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7/30/2019 Ector County IT Strategic Plan
1/29
COMBS Consulting Group | eGov Consulting Services | TelResources, Inc. Page i
Information Technology
Strategic Plan
Developed by:
eGov Consulting Services
Plan Years 20122016
2012 Plan Update
Plan Update: 31 May 2012
7/30/2019 Ector County IT Strategic Plan
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Ector County
Information Technology Strategic Plan for 2012 2016
2012 Plan Update
eGov Consulting Services Page ii
Letter from County Commissioners
Dear Reader:
Thank you for your interest in Ector Countys technology direction.
The Information Technology Strategic Plan developed in 2011 has provided a technology
roadmap that advances us towards the future. The Plan was a snapshot in time; as deployment
has progressed the technology initiatives have been adjusted that take advantage of the
opportunities presented by the improvements in technology options.
The plan was approved in September 2011 and a series of projects were initiated to address
each of the Courts objectives. We have followed an implementation process that continuouslyevaluates the projects for the optimal technology, costs and benefits. The results of this process
have allowed us to reduce the plans Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while positioning Ector
County to take advantage of the emerging broadband wireless and internet based applications.
We are committed to the successful implementation of the Plan and accomplishing the
initiatives contained within it. These initiatives lay the foundation for the Countys future
technology use by streamlining our processes, solidifying our infrastructure and improving the
cohesiveness of our team.
We are always interested in your feedback, both corrective and complementary. Please forward
any comments you may have to Commissioner Dale Childers [email protected].
Again, thank you for your interest.
Regards,
Ector Board of County Commissioners
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]7/30/2019 Ector County IT Strategic Plan
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2012 Plan Update
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Table of Contents
SECTION 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 ADDRESSING THE GOALS .................................................................................................. 1
1.3 PRIORITIZING THE INITIATIVES............................................................................................ 3
1.4 IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN................................................................................................. 4
SECTION 2: REALIGN IT DEPARTMENT WITH COUNTYS NEEDS 2012 GOAL UPDATE .......................................... 5
2.1 ITPLAN OVERVIEW......................................................................................................... 5
2.2 DEVELOP ITGOVERNANCE STRUCTURE AND PROCESS ............................................................. 5
2.3 REORGANIZE THE ITDEPARTMENT...................................................................................... 6
2.4 EXPAND THE ITSTAFF AND SERVICES................................................................................... 9
2.5 DEVELOP ITPOLICIES AND PROCESSES ............................................................................... 10
SECTION 3: SOLIDIFY AND PROTECT THE COUNTYS TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE2012 GOAL UPDATE .......... 12
3.1 ITPLAN OVERVIEW....................................................................................................... 12
3.2 ACQUIRE AND IMPLEMENT A SERVICE DESK TOOLSET ............................................................ 12
3.3 DEPLOY A STORAGE AREA NETWORK (SAN)/BACKUP SYSTEM.............................................. 13
3.4 DEPLOY A NEW NETWORK.............................................................................................. 13
3.5 BUILD-OUT NEW COMPUTER ROOMS AT THE ANNEX AND SHERIFF'S OFFICE .............................. 17
3.6 MIGRATE DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER ROOMS TO OFF-SITE MANAGED COMPUTING CENTER ........... 18
3.7 NEW VOICE OVER IPSYSTEM .......................................................................................... 19
SECTION 4: IMPROVE SERVICEABILITY OF COUNTYS APPLICATIONS ENVIRONMENT2012 GOAL UPDATE ...... 20
4.1 ITPLAN OVERVIEW....................................................................................................... 20
4.2 DESKTOP REPLACEMENT PROGRAM .................................................................................. 22
4.3 CONSIDER VIRTUAL DESKTOP .......................................................................................... 22
4.4 INTEGRATE GIS INTO COUNTY APPLICATIONS...................................................................... 23
4.5 RE-INITIATE THE DEPLOYMENT OF ODYSSEY COURT/PUBLIC SAFETY SYSTEM.............................. 23
4.6 CONSIDER THE MIGRATION OF INCODE TO A CLOUD-BASED ENVIRONMENT ............................... 24
SECTION 5: INVESTMENT UPDATES ..................................................................................................................... 25
5.1 OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................. 25
5.2 UPDATED IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE ............................................................................. 25
5.3 UPDATED CALENDARED INVESTMENTS............................................................................... 26
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2012 Plan Update
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Section 1: Executive Summary
1.1 Introduction
The IT Strategic Plan was developed through a consensus process with County Management, IT
Departments staff and IT Departments customers. The intent was to take a holistic, corporate
view of information technology for the County, in order to better understand how the IT
Department could best serve the Countys needs.
