Agenda - 11-08-2012 - 7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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33 Chairperson for at least the first year of the endeavor. In addition, the governance structure should be composed of selected department heads and senior leadership in order to assist the Information Technology Department with project prioritization, goal alignment, and risk management. The ideal size of the IT Governance Council ranges between five and nine individuals. The IT Governance Council can be established and formalized without additional IT staff. Additional information on the suggested IT Governance Structure is found in Appendix B. Communications Process: One area for improvement is communication, both internal and external to the IT Department. Improved communication tools and procedures are critical to the continued success of the Orange County IT Department. The culture within IT is improving, per departmental interviews. However, the IT staff offer a unique opportunity to discern potential problems or challenge approaches, which can lead to improved processes and products upon completion. Furthermore, better communications will improve trust among staff, both with management and with peers. In order to enhance communications within and outside of the IT Department, regularly scheduled meetings should be held in order to encourage staff participation and involvement. An investment in and use of a County Intranet or other collaborative tools should allow ubiquitous employee access to project materials, contracts, purchase orders, and other forms of documentation. Finally, IT leadership should develop consistent communications with other department heads, in order to increase knowledge of County IT policies and procedures. As the IT Department grows, it is essential for the senior IT staff to regularly meet with the County departments to determine their needs, analyze their business processes, and offer ideas for innovation and performance enhancement through technology solutions. Overall Training and Utilization of Current Investments: Orange County has made significant investments in a variety of quality software applications. Prior to the procurement and deployment of new systems and applications, a concerted effort to increase end user utilization of the full functionality of such programs should be encouraged. Most individuals in any given organization only use about fifteen percent of a given software's functionality, and the end users in the County appear to have similar utilization rates, although some departments expressed significantly lower rates of utilization and understanding of deployed software functionality. End user training, as well as IT staff training, is critical to improving software functionality utilization rates. Training for End Users: Approximately sixty percent of the variance in technology project's success of failure can be attributed to the training available to end users. However, governments often view training dollars are expendable resources, not recognizing the connection between training and project success and return on investment. In order to increase technology adoption and to facilitate successful 31