September Minutes

ITAC MEETING MINUTES
For September 20, 2007

Attendees:
Reggie Brown, Sondra Chaffee, John Killebrew, Darryl McGraw, Robert Michaud and Vass Johnson

Due to work schedule, Gloria McNeill and Shannon Schelin could not participate in today’s meeting.

Wake County:
Vel Wallace and Lib Wanner

The meeting began at 9:05 a.m. Lib Wanner welcomed everyone to the group and asked Vass Johnson to introduce himself and provide a brief background of his work history. Then Lib asked the other ITAC members to introduce themselves to the group. She briefly discussed the agenda for today’s meeting, which included an overview of the IS Strategic Planning Initiatives, Input on Citizen Query, and Input on Suggested Topics for 2007-2008.

IS Strategic Planning Initiatives:
Lib Wanner gave the group an overview of the IS Strategic Planning Initiatives. She discussed the Oracle Insight Engagement and stated that it is a formalized engagement for large customers covered by their licensing fee. She then went on to explain how the engagement works, highlighting that the results will be an actionable blueprint for an agreed solution and assistance with implementation and optimization. Lib stated that the City of Raleigh has already completed this engagement and that Wake County Public Schools will consider doing one this year. She stated that she is planning to apply the engagement to the Human Services Data Warehouse Strategic Planning project.

Lib then asked the group if they had any similar experiences with Oracle. Vass said they use the Oracle ERP and some contractors but did not do a consulting engagement.

The next topic for discussion was the CIO Executive Board. Lib mentioned to the group that she joined this past summer and asked if any of the members had heard of it. Darryl McGraw stated that he was interested in knowing more about it. Lib stated that the CIO Board is made up of both public and private IT CIOs who share best practice information and knowledge.

Lib stated that this executive board is beneficial for IS strategic planning in three general areas. The first area of focus would be the types of technology to use for our work, the skills for staff in the future, and vendor relationships. The second area of focus would be organizational design (staffing and organizational structure). The third area of focus would be tactical advice; for example, should the County pursue ITIL, various security strategies, etc.

Lib then asked the group if there were other things they thought she should consider. John asked Lib how often the board meets. Lib replied that the board is tailored to the individual, with most information presented on their website and with consultation with the CEB account representative. Lib said she attended a workshop last week aligning IT and Business Strategy, and what she learned from that was to talk more strategically with the customers and to rely on her management staff to focus on the technical areas of work. She stated that in the next couple of months she would be meeting with the department heads to discuss the IS Business Plan, with an emphasis on strategic issues. The other thing she learned was the importance of joint accountability between the business units and IS.

ITAC INPUT:
Lib asked the group for ideas on how she could get more strategic input on the IT work the County is doing. Darryl and John both said they both had good experiences with setting up advisory committees for major projects. They said those committees provided helped validate the director of the project or gave good advice on changes in direction. Darryl said it was important to explain the “why” of the project to the group to give them the context of the work and also to ask them to identify potential impediments at the outset of the project.

CITIZEN QUERY:
Lib discussed with the group a situation where a citizen was concerned that others could perform a Google search and obtain her tax information. She stated that the issue is not whether the information should be displayed on our website but the ease of access. Lib stated that she brought this concern to the Senior Management Team, and they had mixed emotions of how it should be handled. They asked her to bring it to the ITAC group to determine if Wake County should put a “no crawl” option feature to prevent this information from being accessed through search engines.

Lib then asked each member their opinion of the “no crawl” option. Vass asked if this was a personal request or if there were legal reasons behind it. Robert stated that a citizen could go to official records to obtain this information. Sondra stated that this information's being available through a Google search may be a bit much, since a citizen could go to the County website for the information. Reggie stated that he was in favor of the “no crawl” option. John stated that providing access through the County’s website would be sufficient. Darryl stated that this information is public knowledge and that he was in favor of the “no crawl” option. Lib then asked if everyone was in favor of the “no crawl” option. Everyone agreed.

Lib then reviewed the proposed discussion topics for the next few months. Everyone was in favor of the topics chosen. Meeting adjourned at 9:45 a.m.