During the planning process, the Commissioners were interviewed individually to better
understand the direction that they wanted to set for the IT Department and information
technology in general. The Commissioners expressed their desire to see the following goals
pursued by IT Department:
Realign the IT Department with the Countys Needs
Solidify and Protect the Countys Technical Infrastructure
Improve the Serviceability of the Countys Applications Environment.
1.2 Addressing the Goals
A series of project initiatives were developed to support each of the Commissioners goals.
These long terms initiatives were designed to change not only what IT Department did, but howit did it. The goals and associated initiatives are:
Goal Initiative Description
Realign the IT
Department
with the
Countys Needs
Develop IT
Governance
Structure & Process
Establish an IT Governance Committee with authority
to determine the ongoing technology direction for the
County, associated charter, and processes for projects
and IT Department performance review.
Reorganize IT Implement the new organizational structure with job
descriptions that detail responsibilities.
Expand IT Staff and
Services
Add at least an additional four staff to the IT
Department. Provide for ongoing technology planning
support.
Develop IT Policies
and Processes
Develop and continue to refine IT processes to address
needs. Provide ongoing IT planning support.
Solidify and Acquire & Acquire and implement a toolset to be used by IT
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Goal Initiative Description
Protect the
CountysTechnical
Infrastructure
Implement a
Service DeskToolset
Customer Service to record incidents, track progress
and identify trends in order to continuously improveservice desk performance.
Deploy SAN/Backup
System
Deploy a storage area network (SAN) with a
supportable system that provides de-duplication
capabilities.
Deploy New
Network
Develop a new MAN/LAN, layer 4 transport, and
network management system Countywide.
Build-Out new
computer rooms at
the Annex andSheriff's Office
Build out new computer room capabilities, one at the
Annex to provide core communications functions, and
one at the Sheriff's Office to provide support for corelaw enforcement systems.
Migrate Distributed
Computer Rooms
to Off-Site
Managed
Computing Center
Consolidate all application servers throughout the
County, except CAD, to a single location; provide
managed services for backup, monitoring and alerting
in a virtual environment. Since the County is short 5 IT
Staff members, and users are requiring greater amount
of analytical support, the County should migrate the
support of the servers at County Annex, Courthouse,
and Sheriff's Office to an off-site hardened site. The
outsourcing would include the moving the distributedservers and new SAN to the off-site location and the
purchase of a new Core Switch, fiber network access.
This would allow IT to focus more on business analysis
functions rather than infrastructure support.
New VOIP System Network integrated Voice over IP system to replace
aging PBX once the maintenance contract expires on
the existing system and the County network
infrastructure is fully deployed.
Improve
Serviceability of
Applications
Environment
Consider migration
of Incode to a
Cloud-based
environment.
For the next four years, continue to operate
applications environment as currently configured.
Consider the deployment of cloud based financials once
the fundamental infrastructure is in place and the
applications environment fully matures.
Desktop
Replacement
Program (short-
Place all County desktop assets (desktops, laptops, in-
car computers) on a 4-year replacement cycle.
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Goal Initiative Description
term)
Virtual Desktop
Program (long-
term)
Consider migrating to a virtual desktop to minimize
desktop management requirements; purchase servers
to support virtualized environment.
Integrate GIS into
County
Applications
Utilizing the GIS infrastructure from Odessa, integrate
with County applications as possible.
