ContentsIntroduction

Vision

Mission

Organization

IT Guiding Principles

Goals and Initiatives

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The purpose of strategic technology planning is to ensure technology alignment with organizational goals, to plan for growth and innovation, and to propose allocation of resources in areas that will provide maximum benefit to the county and citizens.

Arguably the greatest value from Pitt County’s Technology Strategic Plan lies in the careful analysis and collaboration across technology disciplines required to create it. Deliberate introspection was done through various exercises such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) analyses. Brainstorming sessions were conducted and technology initiatives were mapped to the organization’s mission as the “target state” was envisioned. The plan formalizes and aggregates components that had been part of the planning process into a more comprehensive (though certainly not exhaustive) technology roadmap.

Introduction

It is with great expectation I look forward to reviewing the yet to be realized accomplishments of our team set forth in this Strategic Plan. Technology is exciting with its ever evolving opportunities creating seemingly endless possibilities. As a government entity, we remain conscious of fiscal stewardship, keeping a focus on the value proposition to ensure appropriate balance between cost and benefit. We never lose sight of our role as a service organization, collaborating with business partners in equipping county employees with the technology required to meet the needs of the community effectively.

Michael Taylor, Deputy County Manager, Chief Information Officer

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Coordinate request for services, provide tier 1 support, and system status notifications. Administer mobile device management, cost per copy services, and develop training tutorials. Support aspects of the VoIP phone system such as procurement, vendor contracts, configuration, and phone reporting software.

Administrative Services

Provide county departments with a variety of print and imaging services, including document scanning for electronic archival and employee ID badges.

Imaging Services

Retrieve post office mail daily for county departments and the Board of Education, provide inter-office metering, courier service, and process packages.

MailServices

Develop and support application software for use by county staff and citizens. Evaluate, recommend and support third-party software, developing software and reports to complement vendor solutions. Provide consulting services and conduct business analysis to optimize department operational efficiencies and effectiveness through technology.

EnterpriseApplications

Support and promote the use of GIS technology while serving the geospatial needs of Pitt County Government. Provide services including: data analysis, database management, application development, technical support, cartographic design, and data extracts. Create and maintain various GIS applications for use by citizens and county staff.

GeographicInformation Systems (GIS)

Manage county-wide network and server infrastructure to support applications such as voice, email, Internet and file sharing. Manage user accounts and privileges, server and network security, and email system. Acquire, install, administer, and repair network equipment, server hardware and software.

Infrastructure

Design and implement procedures toward planning business continuity and disaster recovery strategies alongside developing solid structure around internal service level agreements. Assist in management of telecommunication system installations and configuration. Acquire, install, and administer printing and audio/visual control solutions. Manage structured cabling infrastructure and campus connectivity while providing physical security and environmental control. Plan, design and maintain solutions related to WiFi network systems.

Operations

Acquire, install, and administer workstations, virtual desktop environments and other related peripherals. Maintain inventory for corresponding equipment and oversee electronic building access security.

Workstation Support

In order to guide decision-making in line with the strategic goals, MIS has adopted a set of

guiding principles.

IT Guiding Principles

Rationale• Solutions must aim to maximize the cumulative business benefits over their entire lifecycle.• Enterprise priorities are above priorities of a business unit or a project.• Total cost of ownership is more important than the cost to buy or build alone.• Risk governance and management are integral elements of the county’s operating model.

Implications• Link all investment proposals to business/IT strategy and goals.• Track and demonstrate business value realization on all major investments. • Prefer common solutions and shared services that benefit the enterprise over one-off solutions for one business unit.• Analyze and take into account organizational readiness for adopting new solutions.• Manage development and operational risks on every project and acquisition.• Include the total cost of ownership analysis for the proposed solution or solution options for major investment (project or acquisition) proposals.• Prefer vendor-independent solutions to avoid vendor lock-in and enable competitive sourcing.

We aim to provide maximum long-term benefits to the enterprise as a whole, while optimizing total costs of ownership and risks.

PRINCIPLE #1 ENTERPRISE VALUE FOCUS

MIS VISION“Empowering Pitt County through technology while serving citizens with integrity, initiative and innovation.”

MIS MISSIONThe MIS Mission is to “Serve as a trusted partner, provisioning reliable and accessible technology aligning with organizational goals, striving for excellence in customer service.”

