City of Cape Coral Strategic Plan
CITY OF CAPE CORAL, FL
Information Technology Plan
FY 2012
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Table of Contents
I Introduction
II Organization & Governance
II.i Organization
II.ii Governance
III ITS Mission Statement
IV Strategic Initiatives
IV.i Application Deployment across City Departments
IV.ii Aligning IT to the Business
IV.iii Key Strategic Initiatives
- E-Government
- Document Management & Archiving
- ERP Replacement
- GIS
- IT Infrastructure Capacity, Resiliency, Security
V Key Projects
V.i Update for FY 2011 Key Projects
V.ii Key Projects for FY 2012
VI Best practice frameworks
VI.i The COBIT Best Practice framework for IT Governance
VI.ii Service Management Improvement via ITIL
VII Project Management
VIII IT Enterprise Architecture & Standards
VIII.i Network Architecture
VIII.ii Platform Architecture
VIII.iii Software Architecture
VIII.iv Data/Information Architecture
VIII.v Security Architecture
VIII.vi City of Cape Coral Information Technology Standards
IX IT related awards & recognition
I Introduction
This is the FY 2012 update to the City of Cape Coral Information Technology Plan. Along with every other City Department, ITS faces challenges associated with the changed budgetary landscape within Florida for State and Local governments following the adoption of Amendment 1 by the State legislature and the severe reduction in property values within the City over the last four years.
The FY 2012 Adopted ITS budget has increased 1.9% from the FY 2011 Adopted budget and has been reduced 8.86% from FY 2009 Actuals. The steepest cuts over the last three years have been made for capital expenditures and operating expenses. Capital funds for selected hardware upgrades will need to be budgeted in the short term future. The City budgeted for replacement of the legacy SunGard Public Sector iSeries based ERP in FY 2009 and the conversion to Oracle/JD Edwards Enterprise One for Financials, AMX Utiligy for utility billing, Active Government for cash management, and CRW TRAKiT for Community Services which have been completed. The Avolve Software ProjectDOX system for electronic plan submission and review is in pilot test phase.
It was subsequently recognized that a separate budgeting solution would be required to fully meet governmental accounting requirements and the Oracle/Hyperion Public Sector Planning & Budgeting solution was procured in Fiscal Year 2011. This system interfaces with JDE financials and is currently being implemented.
II Organization and Governance
II.i Organization
The ITS Department consists of three Divisions: Business Applications, Network & Telecom Infrastructure, and GIS Services – see Organizational Chart below.
Business Applications is responsible for supporting all of the application software packages deployed in the City. Our policy is to use commercial off the shelf (COTS) applications and develop software only when compelling cost reasons exist and/or there is a niche requirement where COTS is not available.
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Network & Telecom Infrastructure is responsible for supporting the extensive physical infrastructure including data centers, interconnectivity, switching, routing and telecommunications.
GIS Services is responsible for developing and maintaining the enterprise GIS implementation within the City utilizing the ESRI ArcGIS products. The enterprise GIS is centralized in terms of server infrastructure and support. Various user departments are responsible for maintenance of their own specific layers on the centralized database and have staff trained on GIS technology. The central GIS Services group within ITS will perform the more complex mapping and data analysis tasks as well as handling public record requests and assisting those departments without GIS trained staff. GIS Services publish a separate multi-year GIS Strategic Plan document– see:
II.ii Governance
Effective IT governance helps ensure that the IT organization supports business goals, optimizes business investment in IT, and appropriately manages IT related risks and opportunities. Value, risk, and control constitute the core of IT governance. Effective IT governance enables the enterprise to take full advantage of its information, thereby maximizing benefits and capitalizing on opportunities.
In order to strengthen our IT governance, ITS has constructed a comprehensive set of IT policies, procedures, and documents supporting the COBIT® (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology) Version 4 framework. This effort began in FY 2009 and continues. See section VI.ii below. COBIT® is the best practice IT governance framework published by the IT Governance Institute (ITGI.)
IT Steering Group
The IT Steering Group was reconstituted in 2009 to include selected Department Directors along with the ITS Director and various other managers to provide a strong user based perspective. The Steering Group Charter was also updated. The Steering Group assembles annually to approve the annual IT Strategic Plan and quarterly to review status. It may also be convened on an ad-hoc basis throughout the year to determine the best solution or recommendation regarding key IT issues or decisions impacting the City as a whole.
Web Development Steering Group
The Web Development Steering Group consists of the Public Information Officer, the ITS Director, the ITS Manager of Business Applications, and a web coordinator from one of the City departments. This Group meets to develop strategic direction and developmental priorities for the City’s web presence. Additionally the departmental web coordinators formally meet on a monthly basis to coordinate actions relating to web content development.
III ITS Mission Statement
The Information Technology Services Department seeks to deliver innovative and high value added information technology solutions to provide City staff, citizens, and the business community with needed information and services in the most timely and efficient manner possible.