Re-initiate the
Deployment of
Odyssey Court/
Public SafetySystem
Initiate project management over the Odyssey project
to get the project on course.
1.3 Prioritizing the Initiatives
Each of the initiatives was prioritized by the Court according to technical sequencing and
business need as shown below.
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1.4 Implementing the Plan
A detailed project plan was developed that incorporated resourcing and detailed project tasks.
The overall IT Strategic Plan Project Structure and May 2012 status is provided below.
Task Name % Complete Duration Start Finish
IT Strategic Plan Implementation 31% 722.25 days Tue 9/20/11 Mon 7/7/14
Project Kickoff 100% 0.25 days Tue 9/20/11 Tue 9/20/11
Monitoring, Planning and Management 58% 254 days Tue 10/4/11 Tue 10/2/12
On-Site 56% 254 days Tue 10/4/11 Tue 10/2/12
Ongoing Cutover Progress 62% 244 days Mon 10/10/11 Mon 9/24/12
Realign IT Department with County Needs 55% 479 days Tue 9/20/11 Wed 7/31/13
Reorganize IT 100% 21.75 days Tue 9/20/11 Wed 10/19/11
Develop IT Policies and Processes 100% 30.5 days Wed 11/30/11 Wed 1/18/12
Expand IT Staff and Services 62% 142.25 days Tue 10/18/11 Mon 5/14/12
Develop IT Governance 0% 61 days Tue 5/7/13 Wed 7/31/13
Solidify and Protect the County's
Technical Infrastructure22% 438.25 days Tue 9/20/11 Tue 6/4/13
Service Desk Toolset 100% 24 days Tue 9/20/11 Mon 10/24/11
Preliminary Network Design 100% 64.75 days Tue 10/4/11 Thu 1/12/12
Network Integrator Vendor Research 100% 14 days Thu 1/12/12 Tue 1/31/12
Detailed Network Design 67% 92 days Wed 2/1/12 Thu 6/7/12
IT Staff Office Requirements 0% 13 days Mon 7/16/12 Wed 8/1/12
Implement IT Staff Office 0% 85 days Thu 8/2/12 Wed 11/28/12
Deploy Physical Layer 0% 241.25 days Tue 9/20/11 Fri 8/31/12
Deploy Network Layer 0% 257.25 days Fri 6/8/12 Tue 6/4/13
Network Complete 0% 0 days Tue 5/28/13 Tue 5/28/13
Improve the Serviceability of the County's
Applications Environment32% 722.25 days Tue 9/20/11 Mon 7/7/14
Re-initiate Odyssey Deployment 37% 722.25 days Tue 9/20/11 Mon 7/7/14
Integrate GIS into County Applications 0% 154 days Tue 6/11/13 Mon 1/13/14
The following sections provide an update to each of the commissions goals.
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Section 2:
Realign IT Department with Countys Needs 2012 Goal
Update
2.1 IT Plan Overview
Many County IT organizations are undergoing a significant, strategic transformation to a
customer-focused service delivery organization. This requires that governance structures and
processes, organizational structures, sourcing methods and core policies and processes must be
reevaluated. This is accomplished through the initiatives included in this section:
Develop IT Governance Structure & Process Reorganize the IT Department
Expand IT Staff and Services
Develop IT Policies and Processes
2.2 Develop IT Governance Structure and Process
IT Plan Initiative
The County should establish an IT Governance Committee with authority to determine theongoing technology direction for the County, associated charter, and processes for projects and
IT Department performance review.
May 2012 Update
This initiative was postponed until the IT staff could be increased. The IT staff has been
operating with very limited staff due to staff resignations, illness and maternity leave. The
limited staff had capacity to only manage critical support calls. As of May 2012 the County has
hired an additional Help Desk Technician and the IT staff members that were out for illness and
maternity have returned. Once the core network is installed and stabilized the governance
structure will implemented.
Next Steps
Postpone the Governance process until the hiring of the IT Manager in Year 3 2014.
