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4 <br /> Report to Board of County Commissioners <br /> December 16, 1997 <br /> Strategic Automation Plan <br /> Urgent Needs and Short Term SAP <br /> Four of the prospective members of the Information Technology Advisory Committee <br /> (ITAC) (who also served on the Strategic Automation Plan Technical Review Task <br /> Force)held a preliminary meeting on December 9 to review and respond to questions <br /> from the Board about the urgent needs presented at the December 1 meeting. The ITAC <br /> also reassessed the short term plan in light of the Board's questions. <br /> The report being presented to the Board addresses these questions specifically and <br /> provides an update of the short term plan which will be presented in detail at a later <br /> Board meeting. <br /> Board Questions <br /> 1. Network Upgrade—Is this the right technical approach?Are we acquiring equipment <br /> we will have to replace soon with a different technology? What is the appropriate use <br /> of an expert network consultant? <br /> The frame relay and router technology proposed is the right technology. The ITAC <br /> recommends that the SAP proceed with upgrade of the whole County network to frame <br /> relay technology in the current fiscal year, beginning with the urgent needs for connecting <br /> the Southern Human Services Center, Whitted complex, and Government Services <br /> Annex. The data communications equipment proposed is high quality, flexible <br /> technology which can be readily expanded if needed. <br /> The ITAC recommends that after the entire network has been upgraded in the current <br /> fiscal year, a network consultant be engaged to analyze the network load under full <br /> operating conditions and make longer term recommendations about additional needed <br /> capacity. This consulting support would be an element of the second year of the SAP, in <br /> fiscal year 1998-99. Also by that time, the cable franchise negotiations with Time-Warner <br /> will have clarified the opportunity to take advantage of the cable system fiberoptic <br /> rebuild and the I-NET(Institutional Network). The I-NET will begin developing in the <br /> 2000-2001 timeframe. <br /> 2. Desktop Upgrades—What are the correct specifications for the new PCs to be <br /> bought?How does the PC replacement program proposed fit with life-cycle planning <br /> as recommended by the Technical Review Task Force? <br /> The ITAC recommends that there be two levels of PC configuration, including a base <br /> level and a power user system specification. Each level will have 64Mbytes of memory to <br /> allow for expansion of applications and operating system later without additional memory <br />