MIS ORGANIZATIONAt the helm is Deputy County Manager and Chief Information Officer, Michael Taylor. MIS is organized into functional areas to better define staff’s roles and responsibilities. This allows staff to develop core competencies and remain abreast of current trends. A primary value of our department is team work. Resources are allocated as business needs arise with staff partnering to get the job done.

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Rationale• To be effective in satisfying business needs, solutions must be fit for purpose, i.e. fully conform to both functional and non-functional requirements. • Over-engineered solutions result in wasted budget, time, and resources and often increase operational complexity.• Required capability levels should be maintained to enable achievement of business, IT, and capability goals.• Higher-than-needed capability levels cost more, while not resulting in additional value.

Implications• Identify functional and non-functional requirements of the business and buy or build solutions that conform to them.• Identify the following non-functional requirements for solutions that need to be procured or built: • Business continuity requirements, i.e. availability, reliability, and recoverability. • Performance requirements, i.e. response time and throughput. • Usability requirements, i.e. accessibility, localization, user interface aesthetics, and consistency.• Avoid over-engineering, i.e. building or buying solutions that exceed functional and non-functional requirements of the business.

We maintain capability levels and create solutions that are fit for purpose without over-engineering them.

Rationale• Complex solutions and high operational complexity impede reuse and interoperability, require increased effort to add, transform, or replace solution components, and result in higher lifecycle costs.

Implications• Minimize the unnecessary complexity. • Restructure existing application portfolios so that they become highly modular and loosely coupled. • Eliminate duplicate application functionality.• Design solutions that simplify business processes and technology assets that support them. • Build highly modular and loosely coupled solutions.• Use standardized integration approaches.

We choose the simplest solutions and aim to reduce the operational complexity of the enterprise.

PRINCIPLE #3 SIMPLICITY

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PRINCIPLE #4 REUSE > BUY > BUILD

Rationale• Economies of scale are achieved through reuse of solution components and the purchase of commercially available products, enabling the reduction of risk and effort.• Reuse helps avoid duplication of effort, decrease maintainability, and increase staff competency requirements.

Implications• Build for discovery. Encourage reuse by building modular, loosely-coupled, interoperable, and discoverable components.• Build for reuse only if feasible. Consider costs of building for reuse versus potential frequency and benefits of reuse. • Reuse across business units. Choose cross-silo solutions over duplicative silo-specific ones. Buy or build shared services, common business solutions, and common-use applications.• Prefer vendor-independent solutions to enable portability and cross-platform reuse.

We maximize reuse of existing assets. If we can’t reuse, we procure externally. As a last resort, we build custom solutions.

PRINCIPLE #2 FIT FOR PURPOSE

Rationale• Limiting the number of different supported technologies: • Improves maintainability and reduces total cost of ownership. • Enhances staff focus on standardized technologies and reduces staff competency requirements. • Improves solution interoperability.

Implications• Build a case and obtain executive approval to introduce a new technology. • Request for approval to introduce new technology only if you have a valid reason, e.g. replacement of outdated technologies, IT-enabled business innovation, or reducing operational complexity.• Consider the benefits of introducing a new technology versus the required additional maintenance effort, additional staff competency requirements, increased complexity, and the potential lack of interoperability with existing technologies.• Balance controlling technical diversity and IT-enabled business innovation.• Prefer vendor-independent technologies to enable solution interoperability and avoid vendor lock-in.• Reduce integration complexity by using standardized integration approaches.

We limit the variety of the technology platforms we use.

PRINCIPLE #5 CONTROLLED TECHNICAL DIVERSITY

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Rationale• We operate in a way to maximize compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Implications• The legal department advises on compliance of applicable laws and regulations.• Every IT investment proposal must comply with applicable laws and regulations.

We operate in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

PRINCIPLE #7 COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS AND REGULATIONS

Rationale• Security threats represent a high risk for enterprise information.• Security threats represent a high privacy risk.• Security-related risks require special treatment due to the associated complexity of required control procedures and rapidly changing threats.

Implications• Every solution (procured externally or built internally) should comply with our security policies.• The existing IT environment must be continuously monitored for security vulnerabilities and breaches.• Security vulnerabilities and breaches must be treated to minimize the associated business risk.• Security vulnerabilities and breaches must be treated to minimize the associated privacy risk.