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2.3 Reorganize the IT Department
IT Plan Initiative
The County should implement the new organizational structure, shown below, with job
descriptions that detail responsibilities. This structure serves to:
Separate reactive functions (e.g., Customer Service) from pro-active functions (e.g.,
Technology Planning)
Provide a technology-oriented, systems capabilities-focused position that is responsible for
making activity happen on-time and on-budget within IT in the form of a project manager,
who is also a business-oriented and customer-facing
Provides formalized major applications support with within the IT Department
Provides professional network management and systems administration, including security,
and Isolates the triage mindset in Customer Service from the rest of the project-oriented IT
Department.
This organization assumes that the IT Department has made and is utilizing the necessary
operational improvements (e.g., Remote Control Software, Lock Down administrative rights)
and streamline key IT processes (e.g., Service Desk Management, Incident Management) to
allow the IT organization to operate more effectively.
The structure of the Information Technology Department is designed to support both strategic,
proactive activities as well as tactical, reactive activities. It will evolve over the first four years of
the Plan:
Beginning with a re-organization in Year 1
Hiring of the Infrastructure Support Supervisor and Odyssey Support Analyst in Year 2
Hiring of the IT Manager and the Applications Support Supervisor to support the new
financial applications in Year 3
The Year 1 staffing changes are illustrated below.
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Customer
Service
Supervisor
Technology
Planning
Help Desk
Technician
IT Manager
Help Desk
Technician
Systems
Administrator
Infrastructure
Support
Supervisor
Key
New Hires
Outsourced Function
Proactive Reactive
Contracts Management
Project Management
Business Analysis
Applications
Support
Supervisor
Odyssey Support
Analyst
Major Applications Odyssey Support
GIS Support
WEB-based Systems
Interface Development
Security Windows Server
Network/Storage
Colocation Site Help Desk
Technician
Commissioners Court
Ector County IT Staffing
Plan Year 1
May 2012 Update
The plan called for the re-organization of the department in Year 1 and hiring into the
infrastructure area in Year 2. The re-organization was completed by moving one of the Help
Desk Technicians to the infrastructure area as the Infrastructure Support Supervisor rather than
the System Administrator. The technician demonstrated the ability and commitment to
perform the position. However, during the transition all of the Help Desk Technicians were
unavailable due to resignation, illness, and maternity leave. The existing Customer Service
Supervisor was reassigned to support the Public Safety area. The focused support of the Public
Safety area proved to be beneficial due to the complexity of the law enforcement technology,
thus a Public Safety Service Supervisor position has been created to support the Sheriff and Jail
Complex.
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The following is the revised organizational structure implemented in Year 1.
Customer
Service
Supervisor
Technology
Planning
Help DeskTechnician
IT Manager
Help Desk
Technician
SystemsAdministrator
Infrastructure
Support
Supervisor
Key
New Hires
Outsourced Function
Proactive Reactive
Contracts Management
Project Management
Business Analysis
Applications
Support
Supervisor
Odyssey SupportAnalyst
Major Applications
Odyssey Support
GIS Support
WEB-based Systems
Interface Development
Security
Windows Server
Network/Storage
Colocation Site
Commissioners
Court
Ector County IT Staffing
Plan Year 1
Public Safety
Service
Supervisor
Public Safety End User
Dispatch, Jail and
Sheriff Operation
support
Administrative End User
Annex, Courthouse and
all non-public safety
support.
Help Desk
Technician
Next Steps
Create a permanent position for Public Safety Service Supervisor. Create a new System
Administrator position to support the new domain, email and server infrastructure. Transfer
one of the Help Desk Technicians to the Odyssey Support Analyst and provide them with
Odyssey training.
The Year 2 reorganization is shown below.
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2.4 Expand the IT Staff and Services
IT Plan Initiative
The County should add at least an additional four staff to the IT Department and outsource
ongoing technology planning support.
May 2012 Update
A new Help Desk Technician was hired and the other two Technicians have returned from sick
and maternity leave. They temporarily report to the Public Safety Service Supervisor until aCustomer Service Supervisor is hired.
