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

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37 PRIORITY LEVEL TWO Required Use of Technology in Departments: A common misconception stems from the belief that IT departments can enforce user departments to adopt new technologies to improve work efficiencies and effectiveness. In fact, County Administration is the proper vehicle to ensure the adoption of new technologies, as the IT department is a customer service organization, focused on delivering value-add products to its users. By requiring County department heads and line staff to adopt new or enhanced technologies, Orange County will significantly improve its technology utilization rate, as well as become more effective in its operations and citizen services. As County management works with department heads and staff to enforce the adoption of technology, performance evaluations must reflect such requirements. Business Relationship Management Model: One noted process area of improvement within IT staffing can be facilitated by establishing a business relationship management (BRM) model within the Orange County Information Technology Department. In this model, key IT staff will rotate between departments to assess business process, gain better working knowledge of daily operations, and partner with departmental staff to create technical solutions and enhancements to operational, tactical, and strategic issues. Essentially, the BRMs will assist in developing proactive solutions to business unit problems or challenges, versus the often reactive process used currently. The adoption of this model does require an increase of IT Department's FTEs in order to achieve the level of service expected by the departments. ITIL(IT Service Management): One popular way to organize IT Service Management is through the implementation of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL contains codes of practice for quality management of IT services and infrastructure and it defines quality as "matched to business needs and user requirements as these evolve." ITIL goals include: services that meet business, customer, and user demands; cost-justifiable service quality; role and responsibility definition; and demonstrable performance indicators. Orange County should consider investing in training on ITIL principles to determine if the framework would add value to the Help Desk and Knowledge Base. Service Level Agreements: In alignment with IT Service Management, it is recommended that Orange County move toward the establishment of Service Level Agreements. SLAs are contracts between a customer and provider that indicate the terms of service that will be provided. For example, many Technology Departments create service level agreements with their internal customers (departments) in order to set standards 35