IV Strategic Initiatives
IV.i Application Deployment across City Departments
The City deploys Information Technology comprehensively across the entire organization. Strategic value provided by IT benefits the entire organization. Departments rely on IT to support their fundamental business processes and E-Government is a key component of the technology deployed to let the public “use their fingers to do the walking.”
Major Application deployment
The following are key enterprise class COTS applications which have been deployed. Significant investment has been made in the last three to five years to deploy Oracle/JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financials, AMX Utiligy (utility billing) Active Government Cash Management, CRW TRAKiT, the Sire Technologies’ applications, Vermont Systems’ Rec Trac, and Kronos products. The SunGard Public Sector Naviline Click2Gov E-Government capabilities were replaced by CRW’s E-TRAKiT and AMX Utiligy online features.
Oracle/JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financial ERP:
• General Ledger
• Receivables, Payables
• Procurement
• Project Costing
• Inventory Management
• Fleet Management
• Work Orders
• Budgeting (to be replaced by Hyperion Public Sector Planning & Budgeting)
Active Government:
• Cashiering
• Payment Management
AMX Utiligy:
• Utility Billing
CRW TRAKiT Community Development system:
• Land Management (LandTRAK)
• Building Permits (PermitTRAK)
• Projects (ProjectTRAK)
• Code Enforcement (CodeTRAK)
• Business Tax Receipts (LicenseTRAK)
• Contractor Management (AEC TRAK)
• Citizen Request Management (CRM TRAK)
• E-government applications for the public (eTRAKiT)
Avolve Software ProjectDox: (in pilot test phase – to be fully implemented in FY 2012)
• Electronic plan submission & review
Kronos iSeries Time & Attendance:
• Time & Attendance reporting utilizing clocks for hourly personnel
Kronos Workforce Central HRIS/Payroll:
• Integrated Human Resource & Payroll system
Sire Technologies’ Document Management System:
• High speed indexed document scanning & imaging
• Document archive management and searching
Sire Technologies Agenda Plus, Minutes Plus, Video Plus:
• Full featured Public Meeting Agenda Management, minutes taking, and archived video recordings indexed by the Agenda
SunGard Public Sector – OSSI Public Safety application:
• Computer Assisted Dispatch
• Records Management
• MCT – field wireless operation
Vermont Systems Rec Trac application:
• Specialized application for supporting Parks and Recreation activities including event scheduling and point of sale transactions
ESRI ArcGIS Geographical Information System:
• Enterprise GIS utilizing server based SDE
• ArcGIS Server for interactive web presentation
• Freeance partner product for developing web applications
• Cartegraph partner product for Traffic applications
Cloud/SaaS Applications
The following web-based applications are provided remotely by an external provider where City users access the application via the web and utilize a web browser as the client.
• The NeoGov solution for public sector workforce management is utilized by the Human Resource department for Applicant Tracking
• The Symantec Enterprise Vault for e-mail searches
• The “Cape Coral Prospector” economic development web search vehicle for commercial property within the City provided by GIS Planning, Inc.
• The Onvia DemandStar online service is used to manage the procurement RFP/bid submittal process.
• The GovDeals® online service is used for online auctions of surplus City equipment.
Additionally all video streaming services for public meetings, etc. are handled via cloud based vendor services.
Internally developed E-Government Capabilities
• Connect Cape Coral: This is a web-accessed SQL database that is constructed from Business licensing and Occupancy data stored within the Community Development application. Built at the request of the Economic Development office, it categorizes all place and home based businesses within the City by the NAICS classification scheme. A web based interface allows the public to query the database to search for businesses by category and to map the location using internal Google mapping capbility.
• Garage Sale Permits: This web based interactive system allows residents to register and apply for Garage Sale permits on-line and to print the permit at home. The system contains logic supporting the enabling ordinance regarding frequency of permits by address.
• “Mash-up” extensions to web GIS queries: several high value capabilities have been added to online GIS queries. These take data from the Community Development and Financial systems and present them as a component of GIS property address querying. Included are assessment payoff information and other financial data of significant use to the financial & real estate community within the City.
• Miscellaneous Archive Searches: We have enabled extensive document searches within our archive and have explicit links to certain documents of broad interest to residents including Flood Elevation Certificates.
Internally developed Web-enabled databases
• Energy Efficiency Reporting System: This is a web accessed SQL database designed to track energy consumption and savings on a Citywide basis.
• Special Assessments System: This is a web accessed SQL database designed to track the status of special assessments associated with the City’s UEP (Utility Expansion Program.)
Systems supporting IT Infrastructure and Operations Management
• SolarWinds: Used as the principal network monitoring tool.
• CA Unicenter Service Desk: Used as the key application supporting the ITIL best practice initiative for Service Management.
Messaging (E-mail)
• Microsoft Exchange Server & Outlook client
• Symantec Enterprise Vault: Stores all incoming and outgoing e-mails. Provides powerful searching to facilitate public records requests. Also provides a separate searching archiving system for employee e-mail folders allowing mail history to be routinely archived from the Exchange server to save storage space. In FY 2011 this capability was transitioned from internal hosting to the cloud.