PRINCIPLE #6 MANAGED SECURITY

We manage security enterprise-wide in compliance with our security policies.

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Goals and Initiatives

“To enhance the health, safety, and well-being of our community by advocating for and providing quality services in a friendly and cost-effective manner.”

MIS has created a set of strategic goals for the next three years. Each goal is intended to support the mission

of Pitt County Government, which is:

In order to achieve its VISION,

Business Systems AlignmentPartner with clients to understand the business process and deliver solutions that optimize value.

Service DeliveryEnsure appropriate allocation of resources that support county staff in the effective use of technology (help desk, conference room equipping, commodity services such as phone, printer, fax).

Data Accessibility and EmpowermentProvide expanded access to data and services (both internally, through employee remote access and data analytics, and public-facing self-service).

SecurityImplement strategies minimizing exposure and impacts of potential security threats.

Disaster Recovery and Business ContinuityDevelop enhanced methods, plans, procedures and architectures that support critical systems.

Responsive InfrastructureProvide core, robust technology that is positioned to support agile demands of the workplace.

Rationale• We strive to implement innovative solutions for our customers.

PRINCIPLE #8 INNOVATION

We seek innovative ways to use technology for business advantage.

Rationale• We begin each fiscal year with reviewing client needs and identifying strategic technology and projects which will move the organization forward. The overarching objective for all projects is to improve efficiencies and effectiveness in County operations while enhancing the quality of service.Implications• Measure and improve customer satisfaction with our services and products.• Define service levels for services provided to our customers; measure and improve our performance. • Engineer products with best-in-class usability. • Manage usability requirements (accessibility, localization, user interface aesthetics, and consistency) and test solutions against them. • Listen to customers by involving them in product design.• Manage customer relationships.

MIS is committed to continuous improvement.

PRINCIPLE #9 CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Implications• Stay current on the business priorities and strategic aspirations to be able to innovate for the business.• Identify technology trends and new ways to utilize technology for business advantage and share ideas among MIS staff.

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Secondary criteria used to prioritize initiatives are as follows: legislative requirement, cost, visibility, duration and timing, capacity to execute, risk, complexity, and dependencies.

Below, each goal is described in greater detail, followed by the specific initiatives related to that goal planned for the next fiscal year. The Technology Strategic Plan will be refreshed annually with new initiatives, along with additional goals as needed.

MIS identified a list of criteria to use in the selection and prioritization of strategic initiatives:

The initiatives must improve MIS’ ability to support Pitt County’s daily operations while enabling the organization to achieve its goals relating to the delivery of services.

StrategicAlignment

The initiatives need to have a higher value to effort ratio, focusing on delivering value quickly with in-flight or planned technology refresh, upgrades, or implementations.

QuickWins

The initiatives must provide

the best return for the dollar

spent. While cost containment

is important, it is even more

important that the initiatives

deliver measurable value to

Pitt County to warrant the

investment.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Initiatives• Project and application portfolio management• GIS governance structure• Data Quality Standards• System Lifecycle Planning. Some significant upgrades or changes in the next three years include: • Desktop operating system • Office software and email • Enterprise document management and imaging • ArcGIS Upgrade • Tax Administration Computer Aided Mass Appraisal (CAMA)/Revaluation system upgrade • PEPi (Performance tracking system) re-engineering to browser-based version with additional features

Goal: BUSINESS SYSTEMS ALIGNMENT

Partner with clients to understand

the business process and deliver

solutions that optimize value.

Business Benefits• Better alignment with organizational needs focuses technology investment where it is needed most.• Keeping key systems updated within support window facilitates business continuity, support, security, and potentially making new features available to clients.• Upgrading some key systems to browser-based version will simplify deployment and accessibility.• Working together with clients to better understand operational considerations and workflow leads to better design outcomes.

