January Minutes

ITAC MEETING MINUTES
January 17, 2008

Attendees:
Frieda Artis, Reginald Brown, Sondra Chandra, Vass Johnson, John Killebrew, Darryl McGraw, Gloria McNeill, Robert Michaud, and Shannon Schelin

Due to work schedule, Niamh Darcy could not participate in today’s meeting.

Wake County:
Kathe Garrison, Fran Murphy, Sara Scott, Velvadine Wallace, and Lib Wanner

The meeting began at 9:06 a.m.

Long Term Strategic Telecom Infrastructure Plan
Kathe Garrison gave a brief overview of the Long Term Strategic Telecom Infrastructure Plan Project. She stated from a Telecommunications standpoint think voice/data and from an Infrastructure standpoint, it reflected more of outside plant, building cabling, fiber distribution system and telephone rooms.

Kathe stated that Wake County needed a professional qualified Telecommunications consulting firm to help develop the long-term strategic telecom infrastructure plan. She stated that with new technology, the County would need a different infrastructure from a cabling and fiber standpoint.

Kathe then referred the group to page 4 and stated that the purpose of the study is to develop a detailed telecommunications road map for the County with a planning cycle from 2010 to 2020. Darryl McGraw stated that he noticed that video was missing and asked if the County had any plans to integrate video communications into the telecommunications plan. Kathe replied that they had some discussions about video conferencing but not from an application standpoint until a business need had been identified.

Sara Scott addressed the impact of technology replacements: Financial, Technical, and Operational and stated that the citizens expected new and different service provisioning methodologies. She stated that this study would help provide a cost benefit analysis and to determine where the services should be provided.

Kathe then stated that Wake County developed a bid document and sent out a competitive RFP to acquire expert consulting services. She stated that the bid document was sent to six different national firms and received proposals from three consulting firms. She stated that Western Telecommunications Consulting (WTC) was selected because of their in-depth experience working with local government clients like Wake County. The project would be completed in the spring of 2008. Sara stated that Western Telecommunications Consulting would review each configuration alternative and would provide cost and budget life cycles for each alternative and prioritize.

Fran Murphy stated from an infrastructure standpoint, the County needed an outside cable plant that would allow the capability to create a redundant and self-healing network. She stated that the County has used Centrex for their telephone services, which is reliable, so the chosen network would have to be just as reliable.

Fran stated that the core team met with the Department Heads and some of the things mentioned were wireless, unified communications, call center functionality, better reporting for call center managers, IVR, and web based applications.

Sara stated that WTC would do an assessment for LAN/WAN environment/equipment and look at different alternatives for the County’s current provisioning methodologies. She stated that WTC would look for weaknesses and ways to ensure survivability and redundancy. She also stated that for the County’s critical buildings, WTC would provide ways for dual entrances to those facilities and the associated cost.

Lib then mentioned the planning & permitting project and stated that WTC’s advice would help in the decision making for finding a central platform for all IVR platform applications. She stated from a strategic direction, the County would rely on WTC expertise to decide if the County should go VoIP or Hybrid. Darryl stated that Wake Technical College went VoIP last February and is pleased with the ability to use voice conversations but also video phones. Darryl stated that they use eCounseling for students to have face-to-face conversations with the counselors, admissions, and financial aid professionals by video telephones. He also stated that Wake Tech has a grant that is funded by the Federal Government called Sorensen, that allows the use of videos to translate for hearing impaired students.

Lib stated that from a strategic standpoint the County would rely on the expertise of WTC to make a business case on the following three areas: consolidated call center, Web 2.0 technology, and video. Lib then asked the group if she was missing anything. Robert stated that in his experience most customers are attracted to new technology but their work processes were not adjusted before the new technology was implemented. Lib stated that the Applied Technologies Division started using organizational readiness to help get employees familiar with the technology the County is using.

Lib stated that she did not mention wireless because it is truly an overlay type of function. She stated that the reliability is more of a convenience factor. She also stated that the County uses aircards for some of the Public Safety work, but she wants to focus more on reliability. Lib stated that she does not want the customers having mission critical projects depending on a wireless environment. She stated that wireless is more of an overlay convenience mode than a primary service mode. Sara then stated that the core group asked WTC to provide the cost of wireless only to show the substantial cost associated and that it is not free for the County if any questions arise.

Lib thanked everyone for their input and gave the group some feedback on the mugshot justification. Lib stated that she took their feedback to CCBI and one of their technicians came up with a way to meet the needs of CorMedia without publishing it on the web. However, the Sheriff and CCBI still want the information published on the web. Lib stated that this issue would be presented to the Senior Management Team to outline the issues and ask for their guidance if the County should move forward with publishing this information on the web.

Meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.