Information Technology Strategic Plan - 2017
The City of Cupertino
2017 Information Technology
Strategic Plan Update
Prepared by:
Final Report
October 31, 2017
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Table of Contents
Section 1 - Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 - Scope and Objectives ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 - Document Contents and Organization ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 - Strategic Planning Methodology .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
1.4 - Background Information .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
1.5 - Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Section 2 – Current IT Environment ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
2.1 - IT Assessment ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
2.2 – Summary of the “Voice of the User” Survey ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8
2.3 – Summary of User and ITD Interviews ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
2.4 - IT Best Practices Conformance ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Section 3 – Enterprise Information Technology Trends ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Section 4 – IT Strategic Plan................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 29
4.1 - Plan Development .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 29
4.2 - Project Portfolio ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
4.3 - Project Roadmap through FY 2019/20 ................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
Section 5 – Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
Appendices ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Appendix A – Project Portfolio ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Appendix B – IT Best Practices Checklist ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 58
This Information Technology Strategic Plan was prepared for the City of Cupertino
by NexLevel Information Technology, Inc.
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Section 1 - Introduction
1.1 - Scope and Objectives
This document, entitled 2017
Information Technology Strategic
Plan Update, was prepared for
the City of Cupertino (City) by
NexLevel Information
Technology, Inc. (NexLevel). The
purpose of the document is to
provide an update to the
Information Technology Strategic
Plan (ITSP) prepared for the City
in 2015 to reflect changes in
direction, priorities, and projects including the progress made by
the City in the implementation of the recommendations provided in
2015.
The update was developed in a highly collaborative manner that
included a series of interviews with key stakeholders from City
departments and offices to review the projects identified in 2015 as
well as a workshop in which the stakeholders worked together to
review the projects and to establish a project timeline based on the
City’s overall priorities and the available resources over the next
three fiscal years.
The update also includes a review of a number of high-priority
information technology infrastructure projects which will provide
the foundation for the timely and successful completion of the
proposed projects as well as ensure that the City will be able to
sustain the delivery of information technology services.
The IT Strategic Plan will enable the City to better allocate its
information technology resources and to obtain greater benefits for
its investments in information technology. The plan does not
attempt to predict the future; but rather, in conjunction with the
establishment of a more thorough process for the governance of
the City-wide use of information technology, provides both a
process and a baseline to enable the City to more effectively
respond to new and/or changing requirements by proactively
adapting processes, organization, people, and infrastructure.
1.2 - Document Contents and Organization
Figure 1 – Document Organization
As depicted in Figure 1, Document Organization, the document
contains the following sections:
Section 1, Introduction – (this section) provides information
regarding the scope and objectives of the planning effort,
the organization of the document, background information,
the methodology used to develop the IT Strategic Plan, and
an Executive Summary
“The secret of success is not
predicting the future; it is
creating an organization
that will thrive in a future
that cannot be predicted.” –
Michael Hammer, author
and noted authority on
Business Process Re-
Engineering
“The Mission of the City of Cupertino is to provide exceptional
service, encourage all members of the community to take
responsibility for one another, and support the values of education,
innovation and collaboration.” – City of Cupertino
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Section 2, Current IT Environment – provides a summary of
the findings and recommendations provided in the 2015 IT
Assessment Report, including an overview of the City’s
conformance to IT best practices and the resulting
recommendations and the City’s current status
Section 3, Enterprise Information Technology Trends –
provides a discussion of the most significant changes in
information technology that will likely impact the City over
the duration of the IT Strategic Plan
Section 4, IT Strategic Plan Update – provides information
regarding the open and collaborative process that was used
to develop the update to the strategic plan, including the
steps in its development and refinement and the resulting
project roadmap and resource requirements
Section 5, Conclusion – provides thoughts and observations
for the City’s consideration based on NexLevel’s experience
in developing IT Strategic Plans for local governments and
special districts in the State of California
The document also includes an Appendix.
Terminology
Please note that in order to avoid confusion, references to the City’s
Innovation and Technology Department will either be spelled out or
use the acronym “ITD.” References to information technology, in
general, will either be spelled out or use the acronym “IT.”
1.3 - Strategic Planning Methodology
Figure 2 – Methodology for ITSP Update
Figure 2, Methodology for ITSP Update, depicts the steps in the
project and the key deliverables that were produced. The scope of
the project included:
Conducting a new user survey to determine whether there
had been changes in user satisfaction as compared to the
2015 user survey
Reviewing the City’s current conformance to IT best
practices as compared to 2015 and reviewing the City’s
proposed information technology infrastructure projects
Conducting user interviews to identify whether there were
any changes to the strategic user projects identified in 2015
including updating any changes to status, scope, and
objectives, deleting projects that were no longer considered
to be priorities, and adding new projects identified by the
user stakeholders. As a result of this activity, an updated
project portfolio was developed and distributed to the users
for their review
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Conducting a prioritization workshop (the “Blue Wall”
workshop) to review the projects and to establish a timeline
for the completion of the projects over the next three fiscal
years (i.e., FY 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/2020). This
document was then developed to document the decisions
and information developed in the course of the ITSP update
1.4 - Background Information
NexLevel was engaged by the City of Cupertino in 2015 to develop
an Information Technology Strategic Plan beginning in March of
2015, that included a survey of user satisfaction with the City’s IT
services, an information technology assessment, the development
of a five-year IT strategic plan, and a governance working session for
the City’s newly formed Business Technology Steering Committee
including a draft charter for the committee.
In the course of conducting the “Voice of the User” Survey and the
IT Assessment in 2015 it became apparent that there was significant
dissatisfaction with the ability of the (then) Information Technology
Division to support the City’s needs and to effectively deliver IT
services. The IT Assessment included a number of strategic and
tactical findings for the City including:
The City did not have an effective framework for City-wide
information technology planning, funding, and governance
The City did not have a well-articulated enterprise
architecture to support its implementation of New World’s
Logos (now Tyler) ERP application
The Information Technology Division was struggling to
provide a consistent and acceptable level of support to the
user community for infrastructure, desktops, and
networking. These struggles were related to the absence
of effective and experienced leadership, insufficient IT
staffing, and a reactive approach to supporting the City’s
user communities
The City’s information technology infrastructure was dated,
largely undocumented, and ill-prepared for contingencies
such as power failures
Following the issuance of the 2015 Information Technology
Assessment Report and the delivery of the draft 2015 Information
Technology Strategic Plan, the City moved to bring in effective and
experience leadership for ITD. In the course of this effort, the
Information Technology Division was reorganized as the Information
Technology Department and the newly selected Chief Information
Officer took immediate steps to resolve the issues with staffing and
the City’s information technology infrastructure and, with these in
hand, worked with the City’s management team to resume the
information technology planning effort which resulted in the
development of this update.
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1.5 - Executive Summary
This section of the report
provides a high level summary
of the 2017 IT Strategic Plan
Update. Overall, the City of
Cupertino has made substantial
progress since 2015; the
challenge now becomes to
solidify that progress to enable
the City to sustain IT service
delivery levels while carrying out projects to improve support for
business operations through enhancement and renovation of the
City’s core business applications.
The 2017 IT Strategic Plan Update supported this effort by
providing:
A benchmark of where the City is today with regard to user
satisfaction with IT services, conformance to IT Best
Practices, and the completion of initiatives identified in the
course of the 2015 planning effort
A revised assessment of the City’s information technology
objectives based on the benchmarking efforts and new user
and information technology projects and priorities that
were identified through interviews with key user and IT
stakeholders
A plan for the implementation of these projects through FY
2019/20
Summary of Changes in User Satisfaction
User satisfaction was assessed in both quantitative terms (through
an anonymous user survey) and subjectively through interviews
with key stakeholders in the City’s user community. Both the survey
and the interviews indicated that user satisfaction with the City’s IT
services had increased, in some cases substantially so, from 2015 to
2017.
Looking at each in turn, the results of the user survey revealed that:
The respondents’ satisfaction with ITD's understanding of
the City's business objectives and with ITD’s planning of
technology projects increased 20% or more from 2015
The respondent’s satisfaction in other key areas, including
ITD’s management of information technology projects,
understanding of the technology that departments use,
ability to access information from City and external sources
in a timely manner, network availability and communication
on the status of problems or requests, increased between
10% and 15% from 2015
Respondent satisfaction even increased, although
marginally, in those areas where ITD did well in 2015
The results of the user interviews were generally consistent with the
survey results. With additional resources and more experienced
leadership ITD, has been able to:
Stabilize and renovate components of the City’s information
technology infrastructure, which has improved performance
and availability
Devote greater attention to user requests for service and
problem reports and resolve them sooner than in 2015
Provide assistance to users with regard to the selection,
implementation, and maintenance of business applications,
this includes providing leadership and support for a major
upgrade to Laserfiche, the implementation of Accela, and
“Innovation is less about
generating brand-new ideas
and more about knocking
down barriers to making
those ideas a reality.”- Eight
Steps to Accelerate Change in
2015, John Kotter
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the planning of improvement for business license
processing
Summary of Changes in IT Best Practices
Conformance
Chart 1 – Comparison of IT Best Practices Conformance, 2015 and 2017
Chart 1, Comparison of IT Best Practices Conformance, 2015 and
2017, depicts the increase in conformance to the IT best practices in
each of the dimensions of the model. Gains of 25% of more were
noted in regard to overall conformance, IT Governance, Service
Delivery, and Business Applications. The change in overall
conformance from 26% to 56% is indicative of the City moving the
lower band of the Reactive Level in NexLevel’s maturity model to
the lower band of the Proactive Level and the City receiving greater
benefits for its investments in information technology.
Summary of IT Strategic Plan Update
NexLevel initially facilitated a prioritization workshop for the City on
Tuesday, September 15, 2015, with the objectives of:
Reviewing the projects identified in the course of
information technology assessment, with the emphasis
being placed on high-priority projects that needed to be
completed by the end of FY 2016/17 (approximately
twenty-one months). These “tactical” projects will provide
the foundation for the completion of the remaining
projects. These “proposed projects” were placed in a pool
of projects that the City will periodically review and
undertake as resources become available
Adding, changing, or deleting projects as needed
Developing the initial project roadmap which was then
refined by NexLevel
Through this effort, thirty-nine projects were reviewed and
prioritized by the participants including:
Six projects that were in-progress including projects that
were to be completed during FY 2015/16 and projects
whose completion would extend into FY 2016/17
Eight projects that were expected to be initiated in FY
2016/17
A pool of 25 projects that the City would consider as
resources became available
In the course of preparing this update to the 2015 IT Strategic Plan,
NexLevel met with the City’s Chief Technology Officer and the
managers and staff of ITD as well as key user stakeholders to review
the portfolio of projects developed to support the 2015 IT Strategic
Plan with the objective of identifying projects that had been
47%
63%
63%
50%
60%
67%
58%
25%
35%
15%
20%
30%
30%
26%
0%50%100%
IT Administration
Security /…
Infrastructure
Business Applications
Service Delivery
IT Governance
Overall
2015 2017
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completed, projects that were still needed, new projects, and
projects that were no longer required with particular focus on
projects related to the renovation of the City’s information
technology infrastructure through FY 2019/20.
Chart 2 – Status of Existing and New Projects
Chart 2, Status of Existing and New Projects, depicts the results of
the project review. Of the thirty-nine projects from the 2015
Prioritization Workshop, four were cancelled, and seven were in
reported to be in progress. More noteworthy is that the
participants in the project review identified twenty-four new
projects (five of which were already in progress) including major
initiatives to:
Improve staff effectiveness by upgrading document and
content management capabilities, including the
implementation of automated workflows
Improve permitting through the implementation of Accela
for land management
Improve asset management through the implementation of
enhancements for Cityworks and integrating it with the
City’s GIS system
Obtain greater value from the New World ERP suite by
implementing additional functionality for finance,
accounting, and HR
Obtain greater reliability and performance from the City’s
information technology infrastructure through the
continuing implementation of hyperconvergence,
improvement of physical facilities, and refreshment of over-
aged devices
Figure 3 – High-Level Project Roadmap
Figure 3, High-Level Project Roadmap, provides an abbreviated
timeline for the City’s highest priority projects as established during
the Project Prioritization Workshop that was conducted on
Thursday, June 22. In addition, over seventy IT infrastructure
projects were identified for completion through FY 2019/20.