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Initiatives• Phone Services • Voice Over IP (VoIP) Phone System upgrades and enhancements • Explore opportunities to reduce expense for phone lines• Copier/Printer Services • Prepare for and conduct vendor selection process for Copier/Print Services • Evaluate opportunities for managed print services• Help Desk Support Services • Support ticketing system enhancement/upgrade• Training • New employee county-specific technology training • Succession planning / cross-training• Other Client-Facing Services • Assessing conference room audio/visual equipment • Evaluate self-service tools, such as a knowledge-base • Self-service email management • Provide redaction tools/procedures and awareness for county staff

• New application development: • Expand functionality available in the Employee Portal • Develop internal system to facilitate health wellness tracking • GIS-enabled application development

Goal: DATA ACCESSIBILITY AND EMPOWERMENT

Provide expanded access to data and services (both internally, through employee remote access and data analytics, and public-facing self-service)

Business Benefits• Expanding remote access strategies not only aids employees working in nontraditional places but has the potential to simplify some workstation administration.• Data Analytics in practice can help mitigate risk and fraud, highlight opportunities for cost reduction, and help with anticipating needs.• Making data available to the public through self-service mechanisms enables free and timely citizen access while reducing staff time spent on public requests.

Goal: SERVICE DELIVERY

Ensure appropriate allocation of resources that support county staff in the effective use of technology (help desk, conference room equipping, commodity services such as phone, printer, fax).

Business Benefits

• Efficient and timely technology service enables county staff to serve citizens more effectively.• Recognizing and addressing staff “pain points” focuses resources with the biggest immediate client benefit.• Seeking opportunities for continuous improvement and cost reduction supports the county mission.

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Initiatives• Internal: • Refining system remote access strategies and expanding to meet evolving workforce demands • Leveraging the power of data analytics and visualization tools and techniques to uncover patterns in data and aid in decision-making• Public Facing: • Increasing awareness and expanding data accessibility through self-service capabilities for the public, leveraging the OpenData platform • Testing and assessing effectiveness of automated electronic notification, such as reminders, to clients. • Exploring assistive/smart technologies leveraging modern consumer technologies to ease public access to county services

Initiatives• Business continuity and disaster recovery planning• Backup system rediscovery and next phase upgrade/replacement• Data center modifications and updates with best practices in mind• Develop plans to close any potential gaps in connectivity infrastructure and redundancy requirements

By the very evolutionary nature of technology, a Technology Strategic Plan cannot be static. As new opportunities develop and organizational requirements evolve, a regular pulse-check is necessary

to ensure the roadmap is both current and relevant. To that end, the following check-points are an important part of the planning process.

Initiatives• Device level network authentication, further restricting unauthorized access • Segregating environment, implementing boundaries through Virtual Network (VLAN) realignment • Assess making employee photos available for lookup internally by staff for visual verification• Plan and implement proximity badge system migration• Assess video surveillance needs for facility security • Conduct additional technology usage/security training

Goal: DISASTER RECOVERYAND BUSINESS CONTINUITY Business Benefits

• Avoid disruption of business and service delivery to citizens. • Recover from disruption and restore services as quickly as possible.• Protect and retain data in a controlled environment.

Develop enhanced methods, plans,

procedures, and architectures that

support critical systems.

Business Benefits

• Implementing appropriate security measures mitigates the risk and potential costs associated with breaches.• Robust security minimizes business disruptions possible with malicious attacks.• Applying professional security practices is a part of data custodian stewardship, protecting public data entrusted in our care.

Goal: SECURITY

Implement strategies minimizing

exposure and impacts of potential

security threats.

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Initiatives• Replacement of network equipment• Windows Server Operating System Upgrades• Explore hosted services for feasibility to augment or extend in-house capabilities• Monitor usage and capacity (bandwidth and storage), recommending adjustments as needed to maintain a stable and responsive network

Develop enhanced methods, plans,

procedures, and architectures that

support critical systems.

Goal: RESPONSIVE INFRASTRUCTURE Business Benefits

• Equipment replacement or upgrades based on expected life cycle, prior to failure, reduces downtime and supports business continuity.

By the very evolutionary nature of technology, a Technology Strategic Plan cannot be static. As new opportunities develop and organizational requirements evolve, a regular pulse-check is necessary

to ensure the roadmap is both current and relevant. To that end, the following check-points are an important part of the planning process.

Annually: Discuss the past year’s IT accomplishments Highlight issues or lessons learned Identify any changes to corporate strategy, goals, or objectives Determine impact on IT strategy (if any)

Quarterly: Demonstrate last quarter’s accomplishments or issues Discuss upcoming quarter’s initiatives or potential roadblocks Identify any business or departmental changes that may have an effect on the IT strategy

Monthly: Discuss strategic projects’ status, potential roadblocks, etc.

Technology Strategy Refresh Plan