Last night I had the honor of presenting a report to the Catawba County Commissioners on the status of our strategic plan for technology. Catawba County’s Strategic Technology Plan provides a continuing framework for the effective management of Information Technology (IT). The primary goal of Technology is to support the business objectives of the County and to facilitate departmental efforts to provide efficient and effective services to the citizens, businesses, and visitors of Catawba County. The plan also provides a foundation for an enterprise-wide approach to the management of information technology. Catawba County is a leader among local governments as it has moved from a silo approach (department-specific) to a process-oriented environment (cross-cutting services focused on the clients of government) with some of its recent projects.
The Strategic Plan was first presented to commissioners in June of 2007 and contains six strategic initiatives:
Strategic Initiative 1
Empower the Public: Enable the public to interact with local government by providing secure access to information and the ability to efficiently conduct appropriate business 365/24/7.
Strategic Initiative 2
Improve outcomes, efficiency, responsiveness, and agility of services by transforming the management of information technology through best practices and shared resources.
Strategic Initiative 3
Transform key business processes through the effective use of innovative technology and state-of-the-art software.
Strategic Initiative 4
Leverage innovative partnerships to offer better services.
Strategic Initiative 5
Empower the Workforces: Enable personnel by increasing the efficiency and agility of the systems they depend on.
Strategic Initiative 6
Improve public safety by leveraging modern information systems and technology.
Highlights of the report include the following projects:
Web Site Redesign: In coordination with the Public Information Officer, the current Catawba County web site is constantly evaluated and upgraded to offer new services to the public. The Technology Department works with each department to review the services that each department offers and how to best present those services to the public. The changes are incorporating many of the Web 2.0 design concepts. Along with this redesign, Catawba County is taking advantage of Web 2.0 services including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Due to the dynamic nature of the web site, work will continue indefinitely on this project. Recently updated department sites include:
- Animal Services - http://www.catawbacountync.gov/depts/es/animal.asp
- Finance - http://www.catawbacountync.gov/depts/finance/
- Geospatial Information Systems - http://www.gis.catawba.nc.us/
- Human Resources - http://www.catawbacountync.gov/depts/pers/
- Social Services - http://www.catawbacountync.gov/dss/
- Tax - http://www.catawbacountync.gov/depts/tax/
Permit Center Application Replacement: The current Tidemark system used for permitting and inspections is over 10 years old and cannot provide the services that are expected by the building community. The current software cannot be modified to provide these services and is not supported for upgrade by the vendor. The County Commissioners have approved funding to replace the system and a vendor has been selected. The new software will allow for builders and the public to apply for building permits online and then to track the progress of the permit through the approval and building process. The software is a comprehensive package that covers all aspects of the permitting process including, permit management, plan review, inspections, scheduling and cashiering. The software provides for integration with the GIS system, electronic plan review, and for access for all of the municipalities. A programmer analyst has been hired to work on the project and came onboard in August 2008. Target date has not been set and is based on contract negotiations and conversion timeframe for the vendor.
Unified Electronic Payment Processing System: Catawba County had limited electronic payment options for the public. Citizens could pay their tax bill online but could not use credit or debit cards at the counter. The Register of Deeds accepted debit cards and Permitting accepted credit cards over the counter.
To give the public more payment options and to provide a consistent approach across the County, department heads requested a payment system that could be used with all departments over the counter and online and provide a consolidated bill and payment method for citizens. Research for the County’s website revealed that online payments was a high priority.
A vendor was chosen to provide services. Now the Tax Department, Register of Deeds, the Permit Center, Libraries, Emergency Services and Public Health offer over the counter payment. Social Services, will soon have the services available. The Tax Department and Permit Center have online payments available.
Online payments for consolidated bills was made available at the end of 2008. With this, the public can go online and make one payment for all of their county obligations: taxes, permitting and landfill fees.
Virtual Technology/ SAN (Storage Area Network) Project: The Disaster Recovery Plan revealed that a redundant data center was needed to provide for recovery in case of an incident in the main technology center. It also revealed that the current server structure and replacement model could not be maintained at current funding levels. A SAN solution was purchased and installed. A redundant SAN was also installed at another location in the county. The virtual environment reduced the county’s 70 plus physical servers to 10 physical servers running 100 plus virtual servers. In 2008, an additional 15Tb of storage was added to both sites to address the growing demands for storage space. Besides providing the security of a redundant system, replacement and operating cost where reduced. Completed May 2008, virtual technology and the SAN will save the County over $400,000 or the next few years.
800 MHz VIPER System: This project is to enhance our ability to talk to Public Safety officials in our county and surrounding counties. We have some coverage issues in the county with the current VHF system that must be addressed. VIPER is already established here and the build out of tower sites is taking place in our area. By partnering with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, Catawba County plans to upgrade its communications system using the infrastructure provided by the state.
Catawba County is moving forward with plans to connect to the VIPER network. In 2003, the Board of Commissioners partnered with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol to build a tower on Riverbend Road. During 2008, land was transferred to the NCSHP and the tower was constructed. Currently it is nearing completion. At that time, Catawba County will have excellent 800MHz coverage across the county.
Equipment has also been ordered for the 911 Center. It is scheduled to be installed Spring 2009 and will provide 16 talk groups to be used across the county. At that point, all agencies can begin the transition to the 800 MHz VIPER system. EMS is scheduled to be the first agency to come online. This is due to the high volume of traffic they have outside of the county while transporting patients to Winston Salem and Charlotte. The current system does not provide communication back to the county. The VIPER system will ensure constant communication anywhere in the State of North Carolina.
The current VHF system will be left in place as a backup to the VIPER system. This is being done for two reasons. First it provides a transition pathway for agencies to convert to VIPER over a period of time and second, it provides a redundant communication system for Public Safety.
Build out timeframe of the entire county will depend on funding.
Other Projects: The report and the presentation cover numerous other projects that were guided by the strategies laid out in the Catawba County Technology Strategic plan. The plan can be found on our website at http://enewsletter.catawbacountync.gov/ITC/strategicplan061107.pdf . The report can be found at http://enewsletter.catawbacountync.gov/ITC/presentations/Report_boc_Jan_2009.pdf.
For more information or questions, please use the comments section and I will be glad to contact you.
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