Although many of these projects will not be directly apparent to the
19
5
24
25
7
3
4
39
0 10 20 30 40 50
Pending
In Progress
New Projects
Pending
In Progress
Complete
Cancelled
Existing Projects
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user community, they will have a direct impact on the ability of the
user community to deliver services to the public and support the
City’s internal operations by improving performance and reliability.
Please see Section 4, IT Strategic Plan Update for more detailed
information on the workshop and the steps in the development of
the project roadmap.
Next Steps
The next steps for the City in the process include:
Actively managing the implementation of the IT Strategic
Plan including:
- Augmenting the City’s processes for information
technology governance, with the objectives of shaping
and maintaining a vision for the City’s use of
information technology and using that vision to
establish which proposed projects are most closely
aligned with the vision and that will contribute to its
realization
- Taking a creative approach to the implementation of
the projects identified in the IT Strategic Plan since ITD
does not have sufficient resources available to handle
all of the projects, and while the use of cloud-based
services can reduce some of the need for internal
resources, it does not eliminate it, and actually creates
additional resource needs in areas such as project
management and business analysis
Keeping the City’s primary objectives in sight and ensuring
that they have sufficient resources including:
- The continuing enhancement of the City’s
implementation of Tyler’s New World ERP to provide
additional capabilities and efficiencies for financial and
HR processing
- The implementation of Active.Net as a replacement for
Class
- The implementation of Laserfiche Rio including the
implementation of the workflow management
capabilities of the product
- The implementation of Accela for permitting
- Enhancement of the business license capabilities in New
World including an online portal for obtaining and
renewing business licenses
- Expansion of the features and functionality made
available to the public through the City’s web-site and
mobile devices
- Enhancement of asset management capabilities
including implementation of customer relationship
management functionality for Cityworks
- Implementation of “Smart City” capabilities
- Implementation of key IT infrastructure projects
(including the renovation of on-premises hardware and
software as well as the increased use of cloud-based
services as needed) to ensure the reliability, availability,
and performance of the City’s business applications
Taking steps to improve the availability, reliability, and
performance of the City’s information technology
infrastructure including renovating on-site facilities, and
upgrading existing hardware, software, and network
equipment
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Section 2 – Current IT Environment
2.1 - IT Assessment
The information to support a revised assessment of the City’s IT
environment in 2017 compared to 2015 was developed based on
information gathered through:
“Voice of the User” Survey: An anonymous, City-wide
survey of user satisfaction with the services being provided
by the Innovation and Technology Department
Interviews with key user stakeholders
Interviews with ITD staff
An assessment of the degree to which ITD (and the City as a
whole) conform to a set of IT best practices
The results from each of these are discussed below.
2.2 – Summary of the “Voice of the User”
Survey
Between Thursday, March 16, 2017, and Friday, March 31, 2017,
NexLevel conducted an anonymous on-line survey of the employees
of the City of Cupertino (City) to assess their satisfaction with the
support they receive from the City’s Innovation and Technology
Department (IT). Of the approximately 187 City employees invited
to take the survey, 84 employees responded (45%). The number of
respondents to the 2015 and 2017 surveys was nearly the same (82
in 2015 compared to 84 in 2017), as was the relative proportion of
managers (executives, managers, and supervisors) to non-managers
(33% / 66% in 2015 compared to 31% / 66% in 2017).
Table 1, Comparison of User Satisfaction in 2015 and 2017 User
Surveys, looks at the change in user satisfaction for 13 survey
questions that were common to both surveys. User satisfaction
increased in all of the questions, notably:
User satisfaction with ITD's understanding of the City's
business objectives and with ITD’s planning of technology
projects increased 20% or more from 2015
User satisfaction in other areas, including ITD’s
management of information technology projects,
understanding of the technology that departments use,
ability to access information from City and external sources
in a timely manner, network availability, and
communication on the status of problems or requests,
increased between 10% and 15% from 2015
User satisfaction increased marginally in those areas where
ITD did well in 2015
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Table 1 – Comparison of User Satisfaction in 2015 and 2017
Question User Satisfaction
2015 2017 Change
How satisfied are you with IT’s communications on service metrics, outages and maintenance? 93.0% 97.3% +4.3%
How satisfied are you with IT’s control of malware and spam (unwanted e-mail)? 85.0% 90.5% +5.5%
How satisfied are you with your ability to access information from City and external sources in a timely manner? 82.0% 93.1% +11.1%
How satisfied are you with network availability (can consistently access the network when you need it)? 89.0% 98.6% +9.6%
How satisfied are you with IT’s communication on the status of your problem or request? 83.0% 93.5% +10.5%
How satisfied are you with IT’s follow-up on service provided? 79.0% 87.4% +8.4%
How satisfied are you with the time it takes IT to resolve your problem? 88.0% 96.2% +8.2%
How satisfied are you with the time to acknowledge your request for service? 95.0% 96.2% +1.2%
Please rate your satisfaction with IT’s management of technology projects: 62.0% 77.2% +15.2%
Please rate your satisfaction with IT’s planning of technology projects: 60.0% 80.1% +20.1%
Please rate your satisfaction with IT’s understanding of the technology that your department uses: 81.0% 92.6% +11.6%
Please rate your satisfaction with IT’s understanding of your department’s business objectives: 80.0% 88.8% +8.8%
Please rate your satisfaction with IT's understanding of the City's business objectives: 75.0% 96.2% +21.2%
2.3 – Summary of User and ITD Interviews
2.3.1 - User Interviews
City Manager
The City Manager noted that the Council is very results-oriented
and that he has expectations and objectives for the City in its use of
information technology and for the role of the Innovation&
Technology Department in helping the City realize the objectives.
These include:
Making better use of information technology, particularly
through user training (and keeping user competencies
current), adopting best practices, and ensuring that City
staff members have the tools that they need
ITD should be the City’s in-house consultants, anticipating
needs and fostering innovation. The City particularly needs
I&T to help evaluate the past performance of technology
vendors and to assess the ability of the vendor to deliver
Performance measures will play an increasingly important
role for the City in assessing the effectiveness of programs
and allocating resources. Having Business Analysts on staff
has now has been beneficial and will be critical for the City
in the future
Technology, Information & Communication Commission (TICC)
The Technology, Information & Communication Commission (TICC)
is an appointed body that advises the City Council on technology
matters. TICC has developed and adopted, or is considering,
recommendations for the development of policies and programs
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that are relevant to the IT Strategic Plan in a number of areas
including:
TICC has endorsed the implementation of Smart City
capabilities beginning with energy management
Extending fiber-based broadband internet access across the
City in manner analogous to public utilities such as water
and power so that consumers could plug into broadband
access in much the same way as any other utility. In
addition to promoting the delivery of “Smart City” features,
this is also seen as providing the infrastructure for future
technology start-ups
Leveraging public/private partnerships to extend the
delivery of City information and services to the community,
with the City acting as a facilitator to promote continuous
improvement
The City is seen as doing a “fair” job of providing
information to the public with major concerns being ease of
use and making information of interest to the community
(such as ordinances) more readily available
Departmental Concerns and Priorities
Common user concerns and priorities identified in the course of the
meeting with the key stakeholders including:
An appreciation for the improvements in the services being
delivered by ITD
Concern regarding the number of business applications in
place and the need to either consolidate business
applications going forward or improve information sharing
between them
A greater focus on customer relationship management
(CRM) in handling community concerns
The need for mobile access to City information and services
to support field operations including the ability to take
payments in the field as well as digital signatures
The need to have a coherent strategy for digital government
that will enable the City to meet increased public
expectations including:
- Engagement / interaction with the community
- Support for multiple languages
Multiple interviewees expressed concern regarding public
satisfaction with the City’s web-site
Broad-based needs for improved document management
and electronic workflows (including workflows that are
event- based as well as document-based)
Increased public demands for access to City information on
issues of concern (PRAs)
Meeting increased demands for reporting to the State and
other agencies regarding environmental issues including
reduction of greenhouse gasses and sustainability
Making the City’s Intranet site more useful and accessible to
City employees
Issues with document management including the significant
effort related to imaging existing hard-copy documents and
ensuring that all document management users are using a
consistent approach to the classification and indexing of
documents
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2.3.2 - ITD Interviews
Chief Information Officer
The Chief Information Officer was recruited by the City following the
2015 IT Assessment. Since arriving at the City, his immediate
objectives have been to:
Stabilize the City’s information technology infrastructure
through hardware replacement, facility clean-up, and
making more effective use of virtualization (including
hyperconvergence)
Re-organize the department to enable it to function more
effectively and to better support the City’s user community.
This has included working with City management to create a
new office space for ITD staff at City Hall so bring the staff
together
Develop effective working relationships with the City’s
management team and department heads
Augment permanent IT staffing by reducing the use of
external services
Promote innovative uses of information technology (specific
projects have included
- Upgrading Laserfiche to a more current version with
more functionality (Laserfiche Rio)
- Assisting Community development in the acquisition of
a new land management system (Accela)
- Updating the City’s web-site and migrating it to an
industry-standard platform
- Assisting Recreation in the replacement of the Class
application (vendor support for Class will end in 2017)
The CIO has significant plans to further improve the City’s
information technology infrastructure in FY 2017/18 though FY
2019/20 including:
Working with the City’s management team to make the IT
governance process effective and standardizing the
procurement process for IT products and services
Continuing to Improve ITD’s support for business
applications (this was a weak area in 2015)
Implementing new processes for disaster recovery and
business continuity (including UPS expansion and
potentially migrating some components off-site)
Replacing the firewalls
Core switch refreshment and upgrade of the edge switches
Desktop refreshment (including a move from Windows 7 to
Windows 10 as new desktops are delivered and installed)
Local area network upgrades with the objective of
improving service at sites that are slow and building in
additional redundancy
Application initiatives include working with Finance, HR, and
other users to obtain greater efficiencies in the use of the
City’s ERP system including the use of New World’s contract
module as well as continued efforts to improve the use of
document management capabilities including workflow
Implementing formal processes and procedures to
supplement and stabilize the ad-hoc processes presently in
place
Implementing programs for security awareness
Developing a regional roadmap for GIS
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GIS
The GIS team’s primary objectives include:
Web design, creating a more professional package of GIS
services and making them visible to the community through
the City’s web-site, including better branding the City’s GIS
services
Making applications, such as City Finder, more user friendly
for public users
Implementing bi-directional interfaces between GIS and
Cityworks
Providing a point of integration between the City’s asset
management system and the financial system
Increasing the amount of data in the GIS system (such as
aerial imagery, the tree inventory, and documents) to make
these information assets accessible to the City’s users and
the community. The City has been working to get more
documents (especially plans) into Laserfiche
Project Management / Applications
Although these services existed within the City in 2015, they have
now been organized into a division within ITD that is charged with
assisting users with the selection and implementation of business
applications as well as assisting them in making more effective of
the applications. Directions and priorities include:
Providing project management / business analysis support
for existing projects including:
- Replacing the Class application for Recreation
- Evaluation and implementation of Accela, including
integration with New World and GIS
- Evaluating EnerGov as a replacement for the City’s
existing asset management system
- Assisting the users in fine-tuning the implementation of
New World / Logos
- Upgrading Laserfiche to a newer version and
implementing automated workflow management
Supporting efforts to increase transparency ( GIS OpenData,
and Peak Democracy) and citizen engagement (public-facing
portals and mobile applications)
Fostering collaboration between user departments
regarding process and information sharing
Establishing a project management office (PMO) service to
foster the development of project management skills and
the use of project management best practices
Video (Media Communications)
Much of the work of this unit is related to:
Supporting the City’s efforts at transparency including
streaming City Council meetings, operating the City’s public
access channel, and the City’s YouTube channel
Supporting emergency communications
Supporting digital signage
Priorities and directions include:
Providing project management for the multi-phase upgrade
of the Council Chambers
Cinematography and post-production editing
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Maintaining and upgrading video storage capabilities,
including evaluation of replicating video content to the
cloud
Providing project management and design services for the
upgrade of the AV facilities in the City’s conference rooms
and multi-function rooms with the objective of
standardizing configurations to enable the sharing and
streaming of content through the sub-net
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2.4 - IT Best Practices Conformance
As part of the ITSP update, Innovation and Technology Department
managers and staff reviewed the IT best practices checklist that was
prepared in 2015 and updated it to reflect the current status (the
completed checklist is provided as Appendix C). The City’s
responses were then reviewed by NexLevel. Figure 4, Comparison
of IT Best Practice Conformance, 2015 and 2071, depicts the results
of this analysis.
