Staff Report: IT Strategic Plan

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE REPORT

TO: Committee of the Whole DATE: April 1, 2015 FROM: Jeannie Beauchamp, Director of Finance MEETING DATE: April 14, 2015

IT STRATEGIC PLAN

RECOMMENDATION: THAT the Committee receive the April 1, 3015 IT Strategic Plan report for information.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER'S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT: To provide Council with information regarding the 2015-2019 IT Strategic Plan.

INFORMATION:

In 2014 the Town undertook a process to create an IT Strategic Plan to document the steps to be taken over the next five years (2015-2019) in IT planning, procuring, implementing, and managing current and future technology investments and resources.

MYRA Systems Corp. was selected to perform this work and has completed the attached IT Strategic Plan for the years 2015-2019 for the Town.

DISCUSSION

The comprehensive report addresses every aspect of Information Technology and lays out a roadmap of recommendations. It is anticipated that these recommendations be phased in over the coming years.

It is recommended that the current service level of IT and related funding requirement be addressed during discussions for the 2015 operating budget. Information Technology services are currently provided to the Town by a part-time contractor who is on-site one day per week and is available through email during any other time. The cost of this service is $51,000 per year. The IT Strategic Plan recommends that the Town would be best served by a continued external managed suite of IT services. The IT Strategic Plan considers three options of IT operational investment.

OPTIONS

Option 1

The Town could continue with the existing level of IT resourcing. This direction would be ill advised as it does not recognize the needs for the Town, the broad spectrum of service delivery required, nor does it improve confidence in service delivery and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it is likely to result in continued IT outages resulting in additional indirect cost to the Town.

Option 2

The Town could increase the level of investment to allow for "stable, secure IT services." This option would allow the Town to become more proactive and less reactive and reduce the quantity of IT outages and improve support to the Town. "The infrastructure design will mature over time to increase stability and achieve simplicity. Simplicity of design will enable IT resources to address projects to delivery increased efficiencies; and mature Disaster Recovery and/or Business Continuity... There will be escalation access to Tier 2 and 3 specialists in all IT disciplines... enabling faster issue and problem resolution." Citizens, businesses, and employees would be better served by this option.

Option 3

The Town could further increase the level of investment from that provided in Option 2. "At this funding level projects are known and operational activities are optimized to ensure best value for dollar. There will be regular access to Tier 2 and 3 specialists in all IT disciplines to manage service delivery... Regular maintenance by these specialists will result in consistent service delivery and reduced risk to the organization. Availability of consistent director level expertise for IT budgeting, planning and design of Infrastructure upgrades (e.g. new servers, new operating, database, email systems) or new networking initiatives will support strategic objectives."

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

A budgeted start date of November for the new IT Service Management contract would see the benefits from implementing the recommendation from the IT Strategic Plan in a timely manner while distributing the costs between the 2015 and 2016 budget years. Furthermore, it would facilitate the transition between contractors to occur during a less eventful and critical time of year, which will minimize the impact to the Town.

Option 1

Currently the IT contract costs $51,000 annually. There are undocumented costs from lost productivity during downtime from outages. This option would not address the concerns outlined in the IT Strategic Plan.

Option 2

This option will see an increase to IT contracting costs of $34,000 ($85,000 vs. $51,000). The annual impact to taxation levels will be 80% or $27,200. A November start date would see a tax increase of $4,530 added to the 2015 budget and $22,670 added to the 2016 budget.

Option 3

This option will see an increase to IT contracting costs of $69,000 ($120,000 vs. $51,000). The annual impact to taxation levels will be 80% or $55,200. A November start date would see a tax increase of $9,200 added to the 2015 budget and $46,000 added to the 2016 budget.

Both option 2 and 3 are well within the average cost of IT for similarly sized municipalities.

RECOMMENDATION: THAT the Committee receive the April 1, 3015 IT Strategic Plan report for information.

SUBMITTED BY: J. Beauchamp, Director of Finance

REVIEWED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer