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