Figure 4 – Comparison of IT Best Practice Conformance, 2015 and 2017
Each of the rings in Figure 4 represents a level of conformance to
the IT best practices with the red band representing 0 to 20%
conformance, the orange band representing 20 to 50%
conformance, the tan band representing 50 to 80% conformance,
and the green band at the center representing 80% to 100%
conformance.
NexLevel’s model for IT best practice conformance is divided into six
dimensions: IT governance, service delivery, business technology
applications, infrastructure, security / information protection, and IT
administration – each represented by one side of the hexagon. The
City’s conformance to best practices is mapped by a dot within each
of the dimensions based on the level of conformance. The dots are
then connected to visually portray the City’s overall level of
conformance. The lighter dotted line connecting the white dots
represents the level of IT conformance that was seen in 2015 and
the darker dotted line connecting the dark gray dots represents the
City’s current level of conformance to the IT best practices.
The degree of IT best practice conformance has some significance.
NexLevel views organizations that have less than 50% conformance
to the IT best practices as being essentially reactive in their
approach to the governance, management, and delivery of
information technology services while organizations that are more
than 50% conformant to IT best practices are regarded as being
proactive. The plotting of the dots indicates that the City’s
conformance to the IT best practices in 2015 was generally
characteristic of an organization that is reactive, while the City’s
conformance in 2017 is more characteristic of an organization that
is proactive.
Organizations that are more proactive are typically better able to
obtain greater benefits for their investments in information
technology than those that are not, and while reactive organizations
often spend less on information technology they also realize less in
return and are generally unable to effectively respond to new
requirements. Another way of looking at the difference between
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reactive and proactive organizations is that the focus of proactive
organizations is generally on innovation and improving service
quality and effectiveness while reactive organizations are generally
focused on maintaining existing service levels and “fire-fighting.”
Chart 3 – Year over Year Changes in IT Best Practice Conformance
Chart 3, Year over Year Changes in IT Best Practice Conformance,
provides a more quantitative analysis of the City’s improvement in
conformance to the IT best practices occurred from 2015 to 2017.
Within each dimension of the IT best practices model, the City’s
conformance improved in 2017 with the largest gains in
infrastructure and IT administration.
A note of caution is that many of these gains have occurred without
the City achieving full conformance with each of the IT best practice
factors, meaning that ITD has yet to fully adopt formal procedures
in many of these items. In the absence of formal procedures, ITD
may be challenged to maintain this level of conformance over time.
47%
57%
63%
50%
60%
57%
56%
25%
35%
15%
20%
30%
30%
26%
0%50%100%
IT Administration
Security /…
Infrastructure
Business Applications
Service Delivery
IT Governance
Overall
2015 2017
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Section 3 – Enterprise Information
Technology Trends
Source: NexLevel
Innovation has always been at the core of information technology –
successive developments in information technology, most recently
in mobility, have dramatically changed the IT landscape as much as
IT has altered the way in which organizations conduct their business
and modified user expectations regarding accessibility to
government services and information. Information technology
innovations have compelled local governments to reassess how
they invest in information technology and deliver information
technology service.
Like rafters, organizations seeking to use information technology
effectively may have a general idea of where they are going but
often encounter obstacles, some known and some unexpected,
along the way. As a result, organizations seeking to develop
effective information technology strategic plans need to consider a
number of different factors including internal user needs, public
expectations, and trends in information technology to better
allocate funds and resources in support of their business objectives
and priorities.
While public sector organizations must also become more
customer-centric and innovative, they also must find ways to
control their total cost of ownership (TCO) for information
technology and demonstrate that they are obtaining the greatest
possible value for their investments (commonly measured as return
on investment – ROI).
The ways in which organizations use information technology have
evolved considerably with the emergence of web-based (“cloud”)
services, the consumerization of information technology, and
mobility. The continued introduction and rapid evolution of
information technology products and services will impact public
sector organizations in a number of ways including:
“Smart” Cities: The need to respond to increased public
expectations for access to information and services is
forcing a shift in the allocation of information technology
resources from internal uses to public-facing uses including
the creation of new products and services as well as the
integration of new and existing information technology
services and their delivery to the public as part of the
implementation of “Smart City” capabilities
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Mobility: The growing adoption of mobile computing as the
solution of choice for remote access to internal applications
and repositories of information and the desire of users to
have the same “desktop environment” on a remote device
as they have in the office will drive the creation of new
policies, support models, and security models
Resources: In the face of a highly diverse and evolving
market of new information technology products and
services and the demand for their use, organizations will be
increasingly challenged to allocate limited IT resources
While predicting the future of information technology can be
problematic, NexLevel has identified eight enterprise information
technology trends that are changing how local governments invest
in IT. Broadly, NexLevel considers that these trends either support:
a) Leverage (ROI): The City’s ability to leverage, i.e. extend or
protect, existing information technology services. The
ability to extend an existing information technology service
improves the City’s return on its investment (ROI) in that
service; or
b) Innovation (Value): The City’s ability to utilize innovations
in information technology in order to support the delivery
of new services to the community as well as to
accommodate new ways in which the public accesses
information and services. Innovation typically produces
greater value, but often at greater cost
Figure 5, Enterprise Information Technology Trends, places each of
the trends discussed in this section into that context.
Figure 5 –Enterprise Information Technology Trends
Ultimately, organizations need to find a balance between investing
their limited resources in better leverage existing information assets
(less risk, greater short-term operational impact) versus investing in
innovative technologies that have the potential to radically
transform how services and information are delivered to the public
(often with greater risk, but also with greater long-term operational
impact).
Within this context, there are no “wrong” directions; rather local
governments must plan to invest in information technology based
on both immediate and long-term needs. Where possible,
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investments should be targeted in information technology trends
based on:
The ability to leverage existing IT resources as well as
support innovation
The benefits to be derived through the implementation of
the information technology compared to the initial and
recurring costs involved (considering both direct and in-
direct costs)
The ability of the organization to effectively implement and
support the technology
The information technology trends identified in Figure N are
discussed below.
⇒ IT Trend: Smart City Technologies
As noted by Dr. Musa, the
use of information
technology to promote the
creation of “Smart Cities”
is unusual in that this trend
is not a single technology,
per-se, but rather
represents an integrated
approach to the utilization
of emerging information
technologies and technology trends that enable local governments
to more effectively identify trends (such as incidents, traffic, power
demand, parking space availability, etc.), to re-allocate or
reprogram City resources in response to these trends, and to
support programs such as Smart Building, autonomous vehicles,
Smart Payment, and Smart Street Lights. Smart City capabilities also
enable members of the community and visitors to obtain
information through smartphone apps regarding employment
services, public safety, healthcare, social services, transit and driving
route information, parking and transit service options, and event
information.
The Internet of Things (IoT) provides the foundation for many Smart
City Initiatives. For some time devices have stored data so that it
could be manually downloaded and accessed on demand.
Combining this capability with the ability to access the internet (and
thus the ability to both autonomously receive and transmit
information) has brought us to the IoT. McKinsey has suggested six
distinct types of applications to consume this information; tracking
behavior, enhanced situational analysis, sensor-driven decisions
analytics, process optimization, optimized resource consumption,
and complex autonomous systems (such as collision avoidance).1
Although some local governments look at Smart City in very tactical
terms (involving highly-specialized IoT applications such as “Smart
Intersections” and “Smart Corridors”), the effective implementation
and continued use of Smart technologies includes:
The development and implementation of open and
collaborative processes to develop the visions for the
implementation of Smart technologies as well as for the
continuing governance of the Smart City initiative.
Governance should include the ability to prioritize
initiatives, program funds, and take advantage of
opportunities made possible by private / public
partnerships, and to assess the reproducibility of
interoperable solutions. The governance process will also
need to provide leadership for the management of the
1 http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-internet-of-
things
“A smart city is defined as a city
that engages its citizens and
connects its infrastructure
electronically. A smart city has the
ability to integrate multiple
technological solutions, in a
secure fashion, to manage the
city’s assets…” – Dr. Sam Musa
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changes in city operations brought about by smart
technologies
The implementation of secure, resilient, and ubiquitous
wireless services that enable access to smart services from
any device, anywhere, and anytime and that can scale to
meet expected surges in demand (such as events) as well as
unexpected surges in demand. Planning for the resilience,
security, and performance of the wireless services is critical
as is the development of processes and agreements to
support 24 x 7 operations
IBM has noted that “A resiliency plan should concentrate on
both the business and IT processes that are most vital to the
enterprise. Creating and sustaining processes that support
resilient business operations and infrastructures requires
identification of the minimum required process
functionality during disruptive events, alternate processes
and procedures that will allow operations to continue
during times of stress, and redefinition of processes to
achieve better workload balance”2
The development of a comprehensive plan for the
implementation and continuing support of the Smart City
services that leverage public / private partnerships as well
as regional partnerships (including regional transportation)
including plans for regional collaboration and information
exchange)
The development and implementation of a plan and the
processes required to support continuing communication
and collaboration with members of the community as well
as the development and implementation of the capabilities
2 “The Evolution of Business Resiliency Management,” IBM Global Technology
Services, Thought Leadership White Paper, June, 2011
to leverage the information produced by smart devices -
including business intelligence and business analytics
Business Intelligence and Business Analytics (BI/BA)
There has been considerable progress in the development of
tools that enable organizations to consume a growing body of
information for either tactical / reactive purposes (business
intelligence) or for strategic / proactive purposes (business
analytics). The collection, aggregation, and analysis of
information from disparate business units and sources across an
enterprise are often referred to as “Big Data,” by the
information technology industry. Big Data provides the
foundation for business intelligence and business analytics.
Recent trends in this area have included making these tools
more “user friendly” and available
The development and maintenance of the “enterprise data
architecture” required to support the use of BI/BA tools is one
of the “hidden costs” of implementing Smart City technologies.
This includes the costs related to:
- Processes and staff to support the architecture
(including processes for its governance, support, and
evolution) since both the data being collected and the
organization’s use of the data will change over time
- Standards and policies to ensure that business
applications will be able to exchange information with
other business applications and support the integration
and compilation of information
Organizations without an enterprise data architecture,
supporting standards, and staff to support it, often attempt to
support decision-makers through a cumbersome combination
of ad-hoc applications, databases, and spreadsheets. These
tools often use data inconsistently, are seldom well
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documented or able to quickly meet new requirements, and
eventually become a drain on organizational resources. This
can quickly become a worst-case scenario as the total cost of
ownership for these ad-hoc processes quickly mounts while the
return on the organization’s investment decreases.
Digital Government
Broadly, digital government is considered to be a
comprehensive approach to the use of the Internet and mobile
technologies as a conduit for providing information to the public
and to enable them to conduct business. The development and
maintenance of a digital government strategy has become more
complex due to the rapid multiplication of the number of
channels for communicating with the public as well as the
continued evolution of mobile devices. Organizations must be
prepared to deal with “any device (including any browser),
anywhere, anytime”
The Federal Government has adopted a digital government
strategy that is built on four principles which could be adapted
for the use of other government agencies. The principles
include:
- An “Information-Centric” approach – Moves us from
managing “documents” to managing discrete pieces of
open data and content which can be tagged, shared,
secured, mashed up and presented in the way that is
most useful for the consumer of that information
- A “Shared Platform” approach – Helps us work
together, both within and across agencies, to reduce
costs, streamline development, apply consistent
standards, and ensure consistency in how we create
and deliver information
- A “Customer-Centric” approach – Influences how we
create, manage, and present data through websites,
mobile applications, raw data sets, and other modes of
delivery, and allows customers to shape, share and
consume information, whenever and however they
want it
- A platform of “Security and Privacy” – Ensures this
innovation happens in a way that ensures the safe and
secure delivery and use of digital services to protect
information and privacy 3
⇒ IT Trend: Organizational Agility
Agility is both a trend and
an outcome of the
significant changes that
have taken place in how
local governments (and
other organizations)
respond to both new
information technologies
and how those
information technologies
are used by the public.
The ability to agilely
respond to both changes in IT and changes in user and public
expectations rests largely on the ability of an organization to
identify and prioritize requirements and to allocate and/or
reallocate both IT and user resources accordingly. Effective
planning and IT governance are key components of organizational
agility.
3 Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the
American People, US Office of Management and Budget, 2012
Organizations must be agile in order
to effectively respond to new
business requirements and public
expectations for access to
information technology services.