Next Steps
Complete the hiring of the Customer Service Supervisor. Re-assign one of the Help Desk
Technicians to the Odyssey Support Analyst. Hire a Systems Administrator. Backfill the re-
assigned Help Desk Technician and have them all report to the Customer Service Supervisor.
Customer
Service
Supervisor
Technology
Planning
Help Desk
Technician
IT Manager
Help Desk
Technician
Systems
Administrator
Infrastructure
Support
Supervisor
Key
New Hires
Outsourced Function
Proactive Reactive
Contracts Management
Project Management
Business Analysis
Applications
Support
Supervisor
Odyssey Support
Analyst
Major Applications
Odyssey Support
GIS Support
WEB-based Systems
Interface Development
Security
Windows Server
Network/Storage
Colocation Site
Commissioners
Court
Ector County IT Staffing
Plan Year 2
Public Safety
Service
Supervisor
Public Safety End User
Dispatch, Jail and
Sheriff Operation
support
Administrative End User
Annex, Courthouse and
all non-public safety
support.
Help Desk
Technician
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2.5 Develop IT Policies and Processes
IT Plan Initiative
A recent research study1 used the concepts of Total Quality Management (TQM) to develop an
ITIL deployment roadmap that focused the key ITIL processes that most impacted customer
service needs. Those primary processes that are linked to providing optimized service request
fulfillment were:
Service Desk
Incident Management.
Additional ITIL Processes that support the operation include:
Network Management Security Management
Storage Management
The implementation of the Service Desk and Incident Management processes will have the
greatest effect on Customer Service and should be a priority for the IT Department. The IT
Department has very few replicable processes in place. However, due to its low turnover rate,
many of the processes are inherently performed by the IT personnel. The organization has
worked because the staff simply knows what to do. However, if the County has an increase in
turnover rate or explores alternate support and staffing options such as business process
outsourcing, it must address the lack of documentation of the process being considered for
outsourcing.
In a recent 2005 study2 conducted by the MIS Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)
of 90 outsourcing deals at 84 companies, CIOs showed much greater satisfaction with
outsourcing arrangements where the processes were well-defined and had clear business rules.
Nine out of 10 IT executives in the study reported success with their transaction outsourcing.
If the County chooses to outsource any functions, then the vendor chosen should be advanced
in their development and practice of ITIL processes. The County should be careful to choose a
vendor that has a mature process (i.e., documented process with available metrics on processperformance) in place.
1ITIL implementation roadmap based on process governance Dorota Nicewicz-Modrzewska, Przemysaw Stolarski,
Adam Mickiewicz University Computer Centre, ul. Umultowska 89a, Poznan, Poland,
2Simple Successful Outsourcing by Stephanie Overby, October 1, 2005 CIO Magazine
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May 2012 Update
With the deployment of the Service Desk software, the Service Desk and Incident Management
Process were codified and training was provided to the IT Staff and End-Users. In addition, asuper user and subject matter experts group was created to assist the Customer Service group
by distributing the problem resolution process. With the temporary vacancies of the IT Help
Desk Technicians and the lack of direct Customer Service Supervision performance statistics
have not been adequately maintained.
Next Steps
With the expected completion of the Local and Wide Area Network, the Network, Security and
Storage management processes will have to be developed in conjunction with the
Infrastructure Supervisor. Also once the Customer Service Supervisor is hired they will be ableto adequately track the support statistics, and manage the incident process with the super
users and SMEs.
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Section 3:
Solidify and Protect the Countys Technical
Infrastructure 2012 Goal Update
3.1 IT Plan Overview
To best meet the rising demands of its customers and address the complexities of connectivity
required by the Countys enterprise applications, the County must solidify and protect its
technical infrastructure. This is accomplished through the initiatives included in this section:
Acquire and Implement a Service Desk Toolset
Deploy Storage Area Network (SAN) / Backup System
Deploy a New Network
Build-Out New Computer rooms at the Annex and Sheriff's Office
Migrate Distributed Computer Rooms to Off-Site Managed Computing Center
New VOIP System
3.2 Acquire and Implement a Service Desk Toolset
IT Plan Update
The County should acquire and implement a toolset to
be used by the IT Departments Customer Service to
record incidents, track progress and identify trends in
order to continuously improve service desk
performance.
