September Minutes
ITAC Meeting Minutes
Attendees:
Reginald Brown, John Killebrew, Darryl McGraw, Gloria McNeill, and Shannon Schelin
Wake County:
Jackie Brady, Sara Scott, Velvadine Wallace, and Lib Wanner
The meeting began at 9:00 am and the Oracle Collaboration Suite and Meet Me Conference technologies were used to enable ITAC members to participate from remote locations. Lib Wanner introduced Jackie Brady, Customer Services Manager, and Sara Scott, IS Supervisor, to the Information Technology Advisory Committee. Lib stated that both Jackie and Sara would be giving a PowerPoint presentation on the Customer Services Team. The presentation is attached to the minutes.
Jackie Brady stated that she would be giving a brief overview of the following topics:
1. Customer Services team and the scope of services provided.
2. IT Responsibility/Business unit responsibility – defined by service level agreements
3. LANDesk Asset Management Tool
Jackie reviewed how her group currently provides computer support to the organization and then asked the committee for specific input on how to provide 24x7 support. She explained that her group is planning to provide this level of support on a case by case basis and have a pilot set up for Emergency Medical Services related to transporting patients to area hospitals (EMS PCR). Shannon replied that Mecklenburg County has a 311 center to handle customer calls for service. John mentioned that NC REN uses a pager-based system for its on-call staff who also has broadband service so they can respond from their homes. He also stated that the on call staff consists of salaried-employees who receive 10% extra for being on-call. Reginald stated that their employees have remote access and received $200/month for being on-call 1-week per month.
Jackie then asked the committee if they had any experience or suggestions on how to manage system administration work. She said that while we have a number of service level agreements in place, we still have mixed results with having system administrators in the business units and not in IS. John stated that at NCREN the systems administrators used to be in the business units but they had problems with that too and that are now centralized in IT. Shannon also stated that in the City of Jacksonville the system administrators are also centralized in IT and that cross train power users in the departments with the IT system administrators. She said they have the first level support questions go to the power users and the second level questions go to IT. Jackie asked about the training of the system administrators and power users and Shannon said that training for all users and staff is critical.
Jackie then on to discuss the structure of the desktop services team. Jackie then asked the group if they leased or purchased their equipment and what benefits they saw in leasing if they did this. Darryl replied that Wake Technical College leases their laptops and desktops and the cost is covered with Student Fees. Reginald also stated that RBC leases their equipment.
Jackie gave a brief overview of the Helpdesk team. She stated that they rotate ideas amongst the team to help keep the staff engaged and refreshed. She also stated that on occasions the helpdesk team assists the desktop and telecom services, which provides cross training and gives the staff a break from the mundane. Jackie asked the group for other ideas on how to help desk staff stay fresh and Darryl said they rotate their staff with desktop staff like we do.
Jackie then gave an overview of the telecom services team. She said IS is planning to do a five year strategic plan for telecommunications services and asked if anyone on the committee had done a plan like this. No one responded. Lib indicated that one of the elements the plan would address is Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and that a member of the IS staff, Kathe Garrison, is also working with Darryl and his team at Wake Tech on their VoIP project. Darryl expressed his appreciation for Kathe’s help.
Jackie then reviewed how IT training was provided. Jackie asked the committee members how training was provided in their organizations. Darryl stated that Wake Tech provides training and education on software packages and he suggested that Wake Tech could provide some training on-site. Reginald also stated that they use on-line training programs from different organizations for certifications and other needs and we may want to look at that. Jackie also stated that IS currently supports teleworkers and wanted to know if the committee had any suggestions on how to do this and no suggestions were made.
Jackie went on to give a brief overview of the work of the procurement team. Jackie asked how committee members organizations did their purchasing and no comments were made.
The last topic for discussion was LANDesk Management Suite. Jackie indicated that she and Sara and a team of staff members researched different tools and LANDesk was selected as being the best one for the County. She provided a brief overall of the tool and where the IS feels it will get a return on investment by using it. Reginald asked what application would they use for remote access and Jackie replied that LANDesk included this functionality and that before IS acquired LANDesk that they used BNC.
Lib emphasized the return on investment areas of keeping staff small because a lot of work could be done via remote control, pushing software out from a central location and having accurate records for licensing. Reginald asked if they considered using Tivoli and Jackie indicated that it was one of the products that were investigated. Sara asked if they anyone on the committee used Tivoli for their helpdesk service and Reginald replied only they use it for support functions.
Reginald then asked if the helpdesk team had the ability to determine problems by using the tool and Jackie replied yes. He then asked if the helpdesk team had an average amount of time to assist customers. Jackie replied that there is no limit on the time for problem resolution.
Gloria asked Jackie how they manage the training with just 1 person. Jackie replied that the training is only for Wake County employees and is scheduled in such a way that employees can sign up ahead of time for classes.
John asked if everyone uses the same kind of PC. Jackie replied that we generally use Gateway laptops and desktops and the image on the PC varies by work unit. John then asked if they supported MAC’s and Jackie replied no, but there are some MAC’s used in the County for graphics and the Sheriff’s Department also uses a MAC’s for specialized work. She said the people who use them are responsible for arranging their own support.
Reginald asked if the users could download their own software. Jackie replied that most PC’s are locked down to prevent users from downloading software. Sara also stated that the security team would be using LANDesk to block various things from hitting our computers.
Jackie then asked if there were any other questions and/or comments. There were none. Meeting adjourned at 10 am.