Agility does not just happen – it is
the product of insightful
investments by organizations in
information technology planning
and resources. - NexLevel
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Agility enables organizations to stand-up solutions to support new
business requirements by:
Re-using existing information technology assets (data,
applications, infrastructure, and personnel)
Developing or acquiring new assets
Some combination of the above
Planning documents often speak to the need to align technology
plans and directions with business or operational needs and
priorities – generally this implies a two-step process in which
operational plans are developed and then technology plans are
crafted to support them. NexLevel believes that this process is not
as effective as it could be since the transformative impact of
technology should be considered in the course of developing
business plans, not afterwards. Industry best practices and research
confirm that organizations that integrate business and technology
planning in a common framework achieve better results than those
that do not.
IT Governance is used as the catalyst to ensure the alignment
between an organization’s business goals and priorities and how it
allocates its information technology resources and assets. In the
absence of effective alignment of business and information
technology direction scarce resources can be allocated for IT
projects that may be interesting but fail to deliver real benefits to
the organization.
⇒ IT Trend: Virtualization / Hyperconvergence
The virtualization of IT infrastructure is not a new trend in
information technology; the virtualization of servers (the division of
a physical device into multiple virtual devices) has been a staple for
information technology organizations for some time. Virtualization
is based on the replacement of separate hardware-defined systems
with software-defined environments, usually managed by a
software product known as a “hyperviser.” Virtualization provides
significant benefits including improved utilization of physical devices
and a reduction in the number of physical devices in the data
center. On the desktop side of the IT architecture, virtual device
infrastructure, although not fully mature at this time and not a
universal solution, offers organizations the opportunity to replace
desktops that are reaching end-of-life with replacements that are
less expensive and easier to maintain.
Virtualization is continuing to evolve, specifically with regard to the
deployment of hyperconverged infrastructures, which enable
organizations to integrate multiple types of storage devices
(including traditional disk storage, solid-state storage) into a single
virtual appliance that can provide a greater number of I/O
operations per second (IOPS) to support varied workloads that
include transaction processing as well as sequential data access for
reporting, business intelligence, etc. Other benefits of
hyperconvergence include simplified management of the IT
infrastructure, the ability to streamline data backup and recovery,
and the ability to more effectively deploy business continuity /
disaster recovery solutions.
A related trend is the development of “application containers,” – an
application container consists of an entire runtime environment
that includes the business application, plus all of the system
software and configuration files needed to run it. The primary
advantage of application containers is that they are relatively
independent of physical devices (such as servers) and the
differences between them (such as the version of the operating
system in use, etc.).
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⇒ IT Trend: Organizational Change Management
(OCM)
The introduction of new enterprise-wide business applications
and/or modifications to existing business applications often involves
changes to existing business processes and organizational structure;
and these changes, as well as the effort required to implement the
business application, have the potential to disrupt operations.
Additionally, organizations have found that resistance to change can
limit their ability to realize the intended benefits of business
applications and prolong implementation projects, sometimes to
the point that project success is placed in jeopardy.
Organizational change management (OCM) provides a
methodological framework for managing the organizational impact
of the implementation of new automation including changes in
business processes, changes in organizational structure, and
changes in culture (including changes in focus and changes in how
performance is measured) by focusing on improving
communication, setting expectations, and working to minimize the
impact of misinformation.
In 1995, John Kotter introduced an eight-step process (which has
since been updated, but the original version is nonetheless highly
applicable) for fostering the successful implementation of changes
in organizational structure, business processes, and culture.4
Kotter’s framework for change management included:
Creating a shared sense of urgency regarding the need to
change
Forming a guiding coalition across the organization to
support change
4 Leading Change, John Kotter, Harvard University Press, 1995,
http://www.kotterinternational.com
Creating a vision for change
Communicating the vision
Preparing to overcome obstacles
Planning for, and delivering, short-term wins to sustain
momentum
Remaining committed to the long-term process required to
transform organizations
“Anchoring” the changes in the culture of the organization
Organizational change management is also dependent on
performance management since it provides an objective and factual
assessment as to whether the organization is obtaining the desired
outcomes from changes to business processes, structure, and
resourcing and the effectiveness of any subsequent steps that may
be needed to overcome obstacles.
⇒ IT Trend: Cybersecurity
While the need to secure information systems is not new, the
increased focus and importance of cybersecurity is a direct result of
the increased utilization of the web for the delivery of information
and services and the related rise in the use of mobile and personal
devices. In 2016, the President’s Homeland Security and
Counterterrorism Advisor warned that “we are in the middle of a
revolution in the cyberthreat – one that is growing more persistent,
more diverse, more frequent, and more dangerous every day.”5
Cisco, a leading network component and firewall manufacturer and
service provider, has noted that:
5 “Citing a ‘revolution,’ Obama issues response plan,” The San Francisco Chronicle,
July 27, 2016
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The shift toward mobility and cloud services is placing a
greater security burden on endpoints and mobile devices
that in some cases may never even touch the corporate
network. The fact is that mobile devices introduce security
risk when they are used to access company resources; they
easily connect with third-party cloud services and
computers with security postures that are potentially
unknown and outside of the enterprise’s control. In
addition, mobile malware is growing rapidly, which further
increases risk. Given the lack of even basic visibility, most IT
security teams don’t have the capability to identify potential
threats from these devices.6
In this environment, organizations can be crippled not just by
attacks which result in the disclosure, modification, and destruction
of information but also by attacks which takeover critical
infrastructure components (and potentially disable them or hold
them hostage through the installation of “ransom ware”), or
impede the ability of legitimate users to access information and
services (“denial of service” attacks).
The nature of cybersecurity threats is continually evolving due to
the growing sophistication of hackers, the resources available to
them, and increases in the range of motivations from mischief and
activism to profit. As a result, the community of hackers has
expanded to include criminal enterprises that profit through
extortion as well as through the theft of digital assets (such as social
security numbers, account numbers, etc.).
As a result, organizations must adopt and implement systematic
approaches to protect their information assets from cyber threats
6 Cisco, 2014 Annual Security Report,
http://www.cisco.com/web/offer/gist_ty2_asset/Cisco_2014_ASR.pdf
including the ability to detect and defeat these threats, limit the
impact of potential intrusions, recover from them, and adapt
processes to better manage similar attacks in the future. The
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has
developed a cybersecurity framework (depicted in Figure 6, NIST
Cybersecurity Framework) below, that enables organizations to
progressively implement procedures to safeguard against cyber
threats.7
Figure 6 – NIST Cybersecurity Framework
7 http://www.nist.gov/cyberframework/index.cfm
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⇒ IT Trend: Enterprise Content (and Document)
Management (ECM)
The management of enterprise
content (including documents,
audio, video, and images) is not a
new trend; however, with the
accumulation of increasing
amounts of content (particularly
video) organizations are adopting
enhanced ECM strategies and
capabilities to:
Better organize and catalog documents and digital content
so that they are more readily available across the
organization and to ensure that users have access to the
most current versions (organizations that have multiple
repositories for the storage and management of documents
and content find that these are often implemented and
used inconsistently and that they increase the organizations
total cost of ownership)
Improve the ability to collaborate with internal and external
users (including the ability to annotate)
Control access to documents (and to portions) of
documents including permissions to add, read, copy,
modify, and delete
Conform to records management requirements
Search documents and content in conformance with public
records requests
Support users working from remote locations, particularly
workers in the field using wireless access
More recently, organizations have also realized that the absence of
a document and content management framework limits the
usefulness of field mobility since this depends on the ready
availability of content. Consuming bandwidth and time to search
for documents is frustrating for end-users and increases
organizational costs for mobility.
Gartner Research has noted that:
The term "enterprise content management" (ECM)
describes both a strategic framework and a technical
architecture that supports all types of content (and format)
throughout the content life cycle.
As a strategic framework, ECM can help enterprises take
control of their content. It can contribute to initiatives
around transactional processes, compliance and records
management as well as sharing and collaborating around
content and documents.
As a technical architecture, ECM can be delivered either as a
suite of products integrated at the content or interface level
or as a number of separate products that share a common
architecture.8
Industry statistics regarding the costs related to the manual
management of content (including the unstructured storage of
documents and content in directories on network drives) are very
compelling and have been validated by successive independent
studies. A guide published by Laserfiche (an ECM software
provider) notes that “A recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers study
reports that the average worker spends 40% of their time managing
non-essential documents, while the International Data Corporation
(IDC) estimates that employees spend 20% of their day looking for
8 Gartner Research, Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management, 2015
“The amount of digital
content that we are
capturing is exploding.
Video cameras are popping
up all over the place.” -
Anonymous IT Manager,
speaking with NexLevel
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information in hardcopy documents and only finding what they
need 50% of the time.”9
Finally, an organization’s ability to achieve a near-paperless
environment is greatly dependent on the implementation of EDCM
capabilities that are robust and user-friendly.
⇒ IT Trend: Mobility and the Consumerization of
IT
The consumerization of
information technology
refers to the use of
personal devices, most
often mobile, to obtain
access to organizational
services and information
(also sometimes referred
to as BYOD – bring your
own device). As a result,
consumerization and
mobility are closely linked.
Collectively, they
represent a significant
opportunity for
government to become
more custom-centric and to improve the effectiveness and
timeliness of service to the public; however, they are also vexing for
enterprise IT planners since:
The proliferation of devices is a challenge for support
organizations as users attempt to obtain connectivity to
9 Document Management: The Buyer’s Handbook, Laserfiche,
http://www.laserfiche.com, 2015
secured wireless networks and utilize applications. It is
estimated that the introduction of mobility in an
organization can increase Help Desk Workload by as much
as 10%10
User access to enterprise information and services from
mobile / wireless devices potentially exposes them to cyber-
attacks
Public-facing solutions need to be both open and adaptive
to optimize user experience from a universe of devices,
(each with different screens, browsers, and operating
systems) that is continually evolving
“Follow me” mobility fundamentally changes the paradigm
of the standard desktop computing model where the
computer, the operating system, the applications, plus the
user’s data and preferences are integrated into a single
platform (either a desktop PC that remains in the same
location or a laptop or notepad that moves with the user
and then connects to the host network). Whereas desktop
computing is device and location centric, mobility is user
centric
Despite these challenges, mobility is a “game changer” in the public
sector, enabling users to move as needed and to enter or update
information on a real time basis thus eliminating the need to
capture information on paper or offline and then enter or upload
the information in the office. In addition, mobility enables access to
information where/when it is most needed (i.e., in responding to
incidents and emergencies).
Support for mobile devices continues to be a vexing issue for many
organizations. Some adopt a “bring your own device” policy as
10 The Impact of Mobility on the IT Service Desk, Gartner, 2013
“Customer-centric government
means that agencies respond to
customers’ needs and make it easy
to find and share information and
accomplish important tasks... The
mantra of “anytime, anywhere, any
device,” is increasingly setting the
standard for how information and
services are both delivered and
received in a two-way exchange of
information and ideas.” – Digital
Government: Building a 21st Century
Platform to Better Serve the
American People, US Office of
Management and Budget
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being preferential to attempting to limit the devices that users
employ; often with the caveat that IT support for other than
officially supported devices will be provided only as available and
with no guarantees as to response time. The practicality of these
policies tends to be limited since the priority of a service request
tends to be driven more by the nature of the incident or request
and the person reporting it than by the device involved.
⇒ IT Trend: Strategic Sourcing of Services and
Cloud-based Services
Strategic sourcing is based
on the concept of obtaining
and using the most
effective service providers
to respond to user needs
and enabling permanent IT
staff members to focus on
high-priority, high-value
tasks and technologies
while allocating functions
such as the support of COTS
business applications and
non-mission critical “utility”
functions to lower-cost
service providers.
For many organizations in
both the public and private
sector who have aging IT
facilities and
infrastructures, the use of “cloud” based services including
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS), and
Software as a Service (SaaS), offer alternatives to initial capital
expenditures, the recruitment of additional staff members, or the
procurement of traditional staff-supplementation services
(contractors). An additional benefit for many organizations is that
using SaaS simplifies their disaster recovery and business continuity
planning since they can quickly resume operations from a facility
that has connection to the internet.
