases.

Small = < $10,000 or up to 10 days of effort

Medium = $10,001 to $100,000 or up to 50 days of effort

Large = $100,001 to $400,000 or up to 200 days of effort

Enterprise = > $400,000

Discretion can be applied, such that if a project has a high impact, has many dependencies, or is of high visibility the project may be bumped up a project class (e.g. from small to medium), necessitating a different approval mechanism and an increased level of rigor. This can be recommended for Steering Committee assessment.

Note: In some cases multiple change requests may be bundled together into a project. Some organizations develop a regular release schedule for their major/core applications (maybe 3 times a year). As a result multiple change requests are bundled and deployed as part of a single project.

The following diagram outlines the technology project approval process in terms of the thresholds defined above.

Appendix B

Appendix B

The Difference Between IT Governance & IT Management It is important to recognize the IT Governance Framework is not designed to replace IT management responsibilities.

IT management is largely focused upon the effective operation of an IT organization, which delivers products and services, and the administration of existing IT operations. In contrast, IT governance is a higher level activity aimed at ensuring an organization’s use of technology is aligned with the present and future demands and goals of the business and its customers.

The IT Governance Framework does not remove any of the management responsibilities from the ITS Director and the ITS Management Team. The IT Governance Framework is designed to support these operational responsibilities and provide a framework in which ITS can provide organizational leadership, along with other stakeholders, around the use of technology.

3. Decision Making Domains

The development of the IT Governance Framework is based on the following model, which defines the key technology decision making domains.

Appendix B

Appendix B

The City’s IT Governance Framework allocates decision making rights for these domains to specific groups, as outlined in the following sections.

4. Components of the IT Governance Framework

The IT Governance Framework is comprised of the following components:

CLT: senior management responsible for establishing the corporate IT principles and desired outcomes from IT investments, and for reinforcing the primacy of the IT Governance Framework.

ISSC: a director level committee charged with IT decision making regarding strategic directions, IT investments (project prioritization), IT policy and approving corporate IT architecture and standards.

ITS Director: responsible for leading the development of technology strategy and policy, for overseeing the operation of the IT Governance Framework, and acting as an advisor to the ISSC regarding most effectively leveraging technology. Has management responsibility for ITS and facilitates IT decision making, by providing insight and transparency to the ISSC into the overall IT environment, processes and resource utilization.

Corporate Solution Working Teams: these groups are convened around large corporate-scale systems and programs of work (such as mobile working, web, information management). They are responsible for developing strategies, work plans and prioritizing projects (for proposal forward) within program areas – to ensure projects and initiatives are complementary and aligned.

The arrangement of the governance groups is described in the following diagram.

Appendix B

Information Systems Steering Committee (ISSC)

Corporate Leadership Team (CLT)

Quarterly Reporting

Ad-Hoc Project Teams

Used on an ad-hoc basis to co-ordinate IT activities in departments/business units – such as PC rollout or MS Office implementation.

Corporate Solution Working Teams

CLASS GIS OLI LAGAN PeopleSoft

Recommends to ...

IT Management Team

Recommends to …

Departmental Management

Teams (Branch Heads)

Recommends to ...

Joint IT & Departmentally led groups working to fully leverage existing and new enterprise level solutions. Meeting up to 6 x per year to identify opportunities and develop/propose priorities.

Dept. IT Coordinating

Teams (optional)

This translates into the following mapping of decision making domains to groups and roles.

Appendix B

ISS

C

I = Input to the decision making process D = Responsible for the final decision

Appendix B

Terms of Reference

4.1 CLT Mandate:

In the context of the IT Governance Framework, CLT is the senior level executive team charged with providing executive level direction upon expected IT outcomes.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Define and own the corporate IT principles Review strategic project portfolio + strategic KPI’s Review key policy – developed with and recommended forward by ISSC Delegate authority according to the IT governance model. Reinforce as a group and individually, the authority of the IT governance model –

through actions and leadership Meetings:

Up to 4 briefings per year from the Chair of the ISSC.

Appendix B

4.2 ISSC Mandate:

Chaired by the Director ITS, the Corporate Information Systems Steering Committee (ISSC) is responsible for defining strategic directions for corporate information technology systems and services. The Committee will guide IT funding and evaluation, and make decisions regarding large scale investments within the context of the enterprise IT applications and infrastructure services portfolio.

The Committee is designed to promote a collaborative and transparent approach to delivering technology strategy, recognizing the shared responsibility for successfully leveraging technology.

The Committee will be responsible for setting expectations and monitoring service delivery of ITS regarding its role in supporting the City’s Strategic and Business Plans.


Own and manage Corporate technology strategy Develop annual IT Capital Budget Agree and endorse the criteria for evaluation of technology projects Evaluate and provide oversight for the technology project portfolio Approve and monitor ITS annual work plan and approve significant changes to

the work plan throughout the year Review and approve (where appropriate, recommend) IT policy review Review and approve technical standards, proposed by ITS Review and approve strategic plans from Application & Program Working Teams. Monitor strategic IT KPIs (financial, resource and infrastructure utilization,

standards) Meetings:

2 hour meeting every month – 12 times per year.

