Summary of Specifications:
The Ottawa County Information Technology (IT) Department is the primary provider of technology services to County departments. The department consists of five teams with 28 positions. The organization and positions are provided in Attachment A. The department provides, among other things, network infrastructure, telecommunications, systems administration, application development, business analysis, Help Desk support, and desk side support to roughly 1,100 County employees. The County’s website is www.miottawa.org. Additional information can be obtained from the department’s annual report and County Technology Plans which are available at http://www.miottawa.org/CoGov/Depts/IT/ and http://www.miottawa.org/CoGov/Depts/GIS/.
In 2004, an independent assessment of the County IT Department—then known as Management Information Services (MIS)—was conducted. The 2004 assessment resulted in a number of recommended changes that have been successfully implemented. As a result, the County has made significant progress in the use of technology and in the performance of the IT Department. Since the 2004 study, additional changes to the IT Department organization have occurred. This includes reassigning the Telecommunications Administrator (1 FTE) and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department (5 FTE’s) from the County’s Administrative Services Department to the IT Department. In 2011, a separate Community Mental Health IT Team has been created replacing the previous Programmer/Analyst position from the Applications & Data Team. This two person team consists of a CMH-IT Coordinator reporting directly to the IT Director, and a CMH-IT Programmer. With the changes, the responsibilities of IT have expanded to not only Telecomm, GIS and a greater role in CMH, but also to audiovisual support and Courtroom Technology. Those changes have resulted in some modifications to the structure implemented based on the 2004 study. The IT staff count is one less than was implemented from the 2004 study recommendations. In addition, with recent retirements of two long-term employees, the IT Department has chosen to use contracted programming on a part-time basis to support the legacy Justice System previously supported by two full-time Programmer/Analysts.
With changes in economic conditions, technology and service delivery methods; and emerging trends; Ottawa County seeks to determine a course for the future that is the foundation for IT investment and change. As was true with the independent assessment of 2004, the successful 2012 assessment will utilize the expertise of the consultant to sustain and build on the successes of the past seven years by evaluating the current state of IT and developing a PLAN AND IT MODEL THAT WILL FOCUS ON DELIVERING BUSINESS SOLUTIONS FOR THE COUNTY. The IT Assessment should include • A full documented evaluation of the state of County technology; • An assessment of the IT Department’s capabilities in terms of supporting County technology; • An assessment of the value of emerging technologies and services for the County; • A set of recommendations for IT investments over the next five years; • A set of recommendations for IT organization and functions over the next five years; • A road map for achieving the recommendations.