Common strategies for cloud-based services include:
Public Cloud – Public Cloud services for business
applications are generally shared (thus “public”) with other
user organizations and all users of the service sharing a
common infrastructure and/or code base but with their
data kept separately (but often located in the same physical
database). The advantages of a public cloud service include
reduced cost (as a result of the cost for the service being
spread over a larger number of users), but organizations
find that they have less flexibility (the code base generally
changes for all users at the same time) and less control over
the security of their information
Serverless Computing is a trend within the public cloud
where users pay a single, bundled, fee for access to a
service rather than separate fees for the resources (servers,
storage, etc.) used for the service. The total cost of
ownership for a serverless computing service increases or
decreases based on demand
Private Cloud – is similar to a public cloud, but in a COTS /
SaaS environment the private cloud is based on a separate
code base and database for each organization (although
multiple organizations may share physical resources in a
virtualized computing environment). Since the code base is
not shared with other user organizations, users have more
control over the timing of updates and the installation of
new versions and more control over the security of their
“Interest in cloud technology and
cloud economics abounds. While
the technology delivers
immediate reductions in capital
costs, Forrester believes that
cloud computing’s greatest
benefits will come from changes
to the IT technology and
organizational model… Cloud
computing, like mass production,
is based on economy of scale and
automation. It has shown
extensive productivity gains and
appears to be the direction
needed for IT operations to
absorb future production
requirements.” – “IT Infrastructure
and Operations: The Next Five
Years: The Cloud on IT’s Horizon,”
Forrester Research
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 27
data, but at a higher cost than for Public Cloud services.
Organizations can also host legacy, proprietary solutions in
a private cloud
Hybrid Cloud – a combination of private and public cloud
services, potentially from different service providers. This
permits organizations to use more expensive private cloud
services for mission-critical applications and confidential
information while leveraging the public cloud for less critical
and/or confidential applications and information
The deployment of hybrid cloud architectures is becoming a
significant trend. An industry source noted that, ““The
ability of hybrid cloud to function as an extension of an
existing IT environment and processes allows IT to quickly
deliver the agility benefits of cloud computing to the
business. IT can use the same management tools and
governance policies they have already adopted in their data
centers and maintain security and visibility.”11
High(er) availability: Hybrid cloud solutions also appeal to
organizations that need to have their business applications
continuously available, since in a “multi-cloud” environment
(that could potentially include both locally hosted and
remotely hosted services), access can fail over to the
backup service
COTS Business Applications and the Cloud
Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) business application providers are
increasingly turning to SaaS as their preferred method of delivery.
Compared to traditional models where the COTS software is
installed in multiple client sites, often with some variation in both
11 Mathew Lodge, vice president, Cloud Services Product
Management and Marketing, VMware, cited in White Paper: Cloud
Adoption - Hybrid Is the Future, VMware, 2016
the installation of the software and the supporting systems
environment and with differing levels of technical currency, SaaS
greatly simplifies the process of providing user support and helps
limit the variety of releases and versions that the application
provider must support. SaaS can be delivered either as private
cloud or public cloud offering (with private cloud offering more
flexibility and security and public cloud offering the opportunity to
lower license / subscription and support costs through the
economies of scale). For user IT organizations, SaaS dramatically
reduces application management and support costs, particularly
with regard to backup and disaster recovery.
Key benefits of cloud-based sourcing include:
The ability to obtain services under the terms of a service
level agreement
The ability to obtain service coverage for extended hours of
operation including 24x7
The ability to defer, or avoid, capital costs for the
acquisition of information technology infrastructure (such
as servers and storage devices)
The ability to more readily scale the IT environment to meet
demand
Reduced dependence on local staff resources, including
training and planning for staff succession
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Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 28
Nonetheless, organizations seeking to use external services (cloud-
based or not) need to carefully consider:
Potential issues with data ownership and security including
the ability of the cloud-service provider to comply (and to
certify continuous compliance) with applicable information-
protection standards such as CJIS and HIPAA
The costs related to implementation including training, data
extract and purification, and testing
The continuing costs for utilization as well as for the
management of multiple service providers
The provisions for the availability and security of
information that is stored off-site (particularly if the service
is hosted off shore)
The costs and effort related to potentially exiting the
sourcing arrangement in the future
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 29
Section 4 – IT Strategic Plan Update
4.1 - Plan Development
Strategic planning enables
organizations to effectively allocate
IT and user resources and to find a
balance between immediate and
long-term needs. Change is a
constant concern for public sector
executives who must often respond
to increased public expectations
and new mandates with limited resources and information
technology environments that are not agile. Without an updated IT
Strategic Plan to serve as a baseline to manage and respond to
change, organizations tend to become reactive rather than
proactive and, as a result, obtain reduced benefits for their
investments in information technology.
Figure 7, Development of IT Strategic Plan, depicts the process used
to develop the IT Strategic Plan for the City of Cupertino:
Strategic projects were identified based on operational
needs and priorities identified in the course of the
interviews with the City’s user stakeholders, IT needs and
priorities, and the recommendations that NexLevel
identified for the City
The resulting project list was then reviewed with the City’s
management team and refined considering both the user
and IT resources that would be required to implement the
projects and information regarding information technology
trends
The refined project list then served as the foundation for
the planning and prioritization workshop
Figure 7 – Development of IT Strategic Plan
The “Blue Wall” from the planning and prioritization
workshop was then reviewed with City Management and
provided the basis for the development of the IT Strategic
Plan
“It’s not the man, it’s the
plan. It’s not the rap, it’s
the map.” – Ossie Davis,
actor, director, poet,
playwright, author, and
civil rights activist
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 30
4.2 - Project Portfolio
Appendix A, Project Portfolio, provides information for each of the
projects identified in the course of the 2015 ITSP and the 2017
update including:
Project ID
Project Name
Project Sponsor(s)
Impacted Departments
2015 ITSP Project Status
2015 ITSP Est'd Completion Date
2017 ITSP Update Project Status
Project Description / 2017 Update
Appendix B, Project Prioritization Worksheet, provides additional
information for each of the projects including:
Project Title
Project Sponsor(s)
Project Status (i.e., In Progress, Planned, Proposed)
The estimated levels of risk and effort associated with the
project
The estimated low and high costs (in $000’s) for each
project based on information developed by NexLevel and
the City
The estimated impact on City operations for each project
looking at four key factors including:
- Community Engagement, the degree to which the
project contributes to improving the ability of the City
to provide public access to information and services
- Business Enhancement, the degree to which the project
can contribute to improving the City’s ability to conduct
operations by enabling the elimination of redundant
and/or non-value added activities or improving
productivity, etc.
- Cost Reduction, the degree to which the project can
contribute to reducing the City’s total cost of ownership
for information technology or otherwise reducing costs
- Technology Replacement, the degree to which the
project can enable the City to replace existing
components of its information technology
infrastructure (including applications, hardware, system
software, etc.)
A weighted score (low, medium, high) based on the
estimated level of effort, level of risk, and the business
value of the project
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 31
4.3 - Project Roadmap through FY 2019/20
Figure 8 – Development of Project Roadmap
Figure 8, Development of Project Roadmap depicts the three steps
in its development:
Review Project Descriptions
Prioritization Workshop
Post-Workshop Review
Each of these steps is discussed below.
Review Project Portfolio
Following the meetings with the user stakeholders and the Chief
Information Officer, the Project Portfolio (provided in Appendix A)
was distributed to the participants for their review. In the course of
the review project descriptions and status were updated, projects
were added to the list, and some projects were deleted. The
updated Project Portfolio was then used as the starting point for the
Prioritization Workshop.
Prioritization Workshop
The “Blue Wall” workshop was conducted on Thursday, June 22.
The workshop was conducted in an open and collaborative manner
with members of the City’s management team including
department heads and key stakeholders. The sessions is referred
to as “Blue Wall” workshop since NexLevel uses a panel of blue
fabric, 11’ wide by 4’ high, that is coated with an adhesive. The
panel is mounted on a wall and pages printed for each of the
projects in the Project Portfolio. NexLevel pre-staged the projects
onto the “Blue Wall” which was divided into time slots including In
Progress, FY 2017/18), FY 2018/19, and FY 2019/20, and a “Parking
Lot” for projects that the participants decided to defer at this time.
Ground Rules
NexLevel provided a briefing for the participants that included a
review of the ground rules for the workshop. One of the key ground
rules was that, given the City’s staffing constraints, all new business
applications projects would be assumed to be provided as
“Software-as-a-Service” (SaaS) with the City leveraging external
services to assist in the implementation wherever feasible. Each of
the projects was then reviewed by the participants and some
additional projects were identified and added to the “Blue Wall”
and other projects were consolidated or deleted. NexLevel then
facilitated a voting exercise in which each of the participants was
given four green dots and used them to identify high-priority
projects.
Following the voting exercise, some of the projects were moved into
different time slots. Figure 9, Workshop “Blue Wall,” depicts the
results of the planning workshop. The hand-written pages
represent projects that were added in the course of the workshop.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 32
Figure 9 – “Blue Wall” Following Prioritization Workshop
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 33
Post-Workshop Review
NexLevel reviewed the project timeline following the workshop and
made some adjustments to project durations where appropriate.
The revised project roadmap that resulted from the review is
depicted in Figure 10, “Blue Wall” Following Post Workshop Review.
This view of the “Blue Wall” was developed in Visio and a copy of
the source was provided to the City with the final version of the IT
Strategic Plan so that it can be modified by the City in the future.
Following Figure 10, several additional worksheets were developed
in the course of the post-workshop review, including:
Figure 11, Project Schedule Based on Revised “Blue Wall,”
Part 1 and Part 2, provide a more detailed timeline in Gantt
Chart format, starting with projects that were in progress
during the last quarter of FY 2016/17 and then continuing
out through FY 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20. This
format provides a clearer view of the overall timelines for
groups of projects (including projects related to the Land
Management System Implementation, Munis Finance
Enhancements, Munis HR Enhancements, and the Asset
Management System Enhancements). This schedule should
be regarded as a “straw man” and modified as needed to
conform to the City’s priorities and resources
The projects are listed in Figure 11 alphabetically by project
sponsor and project name, with the following information:
- Concurrent Projects per Quarter: Provides a count of
the number of projects for whom activities have been
scheduled in that quarter and provides a general
indication of the resource requirements
- 2017 ITSP Status: Provides the status of the project.
Projects are classified as being “in-progress” or
“planned” unless they have not been scheduled, in
which case the project status in shown as “pending”
- Business Impact: Provides an estimate of the projects
impact on City operations (high, medium, and low)
- Level of Effort: Provides an estimate of the level of
effort (considering both user and IT resources) to
implement the project (high. medium, low)
- Level of Risk: Provides an assessment of the potential
of the project to disrupt City operations (high, medium,
low)
Figure 12, Estimated Mid-Range Cost by Fiscal Year, Parts 1
and 2, provide an estimate of the cost for each fiscal year
based on the mid-range cost for each of the projects
identified in Figure 11, Project Schedule Based on Revised
“Blue Wall,” Parts 1 and 2. Please note that:
- The full cost for a project is considered to incurred at
the outset of the project, even if its duration continues
into subsequent fiscal years
- Known recurring costs per fiscal year (usually software
maintenance and license fees) are shown
- Costs for projects that will be based on “Software-as-a-
Service” (i.e., cloud-based subscriptions) are noted as
TBD since these costs can vary widely depending on the
service selected
Figure 13, IT Infrastructure Projects and Schedule, Parts 1
and 2, provide a schedule and costs for the implementation
of a series of IT infrastructure projects that impact the
ability of ITD to support the strategic projects identified in
Figures 10 and 11, as well as to ensure that the City’s
information technology infrastructure remains highly
available and secured. Figure 12 provides information for
each IT infrastructure project including:
- The estimated implementation time frame
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 34
- The estimated low and high costs in 000’s
- The level of effort and the level of risk for each project
(high, medium, low)
- The estimated cost per fiscal year based on the
estimate mid-range cost for each project (the mid-range
cost is an average of each projects estimated low and
high costs)
Table 2, Total Estimated Spending, FY 2017/18 through FY 2020/21,
provides a summary of the estimated costs for the strategic
operational and IT projects identified in Figure 11 and the IT
infrastructure projects identified in Figure 12.