Membership:

Membership of the ISSC is approved by CLT. Changes to the membership must be approved by CLT.

Commissioner Corporate Services (Executive Sponsor)

Appendix B

Director ITS (Chair) Director Level Representative Community Services Director Level Representative Development Services Director Level Representative City Manager Director Level Representative Corporate Services

Appendix B

4.3 Corporate Solutions Working Teams Mandate:

Corporate Solutions Working Teams may be established by approval of the ISSC. They will typically be long standing groups working to fully exploit existing and new enterprise level solutions. Teams will be jointly led by IT & departmental representatives. Teams may be dissolved or restructured as appropriate to deal with changing corporate direction and/or technology solution sets, again by the approval of the ISSC. The collaborative groups are designed to agree on corporate approaches to strategic areas, which ensures all corporate effort is aligned, solutions meet wider corporate objectives and benefits of initiatives can be widely shared. Defining the scope of a working committee through the development of a Terms of Reference document should be the first task of any newly formed committee.


Develop strategy, road maps and work plans to deliver against overall program objectives

Collaboratively prioritize initiatives within the solution or service area – identifying collaborative opportunities across departments

Involved in the delivery of projects as part of the program Monitor progress against projects and plans Promote the program or application, to ensure opportunities are aligned with

wider program or application objectives

Meetings:

Meeting up to 6 times per year to identify opportunities and develop/propose. priorities

Membership:

Membership of the Working Teams is to be approved by the ISSC. Changes to the membership must be approved by the ISSC.

As required – Manager level committee

Appendix B

Examples:

PeopleSoft Working Team GIS Working Team Web Working Team

Appendix B

4.4 Ad-Hoc Project Teams

Mandate:

Ad-Hoc Project Teams may be established by approval of the ISSC. They will typically be created with a limited life span to address a particular IT initiative (e.g. investigate home use) or to coordinate an IT activity (e.g. yearly roll out), and will be dissolved once the initiative has concluded.

A Terms of Reference and project scope will be developed for each ad-hoc project team.


Develop strategy, road maps and work plans to deliver against overall initiative objectives

Communicate within their department and coordinate departmental requirements – identifying collaborative opportunities across departments

Involved in the delivery of projects as part of the initiative Promote the initiative objectives, to ensure opportunities are aligned with wider

corporate objectives

Meetings:

As required. Meeting frequency will be determined by the activity associated with the group.

Membership:

Membership of the Working Teams is to be approved by the ISSC. Changes to the membership must be approved by the ISSC.

Examples:

Yearly technology rollout Microsoft Office implementation

Appendix B

4.5ITS Director

The ITS Director has a corporate leadership role to ensure the City makes the best and most effective use of technology and technology resources (people and money). The IT Governance Framework is designed to assist the ITS Director achieve this goal.

The ITS Director is the owner of the IT Governance Framework, and is responsible for its operation, and as such may make recommendations that adjust the arrangements.

The Governance Framework allocates specific responsibilities to the ITS Director. As Chair of the ISSC, the ITS Director will apply discretion to determine whether issues are determined to be of strategic importance and as a result are for consideration at the ISSC.

A number of responsibilities are delegated to the ITS Director, regarding smaller project initiatives and infrastructure decision making.

4.6The Escalation/Exception Process

Where a decision made by the IT governance process is to be appealed, or where an exception must be justified for reasons of being a non-standard technology, or, for example, a proposal to not reuse an existing Enterprise solution where the option is available, then the issue may be escalated.

In such a case, the Commissioner of the Department to which the decision relates, may escalate the issue to the Commissioner of Corporate Services if they determine that is warranted.

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix C – Project Ranking Criteria

Appendix C

Project Evaluation Sheet

Project Name

Weight Factor Description ProjectScore

WeightedScore

0 Project Class 0 Project Type 4 Project Size Large 1 4 4 Project Risk High Risk 1 4

1. Does not support a strategic plan objective 3. Indirectly supports a strategic plan objective 1 Strategic Plan

Alignment 5. Directly delivers against a strategic plan objective

5 5

1. Does not support a Dept Strategy / Business Plan / Master Plan objective 3. Indirectly supports a Dept Strategy / Business Plan / Master Plan objective 2 Departmental

Priority 5. Directly delivers against a Dept Strategy / Business Plan / Master Plan objective

5 10

1. A priority of a Department or division 3. A priority of the CAO and/or more than one CLT member 2 Organizational

Priority 5. A priority of council

5 10

1. Effects/Benefits will be felt by a given Department and/or a number of departments and/or a Division of a Department 3. Effects/Benefits will be felt by CLT and/or throughout the organization

1 Project Benefits

5. Effect/Benefits will be felt by Council and/or the City's Tax payers

5 5

Reduce customer enquiries Yes Decrease response times Yes Improve customer communication Yes Improve accessibility of the service Yes Increase output (handle more) Yes

1 Customer Service Benefits

Increase quality of the output Yes

6

1. Net increase in cost 2. Net increase in cost (with other benefits - e.g. customer satisfaction, legislative compliance) 3. Staff time savings or other internal efficiencies 4. Payback within 5 years

