January Minutes

ITAC MEETING MINUTES
January 15, 2009

Attendees: Darryl McGraw, Vass Johnson Niamh Darcy, Gloria McNeill, John Killebrew, Dr. Marc Hoit

Wake County: Sean Fiene, Lib Wanner
Due to work schedules, Reginald Brown & Robert Michaud could not attend the meeting.

The meeting began at 9:05 a.m.

Lib Wanner welcomed everyone to the meeting and ensured that all members received the proper documents and presentation that accompany the meeting.

Lib then proceeded with the announcement of new Chair, Gloria McNeil, and Vice Chair, Robert Michaud. Lib then also introduced the new member, Dr. Marc Hoit, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology at NCSU, to the group, and each member then gave a brief introduction of themselves.

After the introductions of each member, Lib then announced the new County Commissioner appointees of John Killebrew (Reappointed), William Cox and Teresa Justice. She indicated that they would participate in meetings beginning in February.

Draft FY 10 IS Business Plan & Operating Budget Funding Request
Lib opened the presentation with the agenda of which included the context for IS work in FY 10, a review of highlights of the FY 10 draft IS Business Plan and Operating Budget Request, and input on content and format of the IS Business Plan with a concentration on the operating budget.

In review of the current FY 09 budget, all departments were asked to provide an actionable plan for a 4% reduction, and a sustainable 10% budget reduction for the FY 10 budget. Lib then explained that the FY 09 4% budget reduction was achievable due to the vacancies in our department, reductions in license and maintenance contracts, and reduced costs for contractors. To achieve a 10% budget reduction for FY 10, Lib discussed how IS would save money with the mainframe platform outsourcing, reductions in license and maintenance contracts and other specialized support. Darryl McGraw then asked if we would be able to make large savings in addition to the vacancies by possible layoffs. Lib answered that there are possible savings in terms of a reduction in force, but no decisions have been made on this option. Dr. Marc Hoit asked what the Information Services department planned on doing with the old platform since the mainframe is to be outsourced. Lib answered that we would surplus the equipment and that there were no replacement needs.

Lib then discussed that the IS Business Plan had changed in context and format over time and that the draft plan included input from the meetings between CIO and other departments in November and December and the review of industry trends. Lib explained that in a nutshell, the draft plan emphasized partnering with business units in innovation and improvements, using readily available technologies, and investigation of key trends in virtualization, software as a service, and collaboration and social networking. Dr. Marc Hoit then asked what Lib meant by the term business units. Lib responded that business unit is another term we use for department.

The presentation then moved to the plans for FY 10 as Lib discussed how the IS Department would move from a control approach to more of a leadership role in the application of technology to business processes. The group then discussed how the industry is moving away from centralized IT control to more user involvement and responsibility for the use of technology. It was agreed that a clear governance model is needed to assist this change.

Lib discussed that from the operating budget point of view, the new organizational structure would have no new positions, preserve the training budget, and reallocate staff-more focus on web development, outsourcing mainframe, and leverage technologists in the departments such as Libraries, GIS, GSA, ROD, Sheriff and Human Services.

The trends that Information Services will be actively investigation as Lib mentioned would be virtualization, software as a service, and social & networking software. For virtualization, Lib stated that the servers are already on that path and IS will be moving to investigate the virtualization of desktops. Vass Johnson recommended that IS look into the rising business costs and desktop requirements involved with the possibility of only having an Administrative level for desktop virtualization. Software as a Service would lead the IS Department to investigate “cloud-computing” applications such as Google Docs, Survey Monkey, Gmail, and data storage such as Amazon or Google. Vass Johnson suggested looking into Microsoft’s Live program including SkyDrive which offers 25 Gigabytes of storage per account. Dr. Marc Hoit noted that UNC-Greensboro uses Google, but was wondering what the privacy issues may be. Niahm Darcy stated that her company is not allowed to use Google Docs due to privacy issues but the company is allowed to use Skype. Social Networking tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Flickr are used by other government agencies, and there is a lot of literature regarding the uses of these programs. Vass noted the communication risk tolerance of using such social networking applications.

Lib discussed the horizon issues that the IS Department will be working on. These issues included working with departments more collaboratively, Human Services needs, information security, disaster recovery and business continuity, records management and telecommunications & unified communications.

Lib then asked the committee if the IS Department is on or off the mark for the business plan. Darryl McGraw asked if it was possible to show a cost avoidance section that would show possible benefits to moving forward with certain technologies. Lib responded that she thought that was a great recommendation. Lib noted that the Strategic & Tactical planning work from prior year would need to be added to the plan and that it would be completed by the January 23 required submission date.

Determination of Date & Place for Face to Face Meeting
Lib asked the group where and when they would like to have their face to face meeting for the year. It was suggested that the group start earlier than 9 a.m. for the meeting and have a start time of 8:30 a.m., with a meeting month of May, if possible. The actual date and location were to be determined later once all members of the group are involved.

Other items for the group
Lib asked if the group had any other information or items they cared to discuss and matters were taken care of.

The ITAC members thanked Lib for the presentation and materials delivered and Lib Wanner thanked the group for their input and participation.

Meeting adjourned at 9:55 a.m.