Table 2, Total Estimated Spending, FY 2017/18 through FY 2020/21
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 35
Figure 10 – “Blue Wall” Following Post Workshop Review
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 36
Figure 11 – Project Schedule Based on Revised “Blue Wall,” Part 1
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 37
Figure 11 – Project Schedule Based on Revised “Blue Wall,” Part 2
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 38
Figure 12 – Estimated Mid-Range Cost per Fiscal Year for Revised “Blue Wall,” Project, Part 1
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 39
Figure 12 – Estimated Mid-Range Cost per Fiscal Year for Revised “Blue Wall,” Project, Part 2
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 40
Figure 13, IT Infrastructure Projects and Schedule, Part 1
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 41
Figure 13, IT Infrastructure Projects and Schedule, Part 2
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 42
Section 5 – Conclusion
In the conclusion to the 2015 IT Strategic Plan, NexLevel focused on
three thoughts that have emerged in the course of developing the
IT strategic plan for the City of Cupertino, including the need for:
A commitment to information technology governance as a
process to ensure the alignment of the use of the City’s
information technology resources with its business
objectives and priorities and to facilitate changes in how the
City uses information technology
A well-balanced, robust, and reliable information
technology infrastructure as the foundation for obtaining
greater value from the City’s investments in IT
A commitment to IT strategic planning as a continuing
process rather than as a one-time or ad-hoc activity
Those thoughts remain relevant today and have been joined by the
need for the City’s Innovation & Technology Department to
increasingly focus on becoming a service broker that can assist the
City’s user community in identifying services that can meet their
needs and finding the most effective service provider from the
available options, as well as being an effective service provider.
Figure 14, IT Service Delivery Options, depicts the factors that are
driving the need for increased agility, the central role of IT
governance in evaluating how best to obtain services to support
business needs, and the role of the IT organization in the process.
Gartner Research, a leading information technology research firm,
has defined agility as "the ability of an organization to sense
environmental change and respond efficiently and effectively to
that change."12 Gartner also noted that “It is not shocking that
enterprises want to be agile. What is shocking is that very few of
them know what it means to be agile… Sensing the need for change
also includes the proactive initiation of change.”
Figure 14 – IT Service Delivery Options
12 “Defining, Cultivating and Measuring Enterprise Agility,” Gartner
Research
“The role of IT in many organizations has evolved from supporting the
business to enabling the business — a shift that requires IT to
transition from being mostly tactical and cost focused to being an
enabler of the [organization’s] overall strategy and value focused.” -
“Creating A Culture of Performance and Value,” Forrester Research
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 43
NexLevel’s view is that IT governance is a key enabler of
organizational agility that enables organizations to effectively utilize
their information technology assets (technologies, applications, and
people) to proactively respond to change in a manner that is
consistent with their business vision, objectives, and needs as well
as the user and IT resources available. Resources are often the
most critical constraint, since organizations seldom have sufficient
resources to meet current operational commitments and to
respond to change.
Until recently, those resources were primarily internal – internal
staff members, on-premises IT infrastructure, and COTS business
applications that were hosted locally. The availability of cloud-
based services, including cloud-based infrastructure and business
applications, have increased the number of options available to
organizations and enable organizations to accomplish more while
limiting the growth in the number of IT staff resources required to
manage and support the IT environment.
One of the misconceptions of the cloud environment is that it
reduces the need for internal IT resources when, in fact, it
transforms the need for IT resources from staff members whose
competencies are technology-focused (such as system
administrators) to staff members who can manage projects,
manage multiple vendor relationships, and assist the users in
obtaining greater value for their investments in information
technology through activities such as business analysis and business
process re-engineering.
Organizations seeking to adopt cloud-services often find themselves
in a “painful meanwhile” where they need to maintain existing on-
premises information technology infrastructure as well as manage
the move to the cloud and adapt to the challenges of the cloud
environment. As a result, IT expenditures and staffing requirements
might actually increase for the duration of the migration. The end-
state for many organizations is are hybrid IT environments where
some components of the environments (generally, the network and
some servers) remain on-premises and supported by local IT staff
while other components (typically business applications) are hosted
in the cloud and supported by external service providers. At times,
some organizations may elect to have applications that are hosted
in the cloud but managed by local IT staff members.
These organizations find that the management of multiple cloud-
services and their contracts can be challenging. Apart from
administration, cloud services are continuing to evolve and
organizations need to periodically review their sourcing
arrangements to make sure that the deals they have are
competitive with current offerings and meeting their needs.
Organizations that are confronted with choosing between multiple
IT service delivery options, with each of the options having different
advantages and disadvantages, often struggle to find the best long-
term path. The development and maintenance of a coherent vision
and strategy for the delivery of information technology services can
make this process easier and enable organizations to develop
momentum and to cumulatively build value for their investments in
information technology.
On the other hand, if the strategy is not maintained and
appropriately executed (through IT governance), organizations find
that they are continually at the beginning of the strategy
implementation process, with no apparent end in sight, with
escalating costs and little demonstrated value for these
investments.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 44
Appendices
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 45
Appendix A – Project Portfolio
The City of Cupertino
2017 IT Strategic Plan Update
Projects Sorted by Sponsor and Project Name
Project ID: "N" denotes a new project that was identified in the course of the 2017 ITSP Update
Project Status Definitions: Complete=Project objectives met; Cancelled=Sponsor does not see current need for project; In Progress=Project is
budgeted, staffed, and being worked on; Planned=Project planned for completion at a later date; Proposed=Project has been proposed but has
not yet been budgeted or scheduled
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
1 Case Management
Automation City Attorney Proposed Proposed
Procure and implement a case management system that
would enable the City Attorney to track the status of legal
matters and events related to these matters including the
referral of work to outside counsel, and the capability to track
Court appearances, depositions, etc. for the City.
2
e-Discovery (Public
Records Act
Requests
Automation)
City Attorney Proposed Cancelled
Evaluate, procure, and implement e-Discovery software which
will help manage and produce public information including
email, contracts and other forms of digital documentation.
Analytics search features allow for word list usage, exact
phrase matching, forbidden term searching and approximate
spelling matching. This project may be a part of the
implementation of an Electronic Document Management
Solution (EDMS).
2017 Update: Project status changed to Cancelled.
N1 Contract
Management City Clerk All, esp:
Public Works N/A Proposed
The City has licensed the Contract module for New World but
only one person in Public Works is using it at the present
time. With the acquisition of Laserfiche Rio, Contract
management will be the first application in the City to utilize
both forms and workflow.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 46
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
31 Digital Signatures /
eSignatures City Clerk
Community
Development
Public Works
Planned Jun-2017 Proposed
Develop plan for and implement capabilities to support the
use of digital signatures / e-signatures for public documents in
conformance with California law.
2017 Update: Could use at Public Works Counter - also for
contracts, may be part of the portal for Magnet. Would be
right at the top of list for PW.
N2 Electronic Speaker
Card City Clerk N/A Proposed
This project would provide for the procurement and
implementation of an application that would enable members
of the community to electronically file speaker cards to speak
before the Council - it would also provide an electronic log for
the Clerk so that speakers could be called up.
N3 PRA Tracking City Clerk N/A Proposed The number of PRA's submitted to the City has tripled in
recent years
3 Develop SmartCity
Vision / Blueprint
City Council /
TICC All Proposed Proposed
Develop plan that would provide for the wider adoption of
information technology to facilitate citizen access to
information and services including public recreation and
education, transportation, and greater access to wired
broadband and wireless services.
2017 Update: The City has joined a regional Smart City
program; however, the need for a blueprint for local
initiatives related to the implementation of Smart City
capabilities remains a priority for the City.
5
Emergency
Operations Center
(EOC) Remediation
City Manager Proposed In
Progress
The City’s current EOC does not meet requirements for an
emergency operations / command / communications center.
This project would provide for the interim relocation of the
EOC to a facility outside of City Hall and the development of a
long-term plan for a permanent EOC for the City.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 47
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
4 IT Governance City Manager All Planned Jun-2017 In
Progress
Define and create a formal City-wide IT governance structure
which will assist in aligning the business needs of the City with
the technology support organization. Activities include:
- Creation of a charter for the IT Governance Committee and
any needed sub-committees
- Member selection
- Meeting agendas and schedule
This project would provide the City with established processes
for the acquisition and implementation of technology,
improve communication about technology projects, provide
for organization-wide input into technology decisions, and
establish the process for prioritization of technology needs. It
would also include development of formal policies relating to
technology. A properly executed IT Governance structure will
improve communications, add transparency among
departments utilizing technology and provide a forum for
structured technology implementation.
N4
Business
Intelligence /
Analytics Pilot
City-wide All N/A Proposed
This project would provide for the acquisition and
implementation to support Business Intelligence (BI) and
Business Analysis (BA) capabilities for the City that would
enable the City to leverage existing data as well as future data
sources (IoT) to monitor performance, measure outcomes,
and to analyze trends. In addition to the acquisition of
software tools, professional services will also be required to
assist the City ind the development of data architecture to
support the use of the tools and review of the project to
establish objectives and priorities for future phases.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 48
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
6
Electronic
Document
Management
System (EDMS)
Strategy
City-wide
All
departments
- esp.
important to:
City Clerk
Recreation
Proposed Proposed
Develop and implement a formal strategy for City-wide
document and content management Benefits of the wider
implementation of an document and content management
capabilities include:
- A single repository for storage management and search
ability of archived documents for both internal and
public search functions as well as reducing the City-wide
inconsistencies in document storage, management, and
retention
- Reducing physical storage requirements and
management of paper in-house or off-site
Improved searching of archived documents for both
internal and public search functions with full integration
with other departmental based software applications
2017 Update: Please see Project N5. The City is working on a
major expansion of the functionality provided by Laserfiche
through an upgrade to a newer version. The development of
the EDMS strategy should be considered following the
completion of the upgrade.
N5 Laserfiche
Enhancement City-wide N/A In
Progress
The City has procured a new version of Laserfiche with
additional capabilities and will implement the new version in
2017.
7
Remote Access to
City Network and
Applications
Code
Enforcement Proposed Proposed Provide access to City intranet and applications for Code
Enforcement personnel located off-site.
8
State Annual
Water Board
Report
Consolidation and
Automation
Code
Enforcement Proposed Proposed
Analyze the current sources, tools and processes used to
develop the Annual Water Board Report and identify
opportunities to consolidate access and data and automate
the process. Potential to leverage Citizen Serve to support
this function.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 49
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
9 CSI Magnet
Implementation
Community
Development Public Works In Progress Jun-2017 Complete
In progress project to replace the current land management
software (Community Plus and Pentamation) with CSI's
Magnet products.
2017 Update: Project has been completed – Community
Development is now focused on the procurement of a new
solution for planning / permitting.
10 Digitize Plans Community
Development Public Works
Proposed /
Continuing
Effort
In
Progress
This project supports the department's goal to become
paperless and improve the storage, retrieval and accessibility
by digitizing plans. Provide for the scanning and indexing of
these documents in a format that would facilitate online
retrieval and eventual archiving. The City may want to also
want to include Public Works in the scope.
2017 Update: This project is continuing.
N6 Enhanced Public
Access
Community
Development N/A Proposed
This project would provide enhance electronic filing and
review capabilities to minimize the need to come to the
public counter as well as an upgrade to the technology at the
public counter including self-service kiosks, etc.
N7 Land Management
System Evaluation
Community
Development N/A In
Progress
The City is presently evaluating land management solutions
(including Accela and EnerGov) with the objective of selecting
an application to replace CSI Magnet. Objectives of the
evaluation include assessing the usability of the application,
ability to support the City's business needs, the maturity of
the product, and its ability to effectively integrate with GIS,
Cityworks, Laserfiche, and Logos
N8
Land Management
System
Implementation
Community
Development N/A Planned
Based on the results of the Land Management Evaluation, the
City will select and procure a solution to replace CSI/Magnet.
The effort to implement the solution will require the
development of a detailed project plan and the allocation of
City resources to support a range of activities including the re-
engineering of business processes, the development of use
cases to confirm requirements and to establish test cases,
integration with GIS, Laserfiche, etc., installation and
configuration of the solution, training, and various stages of
testing.
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Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 50
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
N9 Mobility Community
Development N/A Proposed
This project would provide mobile access for the City's
building inspectors with the ability to take electronic
signatures and credit card payments (for on-site issuance of
permits).
N10 Business License
Enhancement Finance N/A Proposed
Logos can presently handle the renewal of business licenses
but not provide self-service functionality for initial
applications. These are being handled manually and entered
into Logos. This project would provide for an automated
capability for the handling of both intitial requests and the
renewal of business licenses.
N11
New World (ERP)
Review and
Planning
Finance All N/A Proposed
The City has implemented Tyler's New World (formerly New
World Logos) product for financial processing in 2015 but the
users are of the opinion that not all of the functionality is
being used and that some of the work-arounds adopted
during implementation are still in place and are limiting the
City's ability to obtain the fullest benefit from the application.
This project would provide for conducting an evaluation of
the implementation and the development of detailed plan for
enhancing the current implementation and making greater
use of Logos throughout the City.
The plan will also need to provide a long-term vision for the
City regarding the considerations of staying with Logos or
moving to Munis (re: functionality, cost, and Tyler's future
product directions for New World and Munis).
