| Information Technology |
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| Mission Statement
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| We serve our customers by providing excellent leadership and innovation toward unified information technology solutions to support the City of Boise's goals. |
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| Trends, Issues, and Opportunities |
 | Reflecting technology trends as well as our desire to remain customer-focused, the MIS Division was reorganized into the IT Division early in FY03. This focused us on Citywide functions: PeopleSoft HR and Financials development, networks and servers, City website development, and desktop support coordination. |
| Mayor Terteling-Payne established the Information Technology Advisory Team, ITAT, in March 2003
to define goals and strategies for all aspects of the information technology process and structure. This team is creating a framework that will create a coordinated information technology approach throughout the City by enhancing collaboration among departments. |
| Adequate staffing is our biggest threat. As a result of the reorganization, several MIS staff members were dispatched to departments. The IT trainer position was lost. IT Security Administrator is serving as the acting CIO. While the reorganization has provided IT support to most departments, the Mayor's Office and its divisions have no dedicated IT support. The other large threat is how to move forward with the old applications formerly managed by MIS. These are in a maintenance-only mode today. |
| Because of the focus placed on citywide applications, the IT Division is well situated for providing high-quality web services and timely, least-cost updates and new functionality to PeopleSoft. Those departments with IT support staff managed and coordinated by IT see benefits of standardization and process management usually associated with outsourcing, but at substantially less cost. Thanks to continued funding and judicious upgrades, the City's network and server infrastructure remains strong, flexible and responsive. |
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| Two-Year Budget Highlights |
| We plan to proceed with the PeopleSoft Financials upgrade next year on the heels of the PeopleSoft HR upgrade this year to continue to provide a high degree of consistency and interoperability between these two products. |
| On the web side, we've identified some savings and process improvement by consolidating all eCommerce transactions through a single server. A web Content Management System will provide productivity gains for web authors and webmasters by automating the handling of the tens of thousands of records on the City's various web servers. |
| To address the threats, we propose several new positions. We recommend reestablishment of the city's IT Security Administrator position to coordinate our IT security response and handle security issues on the web. In order to progress with the old MIS applications we first need a dedicated IT staffer in the Mayor's Office and its divisions. We also need to provide IT project management to those departments and divisions who need to move forward with their applications. The ITAT will prioritize these migrations and provide funding for them from the Citywide Technology Fund, which we urge to be reestablished. |
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| Accomplishments |
| Upgraded networks citywide to newer, faster and more reliable technology with the latest version of Netware. Implemented strong security measures at our Internet border. |
| Established our web presence consistently among departments, providing a common look and feel for citizens and employees. Completed web based budget system used throughout the City. |
| Upgraded PeopleSoft Financials to version 7.5. Established data warehouse system that enables quick and creative exploration of data. |
| Began a citywide migration to Microsoft Office that is about 75% complete, including training of users. Improved many information technology processes, including software licensing, tracking, and standardization of PC deployments. |
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| Human
Resource Summary |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
| Actuals |
Revised |
Base |
Base |
| Administrative Support | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | | First Line Supervisor | 2.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | | Key Business Managers | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | | Professional | 7.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 | | Technical Specialist | 15.00 | 14.00 | 14.00 | 14.00 |
| Total |
26.00 |
22.00 |
22.00 |
22.00 |
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