Title
Receive and accept a report of the proposed Information Technology capital projects, which was received and accepted by the Capital Improvement Committee on April 7, 2014, and received and accepted by the Budget Committee on April 30, 2014.
Body
RECOMMENDATIONS:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
Receive and accept a report of the proposed Information Technology capital projects, which was received and accepted by the Capital Improvement Committee on April 7, 2014, and received and accepted by the Budget Committee on April 30, 2014.
DISCUSSION/SUMMARY:
On June 3, 2013, the Resource Management Agency - Public Works (RMA-PW) notified the Capital Improvement Committee of the intent to provide a complete picture of the infrastructure needs of the County with the common goal of presenting the findings for review, consideration, and prioritization. As part of the collective efforts, the Information Technology Department (ITD) has conducted assessment of the County-wide information technology (IT) related infrastructure in dire need of an upgrade and/or replacement.
The County of Monterey has not invested in IT related infrastructure in approximately fourteen years, and the replacement and upgrades have been on an emergency basis for a number of years. Unfortunately, within the last fourteen years, the IT needs of the County have grown exponentially. For example, the land line focused digital phone system has grown from an eight private branch exchange system with two separate nodes to over forty separate line interface modules with a network based voicemail system, Internet Protocol (IP) integration, and faxing capabilities. For another, the County data network reliance has increased significantly with advanced Internet technology, reliability, and expanded communications options. In addition, ITD has taken an enterprise approach to software use that meets the collective need of the County departments where applicable, such as SharePoint. The radio communications network originally consisted of a handful of microwaves and connectivity through leased circuits and today provides primary and redundant support for data networks, County phone system, and public safety communications middle mile and last mile support.
The legacy equipment across the enterprise phone, network, and radio systems are at the end of their useful life, and the proposed upgrades are required for continued reliability, performance, and security. The IT needs of the County departments will continue to increase, and the use of multimedia and unified communications over IP, such as video and telephone, will continue to expand. It is critical to have a reliable network infrastructure, and to that end the existing infrastructure cannot support the anticipated convergence of the IT disciplines to include data, voice, video, and radio. The County departments need diversity in their technology options such as hosted solutions, virtualization, and remote access options, all of which increase the need for data security and the latest forensic software, while providing flexibility in today's mobile environment. The recommended IT upgrades will continue to factor in enterprise solutions to meet our collective needs for automation while factoring in data security which is essential for each County department.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The Director of Information Technology has presented the list of critical capital replacement for IT related projects with the estimated yearly impact to the IT Governance Committee and to the Department Heads. The IT Governance Committee and Department Heads have reviewed the critical replacement and upgrade list (Attachment I) and concur with the recommendation. The Capital Improvement Committee received and accepted the report at the April 7, 2014 meeting, and the Budget Committee received and accepted the report on April 30, 2014.
FINANCING:
The IT Director proposed leasing the equipment wherever feasible and cost effective in order to spread the cost of replacement out over the life of the equipment or software. The leasing options were presented to the IT Governance Committee and the Department Heads who reviewed the financing options and concur with the leasing option as well. The FY 2014-2015 Information Technology Budget reflects allocated leasing and purchase costs to the departments. Planned future year expenditures will be included in future budget cycles.
Prepared by: Kathryn A. Wells, Finance Manager II, 796-1490
Approved by:
__________________________________________
Dianah Neff, Director of Information Technology
Dated: June 12, 2014
Attachment: ITD Capital Replacement Summary by FY & Project