11 PCI Compliance
Audit Finance Proposed Proposed
This project would provide for the completion of a PCI
(Payment Card Industry) Audit to ensure that the City and its
CURRENT payment processing services are in compliance with
current industry standards for the secure handling of credit
card transactions.
12 PCI Compliant e-
Payment Solution Finance Proposed Proposed
This project would provide for the procurement and
implementation of a highly secure, state of the art, PCI-
compliant e-payment solution for the City that would be
accessible by the public from mobile devices as well as from
desktop computers
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 51
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
14
Implement
Workflow for HR
processes
HR Proposed Proposed
Review current HR process for workflow automation
opportunities including onboarding/off boarding,
performance evaluations and other processes. May be able
to leverage New World System HR functionality and/or
interfaces to New World System.
N12 NeoGov
Implementation HR All N/A In
Progress
The City has procured NeoGov for handling HR processes
related to recruitment and selection - intent is to have
NeoGov integrated with Logos
N13 New Employee
Onboarding HR N/A Proposed
In conjunction with the implementation of NeoGov and the
HR module in Logos would provide automated support for the
onboarding of new employees including workflows to ensure
that all new hire documentation is completed and approved.
13
New World
HR/Payroll
Implementation
HR All In Progress Jun-2017 Complete
In progress project to deploy New World's Finance, HR and
Payroll systems. Scope includes eTimesheets.
2017 Update: Implementation of Finance was completed but
some issues remain, please see ERP Project in new projects.
15 Augment IT
Resources IT Complete Jun-2017 Complete
In progress project to augment the City’s existing IT staff
resources by bringing in an additional project manager /
business analyst to assist Departments in the procurement
and implementation of new technology projects.
N14
City Hall Data
Center Review,
Renovation, and
Colocation
IT All N/A Proposed
This project will involve conducting a review of the equipment
in the data center at City Hall to identify components that are
due for replacement including uninterruptable power
supplies (UPS), storage arrays, and servers, developing a plan
for refreshment, and executing the plan. This will ensure the
availability and performance of the City's applications. As
part of this project, IT will look at options for the colocation of
components of the City's IT infrastructure to ensure the
continued availability of applications in the event that the City
Hall data center is disabled. This project would be conducted
in phases beginning in FY 2017 and continuing through FY
2020.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 52
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
19
City
Intranet/Collabora
tion Site
IT All, esp.:
Public Works Proposed Proposed
Implement a software solution to promote department
communication and coordination for projects and day-to-day
City activities. The solution should provide a foundation for
facilitating and sharing information for projects and
initiatives. More specifically, the solution should support
document sharing, document version tracking, central form
repository, workflow, alerts / notifications, calendars,
frequently asked questions, links, project sites, and task
tracking.
20
Create Business
Continuity and
Disaster Recovery
Plan
IT Proposed Proposed
Create and implement a City-wide Business Continuity Plan
and an IT Disaster Recovery Plan that would help to ensure
timely recovery of core applications in event of an unplanned
event or outage based on business and operational
imperatives. Implementation of the plans should include any
hardware, software, off-site services, and training required to
meet business and operational recovery requirements.
N15
Desktop
Equipment
Refreshment /
Upgrade
IT All N/A Proposed
The scope of this project includes the continuing replacement
of desktop devices, laptops, etc., as they age and become
more expensive to maintain, problematic, and less able to
support newer applications. It is also anticipated that even if
Microsoft continues support for Windows 7 through the FY
2019, that upgrades to the applications the City uses may
require Windows 10 requiring the installation of Windows 10
on those devices that are still running Windows 7. Due to the
differences between the two versions of Windows, user
training will have to accompany the rollout of Windows 10.
21 Desktop Software
Training IT All Proposed Proposed
Develop and implement a formal plan and curriculum to
provide on-going user training for desktop applications. The
City may consider out-sourcing training.
22 Desktop
Standardization IT All Proposed Proposed
Develop and document desktop standards for the City
(including VDI devices and traditional desktop PCs). Develop
procedures to request exceptions and evaluating exceptions
that deviate from the standard. The IT Governance
Committee (if in place) or authorized City executive should
review and approve deviations from the City-wide desktop
standard.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 53
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
23 Develop
Cybersecurity Plan IT All Proposed Proposed
Contract with an independent, certified, firm to conduct an
external network vulnerability and penetration test to identify
security gaps and identify areas for improvement.
28 Device Neutrality IT Community Planned Jun-2017 Proposed
Develop plan to accommodate the use of, and support for, a
wider range of mobile devices / browsers by both City staff
and the public in obtaining access to City information and
services. The City's web-site will need to be continually
refreshed as newer and more capable devices come into
service.
2017 Update: The porting of the City's web-site to Vision
Internet may accommodate many of these requirements.
24 GIS Regional Plan IT GIS User
Community Proposed Proposed
Establish a GIS roadmap (a series of GIS recommendations)
for the strategic expansion of the GIS application to identify
requirements and priorites and to provide an opportunity for
the GIS user community to help shape City's the long-term
goals for the GIS program.
2017 Update: The City completed a GIS Project Plan that met
the objectives of the 2015 GIS Roadmap - this project has
been revised to reflect the need to develop a plan for
expanded regional cooperation and information sharing for
GIS.
25 IT Best Practices IT All Proposed Proposed
Develop and implement a plan for the continued adoption of
IT best practices to improve the delivery of services to the
City’s user community. Initial focus areas should include:
- Customer Service
- Technical Documentation
- Project Management Standards
- Technology Planning (Capacity Planning, Change
Management, etc.)
- Resource Management and Planning
- Technology Refreshment
N16
IT Network
Infrastructure
Refreshment
IT All N/A Proposed
The City will need to refresh components of the network to
ensure performance, reliability, and security including core
and edge switches and is projected for FY 2017.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 54
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
29 IT Policies and
Procedures IT All Planned Jun-2017 Proposed
Review all IT related policies and procedures and document in
a standard format. Scope includes all policies and procedures
governing the use of technology City-wide including,
refreshment policies, retention policies including e-mail,
building permits, etc., website policies, security and remote
access policies, etc. This project includes the creation,
monitoring, and enforcement of standards, best practices,
and policy for all employees as well as vendors accessing City
computer systems. Additional focus should be placed on
employee refresher training and acknowledgement of policies
and policy oversight by the IT Governance Committee.
32 IT Services Analysis IT Planned Jun-2017 Cancelled
This project would provide for the development of a long-
term for the sourcing of information technology services
including the identification of:
- Those services that provide high-value to the City,
require knowledge of City operations and that can best
be performed by City staff
- Those services that are “utility” functions that can be
best performed by external service providers
2017 Update: The objectives of this projectr are being
addressed on a continuing basis by IT.
N17 IT Strategic Plan
Update IT All N/A Proposed Update IT Strategic Plan in FY 2020.
16
Renovate Server
Room / Cloud
Migration
IT All Planned Jun-2017 Cancelled
The City’s main server room at City Hall needs to be
renovated including ensuring that there is sufficient power,
air condition, and stand-by power for all of the devices in the
room, replacing the existing open server racks with cabinets
that are braced against seismic shock, organizing and labelling
cables, and improving room security including video
monitoring and motion sensors. As an interim measure, the
City may consider the relocation of the some of the servers
from the present server room to another City facility or leased
space in an external data center.
2017 Update: Replaced by a new project with a more specific
scope that includes the objectives of this project
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 55
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
17 Stabilize City Wi-Fi IT Recreation Planned Jun-2017 Proposed
This project would provide for a complete analysis of the
problems with wireless signal strength and propagation in
City Hall and the Council Chambers and the completion of
measures to improve the strength and quality of the wireless
network, especially in the City Council Chamber.
2017 Update: This is also a priority for Recreation and
Community Services which has experienced problems with
wireless connectivity at Quinlan Community Center, the
Senior Center, Sports Center, and McClelland Ranch Preserve.
18 VDI Performance
Improvements IT
All VDI users,
esp.
Public Works
Planned In
Progress
This project would provide for the engagement of a
technology firm to diagnose the problems being experienced
with the implementation of virtual desktop infrastructure
(VDI) devices and to develop and implement
recommendations to enable the City to obtain the intended
benefits of the VDI implementation.
2017 Update: IT has developed and implemented an interim
solution to improve VID performance that includes providing
remote users with laptops.
26 Vendor
Management IT All Proposed Proposed
Establish a series of processes to monitor, control, and
manage external vendors used by ITD including:
- Formal external vendor procedures
- Vendor listing with demographic information
- Service Catalog with service levels
- Consolidation of maintenance contracts
27 IT Service Catalog /
SLAs IT All Proposed Proposed
Develop and publish an IT Service Catalog that defines the
services provided by ITD and the service levels associated
with each of the services. Development of the catalog should
consider the City's desired services and service levels vs. the
City’s current service delivery capabilities.
30
Develop e-
Government
Roadmap
Public
Information All In Progress Jun-2016 Proposed
Develop roadmap for community engagement that considers
the respective roles of the City's web-site and other channels
(such as social media) for the delivery of City information and
services to the public. The roadmap could result in the
identification of additional projects.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 56
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
N18
Expand Citizen
Engagement (Peak
Democracy)
Public
Information All N/A Proposed Acquire and implement "Open Town Hall" on-line community
engagement platform.
N19
Web-Site
Replacement /
Granicus
Public
Information
All, esp.
City Clerk N/A In
Progress
The City's web-site is being ported from the current platform
to Vision Internet, web-site content is being reviewed and
updated. This project would also include the further
integration of Granicus with the City's web-site to make
meeting information more readily available to the
community.
33 Bid Tracking
Automation Public Works Proposed Proposed
Procure and implement a product to track and manage the
bid process. This project may consider leveraging or
integrating with the New World system that is currently in the
process of being rolled out for HR.
N20 Cityworks
Enhancements Public Works N/A Proposed Implement Storeroom and Analytics capabilities for
Cityworks.
34
CRM / Citizen
Portal (Comcate /
CSI)
Public Works Proposed Proposed
Provide data to public for analysis (i.e. GIS - attach video and
images and make available to public) and other initiatives to
engage and inform citizens (may need to identify specific
projects).
2017 Update: Priority for PW - Have CRM and Cityworks
talking to each other - need reports related to performance
measures and handshake with GIS.
N21
Customer
Relationship
Management
(CRM)
Public Works
City Manager
Community
Development
Public
Information
Recreation
N/A Proposed
This project is related to the acquisition and implementation
of an automated CRM solution that receive, route, and track
requests and/or problem reports from the City's community
to the appropriate department(s), and provide the ability for
the person making the report to follow the status of the item
and provide notifications for persons who have registered to
receive updates.
35
Facilities
Management
Automation
Public Works Proposed Proposed
Procure and implement a facilities management solution.
2017 Update: PW is performing an audit of City facilities, so
this might be a good time to consider an automated approach
to facilities management. PW has utility management
software, and the facilities management solution would need
to work along with security cameras and key card access
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 57
Project
ID Project Name Sponsor Impacted
Departments
2015
ITSP
Project
Status
2015
ITSP
Est'd
Completion
2017
ITSP
Update
Project
Status
Description / 2017 Update for 2015 ITSP Projects
N22 Fleet Management Public Works N/A Proposed
This project would provide for the procurement and
implementation of an application that would support fleet
management functions for Public Works and that would be
integrated with Logos for cost accounting.
36 GIS Integration
with Cityworks Public Works Proposed In
Progress
This project would provide for the integration of GIS with
Cityworks to improve the ability of the City to manage and
maintain critical infrastructure
37
Tree Management
Improvements
(between Public
Works and
Planning)
Public Works Proposed In
Progress
Analyze the tree management process between Planning and
Public Works and develop processes and/or technologies to
better coordinate management of public vs. private trees.
2017 Update: In progress, this functionality is being provided
in a GIS layer.
N23 CASE Tracking Recreation N/A In
Progress
This project is related to the acquisition and implementation
of an automated solution to support case management for
senior residents.
38
Class Replacement
PerfectMind
Implementation
Recreation In Progress Nov-2017 In
Progress
In progress project to procure and implement registration
software for Parks and Recreation to replace the current Class
system that is at the end of vendor support.
2017 Update: Recreation had selected PerfectMind as the
replacement for Class, but has decided to pursue other
options.
39 Implement Apple
Pay Recreation In Progress Nov-2017 Cancelled
Provide Apple Pay as another channel for Citizens to pay for
City services.
