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March Minutes


ITAC MEETING MINUTES
For March 16, 2006

Attendees:
Frieda Artis, Niamh Darcy, JP Kenney, Shannon Schelin

Due to work schedules & other commitments, John Killebrew and Gloria McNeill could not attend.

Wake County:
Velvadine Wallace, Lib Wanner

Meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m.

Election Process:
Lib Wanner stated that Niamh Darcy agreed to be the chairperson for this calendar year and that Shannon Schelin agreed to be the vice-chair since we have new members in the group and the committee did not meet that often in 2005. Lib said both seats would be up for election in December 2006.

Member Attendance Policy:
Lib stated that in 2005 the Board of Commissioners put an attendance policy in place. The policy stated that each member is asked to attend 75% of the meetings. Lib indicated that since ITAC meets once a month, the members would be required to meet nine (9) out of the twelve (12) months unless the meeting is cancelled. If the members do not contact Lib or Velvadine they will be marked with an unexcused absence. If the members have two (2) unexcused absences, Velvadine will contact them via email to determine if they are still interested in serving on the committee. The Board of Commissioners also asked that the group would submit an attendance report twice a year (June & December). Velvadine will prepare the report and send it to Niamh Darcy and Shannon Schelin to submit it to the Clerk to the Board of Commissioners.

The group then discussed improving attendance. JP Kenney suggested that Velvadine ask the group to RSVP if they were planning to attend the meeting. Velvadine replied that she would do this. It was also suggested that there’s difficultly parking in the Wake County Parking Deck due to jury duty. Shannon Schelin suggested the group try Oracle Collaboration Suite which she could provide access to through the UNC-IOG. Lib suggested that Shannon test the Oracle Collaboration Suite with herself and Velvadine before we introduce it to the group. JP stated that he would work with Shannon and set up Cisco’s “meeting place” if she could not participate due to work schedule. Niamh suggested that she would need to participate using skype.com for international calls when she is out of the country. Lib stated that Velvadine would discuss the option (skype.com) with the Voice/Data Services group to determine what it entails.

2006-2008 IS Department Business Plan (continuation):
Lib asked the group to look at the handout of the “2006-2008 IS Department Business Plan”. She informed the group that the Vision, Mission and Goals statements had all been updated from last year’s as a result of input from the IS staff at last year’s department retreat (held in June) and input from ITAC. Lib then asked the group to turn to page nine (9) of the handout – Leadership. She reviewed the Leadership goals and highlighted her working relationships with other County departments and elected officials and the current IS organizational chart. Lib highlighted how she worked with the groups that did not report directly to her which includes: Human Services, Libraries, GIS, General Services Administration, Board of Elections, Register of Deeds and the Sheriff’s Department.

Lib then briefly discussed the IS Organizational Chart. She stated the eGov group has been renamed to Applied Technologies. She also mentioned that Emerging Technologies, Project/Portfolio Management, and Organizational Readiness have been added to the Applied Technologies group. Lib stated that the Emerging Technologies group would work with business consultants on new technologies they may want to try. The Project/Portfolio group would be in charge of monitoring all projects being worked. Niamh asked if the Project/Portfolio group is setting metrics ahead of time for deployment to determine if the project will be successful. Lib stated that they would be and are fine tuning the metrics that are used. Lib stated that Organizational Readiness, involves making sure users are ready for new technology and one of the IS trainers who has a keen sense of determining what type of training the user may need will be working in this area.

Lib then referred the group to the Business Applications. She talked about ERP and stated that there will be full-time staff members with different skill set levels that will be working on implementing this system. She mentioned that the current assistant director, Dan Edwards, would be managing the ERP System and estimated that this will be a 20-month project. Lib stated that Wake County selected CGI-AMS as the vendor for this system. Shannon asked if they spoke to someone from Roanoke, VA because they had major software failures with that vendor and that there may be good lessons learned from them. The group then discussed their experiences with putting in large systems and gave Lib advise on how to phase the project and manage the contract.

Lib asked the group to turn to page 14 of the handout and discussed the Integrated Land Related Data Systems. She mentioned that Information Services is currently working with SAS to help validate the property tax appraisal for 2008. Lib said the new values looked to be quite high and the County wants to be sure its appraisals are accurate.

Lib then reviewed the status of the new Planning & Permitting Systems and the upgrade to the Sheriff’s System.

Lib stated on April 1st, Wake County would perform another test for Disaster Recovery. She stated that the focus would be on the server environment. JP asked where the testing would occur. Lib replied at Sungard in New Jersey.

Lib then mentioned in May or June 2006, Information Services would have a security assessment done. Shannon asked if the security audit would be for credit card payments and Lib said no, the audit would be focused on Network Security.

Lib then updated the group on the Automated Vehicle locator project going on in the Sheriff’s Department and CCBI.

The last topic for discussion was the Telecom Services 5-year plan. Lib said the Telecom team would be looking at VoiP with the help of Cisco and BellSouth and will also look at increased use of IVRs and call center technologies.

The meeting adjourned at 10:00 am. The next monthly meeting will be held on Thursday, April 20, 2006. The agenda for the next meeting will be the following:

  • Review 2006-2008 IS Budget Report
  • Input from ITAC on 2006-2008 IS Business Plan to determine what is missing?