1 Productivity Benefits

5. Tangible savings within 2 years

5 5

1. No legislative requirement 3. Forthcoming legislative requirement 2 Legislative 5. Current non-compliance with legislative requirement currently in force

5 10

Appendix C

Project Evaluation Sheet (continued) 1. The requesting client has not appointed an executive sponsor, and/or has not an approved business case approved by senior management of the Department and/or has not lined up internal resources to assist and support the project

5 51 Readiness /Ease

of Implementation

3. The requesting client has appointed an executive sponsor, has a business case approved by senior management of the Department but has not lined up internal resources to assist and support the project 5. The requesting client has appointed an executive sponsor, has a business case approved by senior management of the Department and has lined up internal resources to assist and support the project 1. People and ongoing funding will likely be required, but details have not been finalized

5 51 Sustainability 2. People and ongoing funding have been identified for funding 4. People and ongoing funding available already to sustain 5. No additional people or ongoing funding required

TOTAL Total project score

41 69

Appendix C

Project Risk Assessment

Weight Factor

Risk Factor Definition Rating Score

Organizational Complexity

Low Significant input required from only one division

3 30 10 Med Significant input required from multiple divisions within a department

High Significant input required from multiple divisions and/or external organizations

Complexity Low Limited change to existing processes affecting fewer than < 10 staff

3 30 10 Med Significant change to existing processes affecting fewer

than < 10 staff or limited change to existing processes affecting more than 20 staff

High Significant change to existing process affecting more than 20 staff

Clarity of Objectives

Low Objectives, deliverables and method of achieving them are clearly and precisely defined and agreed by all participants e.g. to be state has been clearly defined and supported by the business units

3 30 10 Med Clear objectives and deliverables have been defined and agreed by all participants, but method of achieving objectives and/or precise outcomes are still not clear

High Only general objectives have been defined and agreed; significant further definition is required

Technology Complexity

Low Requires changes to a single existing system or technology; No new technology is to be acquired with the exception to licenses.

3 30 10 Med Require changes to multiple existing systems: may

require acquiring some new technology of a type already in place at the City

High Requires acquisition of significant new technology or technology that is new to the City

Technology Maturity

Low Uses technology already in widespread use at the City

3 30 10 Med Uses technology already in limited use at the City and/or

in widespread use in other municipalities or similar organizations

High Uses technology not currently in place at the City or the technology is unknown at this time

Appendix C

Project Risk Assessment (continued)Supplier Complexity

Low Required significant involvement from only one external supplier, with whom the City has previous experience and/or has a solid track record for delivering the same or very similar solutions for other comparable organizations.

3 45 15

Med Requires significant involvement from only one external supplier with the City has no previous experience but has a delivered the same or very similar solution for at least one other comparable organizations.

High Requires significant involvement from only multiple external suppliers or from a single vendor with limited experience delivering similar solution for comparable organization. The same or very similar solution for at least one other comparable organization

5

Corporate Complexity

Low Project has limited or no corporate implications and is unlikely to be of interest to senior management

3 15 Med Project has some corporate implications and may be of interest to members of senior management

High Project has significant corporate implications and is likely to be of interest to senior management

10

Schedule variation acceptability

Low Schedule is flexible

3 30 Med Schedule can undergo minor variations, but deadlines are

firm High Deadline is fixed and cannot be changed; schedule has

no room for flexibility

10

Are there any dependencies and/orinterrelated projects?

Low No major dependencies and/or inter-related projects

3 30 Med Some major dependencies and/or inter-related projects,

but considered low risk High

Major high risk dependencies and/or inter-related projects

Legen d Project Risk Assessment Total ========> 210

1 > 75% = High Risk 2 40% - 75% = Medium

Risk Project Risk % of Max ========> 100%

3 < 40% = Low Risk Project Risk High

Risk Project Risk Score 1

Appendix C

Project Sizing

Weight Factor

Size Factor Rating Definition Rating Score

Total # of people on the 1 < 5 people 1 10 10 project 2 5 - 10 people

3 > 10 people Project elapsed time 1 Less than six months

1 10 10 2 6 - 12 months 3 Greater than 12 months

Information 1 Less than 20 days 1 15 15 Technology Effort

Estimate 2 20 - 60 days 3 >60 days

10

What is the total project cost?

1 less than $10K

1 10 2 $10K - $100K 3 $100K-$400k 4 greater than $400K

15

What level of change will be implemented

1 Impacts a single business unit only

1 15 2 Impacts a number of business units 3 Impacts on whole-of-City, or requires

partnership with other levels of government

Legend Project Size Total ========> 60 1 > 75% = Large 2 40% - 75% = Medium Project Size % of Max ========> 32% 3 < 40% = Small

Project Size Small Project Size Score 1

item: FA-?1-127 PrepareTo Be Amazed Attachment 2,

~ud i t o rGeneral's Office

May 30,201 1

To: Members of the Finance and Administration Committee

From: Ron Foster Auditor General

I have read report FA-1 1-127 "Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP)" and have discussed the report with staff. I support the recommendations of staff.

Ron Foster Auditor General

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