May 2012 Update
Completed
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3.3 Deploy a Storage Area Network (SAN) / Backup System
IT Plan Initiative
The County should deploy a storage area network (SAN) with a supportable system that
provides for the safe and recoverable storage of the core applications (i.e. Odyssey and Incode)
May 2012 Update
The County has explored the use of Region SAN as a disaster recovery backup. However, the
County has also begun to explore the outsourcing of the core Tyler applications (i.e. Odyssey
and Incode) to a Tyler hosting facility. This would mitigate the need for an extensive SAN and
would delay the deployment to a limited outsourced SAN in Year 3 2014.
Next Steps
Pursue an Outsourcing contract with Tyler for the Odyssey system after completion of the new
network and of the Odyssey civil applications. This process could be initiated in Year 2 2013
and completed in Year 3 2014.
3.4 Deploy a New Network
IT Plan Initiative
The County should develop a new metropolitan area network (MAN) / local area network(LAN), layer 4 transport, and network management system Countywide.
This would include:
A Countywide MAN inter-connecting all major County facilities to the Annex (Network Core)
Standardizing and simplifying the network architecture and systems management by
initially integrating access switching, core switching, and eventually providing for server
virtualization, telephony services and building wireless access so that systems management
and security can be managed end to end.
Centralizing the network core on fault tolerant network switches Installing a new Data network at each County Facility supporting 10/100/1000 switched
Ethernet, supporting QoS.
The diagram below illustrates the conceptual design for the new network.
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The design called for the reuse of as much of the existing tower assets within Ector County,
including the use of City of Odessa towers. However, the City Odessa expressed concerns
regarding the loading stress on their towers. The County has had to build an extra tower in
order to obtain the appropriate line of site network connection.
The backhaul microwave network is shown below:
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Next Steps
Finalize network IP subnetting and switching design. Deployment is expected to be completed
in Year 1 by the fall of 2012.
A review of the legacy LMR radio infrastructure should be performed in Year 2 2013 in order
to verify integrity of the LMR system.
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3.5 Build-Out New Computer rooms at the Annex and Sheriff's Office
IT Plan Initiative
The County should build out new computer room capabilities, one at the Annex to provide core
communications functions, and one at the Sheriff's Office to provide support for core law
enforcement systems. This would include:
Upgrading the Annex computer room to house the network core and potentially the virtual
desktop servers. Although these items could be externally hosted, due to the fundamental
importance of the network and desktop management, the network core and the virtual
desktop environment (if implemented) should be internally hosted and managed at the
Annex.
Creating a single domain structure for all County users. Implementing a SAN and modernizing server platforms to blade systems at the Annex for
the core Odyssey applications. This will leave the existing distributed servers at the remote
locations until they are either migrated to the external computing center or consolidated in
the Annex computer room if an adequate external data center is not available.
May 2012 Update
The main computer room is being centralized at the Annex. This room was further evaluated
for adequacy of space to house the core switching and internet connection. New racks are
being deployed by JTS to house the new switching and wireless backbone interconnects.
The Sheriff Office was further reviewed for adequate computer room space. After reviewing
the existing computer room and the 911 room, the 911 room was selected due to space
availability, ease of interconnection to the critical servers, and reduced cost of installation.
The courthouse computer room, although inadequate from a wire management perspective,
will be continued to be used in the short term since the court does not want to make
substantial infrastructure investments in the Courthouse. The computer room houses the
Odyssey servers and switching. However, once the Odyssey servers are remotely hosted the
need for this room will be reduced.
Next Steps
Continue deployment of the new racks at each of the County facilities, verify cabling adequacy
replacing any bad cabling. This is expected to be completed in Year 1, second quarter of 2012.
