Item 4BApril 18, 2006
City of Southlake, TexasIT Alignment StudyPresentation of Results
Agenda
Objectives
Approach
What We Found
Recommendations
Timeline
Estimated Costs
Benefits
Question & Answer
There Were 4 Key Project Objectives
Align IT with the needs of the City
Identify opportunities to improve management reporting either with existing, and/or new tools and systems
Identify opportunities to improve process effectiveness and efficiency through the use of existing or new technology solutions
Develop a high-level implementation roadmap that identifies the approach and timing to implement the required technology in order to improve City operations
The Approach Was Comprehensive
Implement
Immediate
Improvements
Common Themes
Implement
Foundational
Software
Implement
New
Systems
Expand
Existing
Systems
Business Function
Summaries
Implementation
Roadmap
Future Application Architecture
System Summaries
Existing Application Footprint
Business Cases
Assessment Phase
Deliverables
Strategy & Plan
Phase Deliverables
Common Themes identified in the Assessment Phase led to a set of Business Case recommendations that were developed in the Strategy and Plan Phases and are supported by an Implementation
Roadmap and a Future State Application Architecture
Findings Were Grouped Into 4 Themes
Missing system functionality results in manual or inefficient business processes
Technology infrastructure is complicated and lacks critical integration between applications
Current applications make reporting and analysis difficult or even impossible in some cases
Current foundational applications are based on out of date technology and are hard to use
What We Found
Theme: Missing system functionality results in manual or inefficient business processes
Example #1
Current Situation: The HR department currently uses an MS Access database and Excel spreadsheet to perform basic HR functions that would normally be supported/automated by a standard
HR application
Result: HR must manually track employee leave (FMLA/Workers Comp) and must manually calculate associated payroll calculations in Excel and load these values into the payroll system;
this in turn requires reconciliation with payroll and is prone to human error
Example #2
Current Situation: The current work order application is tailored for utility billing and cannot be used by other Public Works departments
Result: A significant amount of daily work performed by the Public Works department is not tracked/managed in an application; this also has a significant impact on department reporting
& planning
What We Found
Theme: Missing system functionality results in manual or inefficient business processes (continued)
Example #3
Current Situation: The purchase order process is currently paper based and is not enabled online in the New World application
Result: It sometimes takes days or weeks to process a purchase request because the paper purchase order must route through interoffice mail as part of the approval process. In addition,
it is hard to determine the status of where a purchase order is in the process because
Example #4
Current Situation: The New World application does not provide a facility for employees to enter their time online; they currently complete a timesheet created in MS Excel
Result: The process to get an employee’s time into the New World application as part of the payroll process involves triple entry of the timesheet information (once onto paper document,
once into Excel and once into New World)
What We Found
Theme: Technology infrastructure is complicated and lacks critical integration between applications
Numerous Technology Platforms to Support:
Operating Systems: AS/400, AIX, MS Server 2003, MS Windows XP, MS DOS
Databases: IBM, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, Accuserver, PICS, Microsoft Access
What We Found
Theme: Current applications make reporting and analysis difficult
Example #1
Current Situation: Activities/information stored in existing applications are saved in freeform text fields or the information is stored incorrectly because the application does not
include the necessary data validation
Result: Reports do not contain required information for valid reporting and require re-work in order to be meaningful
Example #2
Current Situation: Key activities are not tracked because there is no supporting application (e.g., work orders, purchase orders, fleet maintenance, etc.)
Result: In some cases, summary level information is saved in an Excel spreadsheet to enable very basic reporting or in some cases the City is not able to report on the information at
all
What We Found
Theme: Current foundational applications are hard to use and run on a technology platform with weak future viability
Technology With Weak Future Viability
Finance & DPS applications run on the AS400/iSeries platform which has weak future viability as compared to other platforms
AS400/iSeries comes with a higher total cost of ownership when compared to Microsoft apps
AS400/iSeries requires a higher level of skill to support and skills are harder to come by
Companies have started to “sunset” their support for the AS400/iSeries platform and are focusing efforts on Windows platforms
Applications Are Not User Friendly
User interface is based on “green screen” or “mainframe” paradigm
Users must remember special key strokes and use function keys to navigate the many screens within the application
Today’s users find these applications hard to use because they are accustomed to “windows” type applications
The difficult user interface has been a barrier to the use of these applications
Example “Green Screen” Application
Recommendations
We developed a future state application architecture to address the assessment themes
Future State Application Architecture
Foundation apps include automatic interfaces to support end to end processes
Functions that were accomplished via MS Access are now part of foundation apps
Additional functionality is available (reporting & analysis, self service, etc.)
Foundational services such as GIS are integrated with foundational apps
Future state architecture is simplified, using fewer operating system and db vendors
The IT Roadmap Identifies Initiatives Required for Improvement
Estimated Implementation Costs
Note:
1) Costs would be incurred over a three year period from 2006 through 2008
2) Cost estimates are preliminary to be finalized as part of software selection & implementation planning
The Benefits Are Significant
Questions & Answers