2017 Update: The replacement for Class will provide this
capability for Recreation.
N24
Portal for
Greenhouse Gas
Report and
Climate Action
Plan
Sustainability N/A Proposed
The City needs to integrate data from both internal and
external sources to complete the Greenhouse Gas Report and
Climate Action Plan and would like to publish the report
through the City's web-site and provide something more than
a PDF. The internal data tends to be more detailed.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 58
Appendix B – IT Best Practices Checklist
The IT Best Practices Checklist provides a tool to assess conformance to IT best practices. The IT best practices model is divided into six
dimensions (IT Governance, Service Delivery, Business Applications Management, Infrastructure, Security / Information Protection, and IT
Administration) with ten assessment factors in each dimension.
Conformance to the best practices is scored on the following basis:
Y = The City is fully conformant to the IT best practice and these are scored at 3 points
O = The City is either substantially conformant to the best practice (2 points) or minimally conformant to the best practice (1 point)
N = The City is not conformant to the best practice at all (0 points)
For each assessment factor, the checklist provides the results of the 2015 assessment and the results of the 2017 assessment along with notes
from the City and from NexLevel’s review of the assessment.
Nbr Dimension /
Category Best Practice Factor
IT Best Practice Conformance
Comments
(NL = Comment from NexLevel)
2015 2017
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
1 - Information Technology Governance
1 IT Oversight Does the City have a defined IT Governance process? N 0 O 2 Informal process agreed to by Senior Mgt team.
2 IT Oversight Does the IT Governance Committee meet regularly? N 0 O 2 CTO meets as needed with CM and Administration
Director on IT Governance items.
3 IT Oversight Does the City have Steering Committees for individual
projects or applications?
Y 2 O 2 TICC reviews and provides guidance for IT Projects
4 IT Oversight Are the City’s policy makers and senior executives
involved in making technology decisions?
Y 2 Y 3
5 Strategic Business
Plan
Does the City have a strategic business plan? N 0 N 0
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 59
Nbr Dimension /
Category Best Practice Factor
IT Best Practice Conformance
Comments
(NL = Comment from NexLevel)
2015 2017
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
6 IT Oversight If the City has decentralized applications (primarily
under the control of User Departments) are there
formal procedures to ensure their conformity with
standards and best practices?
N 0 N/A During FY17 all enterprise applications were moved
under the control of Innovation & Technology
7 Digital Government
Strategy
Does the City have a web site? If so, what citizen-facing
functions are provided (please note in comments field)?
Y 2 Y 3
8 Digital Government
Strategy
Does the City have a formal Digital Government /
Community Engagement Strategy?
N 0 O 1 Innovation & Technology staff works under the
direction of the PIO for these items.
9 Enterprise Project
Management
Does the IT organization have project management
processes and standards?
Y 1 O 1
10 Enterprise Project
Management
Are project charters developed for each major project? N 0 N 0
2 - Service Delivery
1 Help Desk Is the Help Desk organized along functional or
organizational lines and does it provide a single point of
contact for user communities?
Y 1 Y 3
2 Help Desk Does Help Desk staffing include subject matter experts
who can assist users with both application usage and
technology issues?
N 0 O 2 Help Desk staff can resolve most technical issues and
utilize the Applications group to resolve applications
based issues.
3 Help Desk Y 2
4 Help Desk Does the IT organization routinely analyze call data for
trends, volume and escalation?
N 0 Y 3
5 Help Desk Does the Help Desk have a formal methodology to
prioritize requests? Does the prioritization
methodology include a formal escalation procedure?
N 0 O 1 Help Desk tickets are reviewed/prioritized daily by I&T
management.
6 Help Desk Does the IT organization centrally develop and manage
desktop and server software images that ensure
appropriate “lock down” of desktops?
Y 2 Y 3
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 60
Nbr Dimension /
Category Best Practice Factor
IT Best Practice Conformance
Comments
(NL = Comment from NexLevel)
2015 2017
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
7 Hours of Service Does the IT organization provide after-hours support for
mission-critical systems?
If yes, who provides the support?
N 0 O 1 Public Safety is outsourced to County. In the event of
an after hour emergency staff is notified by CTO
8 Service Delivery
Management -
Service Levels
Does the IT organization have a service catalogue that
identifies what IT services are provided, the service
levels for each, and that is readily accessible by users?
N 0 N 0
9 Service Delivery
Management -
Service Levels
Have City departments defined their need for IT
systems availability?
N 0 O 1 This is discussed during 1 on 1 meetings between CTO
and other City Department Directors and CM
10 Service Delivery
Management -
Service Levels
Can the IT organization meet user needs with current IT
resources, staff and infrastructure?
N 0 Y 3
3 - Business Applications Management
1 Application Support Does the City have an enterprise IT architecture and
standards?
N 0 N 0 In development
2 Application Support Does application staff attend and participate in vendor
user groups and conferences?
Y 2 Y 3
3 Application Support Does the City have processes to ensure that
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) applications are
utilized largely as delivered with no or only essential
custom modifications? If custom modifications have
been implemented, are there processes in place to
ensure that they will be supported in future releases of
the application?
N 0 Y 3 Process was implemented during FY17
4 Application Support Does the City use application service providers (“Cloud”
or ASP) or store data in external sites (such as Dropbox,
etc.)? If so, are procedures in place to ensure the
ownership, security, and integrity of hosted
information?
N 0 O 2 Mixed. Formal contracts with most providers that spell
out these items – informal for Dropbox.
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 61
Nbr Dimension /
Category Best Practice Factor
IT Best Practice Conformance
Comments
(NL = Comment from NexLevel)
2015 2017
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
5 Application Support Does the IT organization support any ad-hoc
applications based on products such as MS Access or
FileMaker Pro? Are there procedures in place to
restrict Departments from deploying ad-hoc
applications?
N 0 O 1 I&T are replacing these systems with COTS as we find
them.
6 Application Support Does the IT organization have a formal resource
management plan to allocate resources to applications?
N 0 O 2 Informal. I&T was restructured to provide three staff
(Manager + 2 Business Systems Analysts) to provide
application support to the organization
7 Standards Does the IT organization regularly apply new vendor
releases and upgrades (production vs. current release)?
Y 2 Y 3
8 Standards Are test environments provided for each application? N 0 O 2 Test environments are available for most enterprise
applications.
9 Standards Are updates tested by users? Y 1 O 1 I&T provides the environment and requests the end
user test functionality. In most cases this happens.
10 Application
Effectiveness
Does the IT organization routinely plan for the
functional enhancement, technical renovation or
replacement of applications?
N 0 O 2 I&T has recently reviewed most enterprise applications
and has taken steps to upgrade/replace exiting apps as
needed.
4 - Infrastructure
1 Network Does the IT organization maintain Open-Systems
Interconnection (OSI) conformant diagrams that depict
its topology as well as the configuration of major
nodes?
N 0 N O
2 Network Does the IT organization ensure that the network is
protected from intrusions by firewalls, DMZ, et al?
Y 2 Y 3
3 Network Does the IT organization have network management
tools (CiscoWorks, Openview, etc.) and use them to
routinely assess network usage and performance and
track trends?
Y 2 Y 3
The City of Cupertino 2017 Information Technology Strategic Plan Update
Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 62
Nbr Dimension /
Category Best Practice Factor
IT Best Practice Conformance
Comments
(NL = Comment from NexLevel)
2015 2017
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
4 Internet Access Does the City have an acceptable use policy that is
signed by all employees with internet access?
N 0 Y 3
5 Remote Access Does the City have a formal policy governing which
users are eligible for remote access and that defines the
procedures for granting and revoking access?
N 0 O 2 City has an informal process to define who has remote
access. This is arranged between I&T and Department
senior management.
6 Remote Access Is there a formal process for granting and monitoring
remote access by vendors?
N 0 N O
7 Servers / Data
Storage
Does the IT organization have formal policies for the
granting of administrative rights?
N 0 O 2 Admin rights are provided for those individuals with a
clear need. These rights are reviewed by I&T
management.
8 Servers / Data
Storage
Does the IT organization perform routine performance
monitoring to ensure that servers can support business
applications?
N 0 O 1 I&T have tools (SolarWinds, Netsight) that provide this
information. I&T are notified when performance
variables reach thresholds that require attention – e.g.
disk space at 80% utilization
9 Servers / Data
Storage
Does the IT organization perform routine performance
monitoring to ensure that that centralized storage
(NAS, SAN) is being used effectively and that sufficient
capacity is on-hand to meet current and future
requirements?
N 0 O 1 I&T have tools (SolarWinds, Netsight) that provide this
information. I&T are notified when performance
variables reach thresholds that require attention – e.g.
disk space at 80% utilization
10 Data Center
Environement
Is the general layout of the main server room
acceptable? Does the layout provide access to both the
front and rear of racks? Has provision been made to
prevent situations such as flooding and fire?
N 0 N 0 While the server room provides access to both front
and back of racks. Significant ssues remain with
fire/flood/earthquake situations.
5 – Security / Information Protection
1 Network Does the IT organization routinely perform perimeter of
other testing to ensure that intrusions are blocked and
reported? Discuss the results of any independent
vulnerability/penetration testing that has been
conducted.
N 0 O 2 Auditors run penetration tests annually. I&T is working
to have more hardened testing in the future.
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Nbr Dimension /
Category Best Practice Factor
IT Best Practice Conformance
Comments
(NL = Comment from NexLevel)
2015 2017
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
2 Physical Does the IT organization monitor access to sensitive IT
and business areas?
N 0 O 1 I&T is in the process of implementing the Lepide
auditing suite for this purpose. Will be operational by
June 2017
3 Data Does the IT organization have procedures in place to
manage user passwords (such as requiring strong
passwords and periodic changing of passwords)?
Y 2 Y 3
4 Data Backups Does the IT organization routinely backup critical
information?
If yes, please indicate in the comments section:
• What is backed up?
• Does the organization utilize Incremental and/or full
backups?
• Snapshots?
Y 2 Y 3 All data on servers are backed up via snapshots.
5 Data Backups Does the IT organization have an off-site retention
plan? Is a commercial service used?
Y 2 O 1 Data is replicated in another facility – within 2 miles of
City Hall.
6 Data Backups Does the IT organization routinely verify and test
backups?
N 0 N 0
7 Business Continuity
Plan
Does the City have a business continuity plan? N 0 O 1 Informal. Data is replicated in another facility besides
City Hall. Network redundancy is established at some
facilities.
8 Business Continuity
Plan
Does the IT organization have the ability (people, plans,
processes, procedures, and other resources) needed to
react to a service interruption and resume service in an
acceptable timeframe?
N 0 O 1 Very informal. Infrastructure is present to allow for
this – how this will be accomplished is very rough.
9 Virus/Spam
Protection
Does the IT organization deploy anti-virus, anti-
spyware, and anti-spam on user desktops?
Y 2 Y 3
10 Virus/Spam
Protection
Does the IT organization have a plan for virus attack
response?
Y 2 y 3
6 - Administration
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Final Report – October 31, 2017 Page | 64
Nbr Dimension /
Category Best Practice Factor
IT Best Practice Conformance
Comments
(NL = Comment from NexLevel)
2015 2017
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
Yes,
No,
Other
Score
1 IT Organization Is there an organization chart for the IT organization? Y 2 Y 3
2 IT Organization Are the functional responsibilities for each unit clearly
delineated?
Y 2 Y 3
3 IT Organization Are present staffing levels adequate to enable the IT
organization to meet its current responsibilities?
Y 2 Y 3
4 IT Organization Does the IT organization have a succession plan for
each position?
N 0 O 2
5 Procurement,
Contracts and Vendor
Management
Does the IT organization have contracts tracking and
management process in place?
N 0 N 0
6 License Management Does the IT organization have a central repository for all
IT licenses?
N 0 0 1 Stored with Admin for I&T.
7 Inventory
Management
Does the IT organization have a hardware and software
inventory control system?
N 0 O 2 KACE for hardware and office apps, spreadsheet for
Enterprise applications
8 Budget Are all technology maintenance contracts budgeted
within the IT organization?
N 0 O 2 This began in FY17. Security systems (CCTV and
Alarms) are the only technology not under I&T
9 IT Plans Does the City have a strategic IT plan? N 0 O 2 Tactical plan for FY17 – Strategic Plan being developed.
10 IT Plans Does the IT organization a detailed workplans for
internal and user projects?
N 0 O 2 Tactical work plan for each business unit within I&T.
Reviewed bi-weekly