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3.6 Migrate Distributed Computer Rooms to Off-Site ManagedComputing Center
IT Plan Initiative
The County should consolidate all application servers throughout the County, except CAD, to a
single location; provide managed services for backup, monitoring and alerting in a virtual
environment. Since the County is short IT staff members, and users are requiring greater
amount of analytical support.
In order to provide improve the level of systems management and overall support the County
could migrate the support of the servers to an off-site hardened managed data center site. The
migration would include:
Moving (or replacing as required) the remaining distributed servers throughout the county.
In considering the move of the servers to a potentially virtualized outsourced data
center, a server test bed would have to be created to verify with the applications
vendors those that could operate in a virtualized environment.
Purchasing, deploying and integrating a new core switch with the existing County network.
Deploying a new secondary storage area network (SAN).
Deploying a fiber network link from the Annex to the managed data center.
The outsourcing of these systems to an external site could then allow the IT Department to
focus more on business analysis functions rather than infrastructure support and provide the
County with disaster recovery site.
May 2012 Update
The outsourcing of these systems has been explored with Region 18. Region 18 will be
providing the core switching and fiber trunking between the Annex and their data center for
Internet access and offsite storage. This migration will allow Ector County to save the cost of
deploying a long haul fiber link and SAN storage. It will allow for the outsourcing of the
Odyssey and Incode applications to the Tyler hosting facility.
Next Steps
An overall migration of all of the Ector County servers will be reconsidered in Year 3 once the
WAN and Internet is deployed and the Infrastructure support staff is fully engaged to support
the existing systems. The County will also consider using Region 18 as an external SAN storage
host.
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3.7 New Voice Over IP System
IT Plan Initiative
The County should deploy a new network integrated Voice over IP system to replace aging PBX
once the maintenance contract expires.
May 2012 Update
This was planned for Year 5.
Next Steps
Continue with original plan strategy.
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Section 4:
Improve Serviceability of Countys
Applications Environment 2012 Goal Update
4.1 IT Plan Overview
Ector County has traditionally had a siloed approach to its applications architecture, with
disparate applications used for most County functions and little integration between them.
Historically, systems were originally acquired based upon their ability to support departmental
needs; the systems acquisition process did not require the development of detailedspecifications against which all vendors would be evaluated, nor did it consider the wider
technology environment in which applications would be deployed and supported.
Two relatively recent acquisitions by the County have challenged the siloed approach: Incode
and Odyssey. These are state-of-the-art applications recently introduced to the marketplace
have the ability to integrate or interface to other systems; in fact, these fully integrated systems
are available that handle end-to-end functionality for key functional areas, such as County
operations and public safety. In addition, these applications have the inherent ability to
(a) leverage key data, such as GIS, that could be used to link disparate systems together, and (b)
streamline operational workflows for improved process efficiency when done in conjunction
with process re-engineering.
The future state of Ector Countys applications and their various interacts are illustrated below.
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4.2 Desktop Replacement Program
IT Plan Initiative
The County should consider investing in a multi-year budgeted desktop equipment replacement
plan, which, in the short term, would bring all the computers up to a capability that would
support Windows 7.
May 2012 Update
This project was postponed to Year 2 due to limited staff and lack of network connectivity to
deploy new software.
Next Steps
Deploy new workstations with Windows 7/Office connected to MS Exchange once the network
is completed.
4.3 Consider Virtual Desktop
IT Plan Initiative
The County should consider the deployment of a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, which would
allow it to leverage the limited IT staff it has available for upgrades of hardware and software.
However this should be considered once the Countys network infrastructure is mature, the IT
staff is prepared to support the higher level of complexity, and the economics of the virtual
desktop environment is more favorable than the replacement of legacy desktop units.
May 2012 Update
The project was not planned until Year 4. With the delay of the desktop deployment this
project can be delayed to Year 5.
Next Steps
Continue with plan strategy for Year 5 implementation.
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4.4 Integrate GIS into County Applications
IT Plan Initiative
The County should begin development of its GIS capabilities in cooperation with entities in the
area that share similar geo-codes (e.g., City of Odessa). To do this, the County must acquire
industry standard GIS software, i.e., ESRI and integrate it with the Odessa GIS Server.
May 2012 Update
This project has been postponed to Year 3 due to lack of network connectivity an effective
Odyssey implementation.
Next Steps
Deploy in Year 3.
4.5 Re-Initiate the Deployment of Odyssey Court/Public Safety System
IT Plan Initiative
The County should re-evaluate the Odyssey deployment, including:
Reviewing functional requirements and acceptance criteria to determine original functional
needs.
Reviewing Tyler deliverables to date and how they met the acceptance criteria. Reviewing the project management and governance methodology to determine functional
decision making process and progress to date and path forward.
May 2012 Update
All of the plan initiatives were completed. The next steps were further reviewed with the
Council of Urban Counties (CUC) in order to determine the cost estimate for resolving the
existing deployment issues. In addition, the Ector County court staff was engaged and trained
on the use of the Odyssey system. As of this update the Court Staff is coordinating with IT to
schedule a business workflow review of the civil processes. As of this update a date has not
been agreed by the Court staff.
Next Steps
Finalize date with court staff to perform business workflow review. Obtain detailed cost from
Tyler to resolve deployment constraints. Implement required changes to the civil systems in
Year 2 2013 and the Criminal Systems in Year 3 2014.
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4.6 Consider the Migration of Incode to a Cloud-based Environment
IT Plan Initiative
Continue to operate with the existing version of Incode. Consider the migration of Incode to a
Cloud-based Environment as the application and County network infrastructure matures.
May 2012 Update
The Incode migration to the Tyler hosting site was explored and the feasibility verified.
Next Steps
Complete network/internet deployment as well as Odyssey migration to the Tyler hosting site.
Continue with the original plan for deployment in Year 4.
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Section 5:
Investment Updates
5.1 Overview
This section details the calendarized investments for the implementation, both one-time and
recurring, and the related implementation schedule for the initiatives described in the plan.
5.2 Updated Implementation Schedule
The following reflects the timeline updates to the Strategic Plan.
Year 1
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 2
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 3
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 4
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 5
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Develop IT Governance
Goal 1: Realign IT Department with County Needs
Reorganize IT
Expand IT Staff and Services
Develop IT Policies/Processes
Goal 2: Solidify and Protect the Countys Technical Infrastructure
Service Desk Toolset
Deploy San/Backup System
Deploy New Network
New Data Centers
Migrate Computer Rooms
New VOIP System
Goal 3: Improve the Serviceability of the Countys Applications Environment
Migrate Incode to Cloud
Desktop Replacement Program
Virtual Desktop Program
Initiate GIS
Re-Initiate Odyssey Deployment
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5.3 Updated Calendared Investments
The 2012 updated calendared investments, both one-time and recurring, are shown in the
diagram below. The original plan forecast is also shown for comparison.
2012 Calendared Investments
Original 2011 Plan Calendared Investments
$0
$200,000
$400,000
$600,000
$800,000
$1,000,000
$1,200,000
$1,400,000
1 2 3 4 5
Years
One-time
Recurring
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 TotalOne-Time $1,384,445 $1,308,376 $482,938 $135,100 $1,000,100 $4,310,959
Recurring $18,767 $585,328 $1,176,660 $1,250,460 $1,300,460 $4,331,675
TOTALS $1,403,211 $1,893,704 $1,659,598 $1,385,560 $2,300,560 $8,642,633
Calendari zed Investment
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total
One-Time $1,811,500 $365,235 $2,390,000 $340,000 $725,000 $5,631,735
Recurr ing $49,000 $628,905 $859,105 $710,105 $903,855 $3,150,970
TOTALS $1,860,500 $994,140 $3,249,105 $1,050,105 $1,628,855 $8,782,705
Calendari zed Investment