IV.ii Aligning IT to the Business
The annual City Planning/Budgeting cycle is utilized to ensure that ITS strategic planning is aligned with overall city priorities as summarized in the diagram below.
The process begins with a Council list of strategic priorities. This is typically developed in an offsite Council work-shop session held with the City Manager and the department directors. Following the finalization and publication of the Council Strategic priorities, the City Manager and staff prepare their own supporting strategic project list to be incorporated into the budget planning cycle. Each department director builds a project list to be subsequently reviewed, finalized and consolidated by the entire City Manager’s Team.
In some cases – for example E-Government – the ITS priorities may bear a direct relationship to a Council priority. However, since ITS is a service department, in most cases the ITS priorities support key customer departmental priorities. The ITS staff must work with each department to look for opportunities to provide technology solutions that add significant value to the business.
Typically projects identified for the Business Applications and GIS Services divisions will directly support customer departments. The Network & Telecom division’s priorities may indirectly support customers for example by adding capacity, resiliency, and security to the infrastructure supporting their applications. Sometimes the projects may relate directly – for example the building of the 4.9 GHz Public Safety wireless communication backbone.
In building the ITS priorities full regard must be taken to ensure that the projects comply with developing IT architectural and technical standards and policies.
As the year progresses, the plan, priorities, and project list may be fine tuned. Indeed, some new customer requirements may surface during the course of the year and we typically provide budgetary provision for this eventuality.
The ITS Director and ITS division managers meet with department directors and staff on a monthly schedule to review projects impacting that particular department. Formal action registers are reviewed and maintained.
Additionally routine Requests for Service – e.g. for report customizations arise throughout the year and these must be handled effectively. The larger projects will require formal Project Management – see Section VII - and all requests must be delivered effectively complying with our developing ITIL compliant Service Management procedures.
IV.iii Key Strategic Initiatives
The following seven areas have been identified as strategic ITS priorities:
• E-Government
The E-Government program is designed to enable residents, businesses and the public at large to obtain needed information and transact on-line with the City. It is a major component for enhancing transparency and open government. E-Government has been a major IT priority for several years. The following table provides a partial listing of the features that are provided on-line:
|On-line Capability |Enabling software |Description |
|Utility (Water) bill payments |AMX Utiligy (embedded within JDE |Via secured account set-up |
| |architecture) | |
|Open Government area |Internally developed |Includes combination of static and |
| | |interactive financial reports |
|Business Tax Receipt renewal |CRW eTRAKiT |i.e. Business License renewal |
|Citizens’ Action Center – Submit/Track |CRW eTRAKiT |Via Account set up or anonymous. Enter |
|Requests for Service | |requests, View status. |
|View Permits, Projects, Code Enforcement |CRW eTRAKiT |General Public & Contractors |
|Cases, Parcel info | | |
|Schedule Permit Inspections |CRW eTRAKiT |Contractor activity |
|Common e-payment vehicle |Active Government interfacing with CRW |Payment for Licenses, permits, utilities, |
| |TRAKiT and AMX Utiligy |etc. |
|Apply for Building Permit/View Status |CRW eTRAKiT | |
|Full electronic commercial permit package |Migration to Avolve ProjectDox in FY 2012. |Secured account with pin number. Full |
|submission – pilot program. | |submission including CAD drawings. Internal|
| | |electronic workflow for parallel review |
| | |process including red-lining drawings |
|Code Enforcement Lien status |CRW eTRAKiT | |
|Council & (other public meeting) Agendas, |SIRE Technologies’ Agenda Plus, Minutes |Videos are indexed by the Agendas. |
|Minutes, and archived Videos |Plus, Video Plus | |
|Interactive access to GIS |ESRI ArcGIS, ArcGIS Server, Freeance |Most layers made public |
|Police P2C – Police to Community |SunGard OSSI | |
|interactive system | | |
|Fully searchable Document Archive |SIRE Technologies’ Document Management | |
| |System (DMS) | |
|Online Auction |Via GovDeals® online service | |
|Online RFPs |Onvia Demand Star service | |
|Online Job Postings & Applications |NeoGov – externally hosted | |
|Cape Coral “Prospector” |GIS Planning – externally hosted |Tool for Economic development. Search for |
| | |available commercial space |
|Connect Cape Coral |Internally developed |Business directory utilizing NAICS |
| | |classification |
|Online Garage Sale Permits |Internally developed |Apply online and print permit at home |
|Online Burglar Alarm registration |Cry Wolf | |
|Various forms and static maps |Internally developed | |
|FEMA flood Elevation Certificates |Internal, SIRE DMS | |
|Commercial Permit Cost Estimator |Internally developed |Allows contractors and the public to obtain|
| | |permit cost estimates interactively |
|Residential Permit Cost Estimator |Internally developed |Allows contractors and the public to obtain|
| | |permit cost estimates interactively |
|Powerful dedicated Google site search |Google appliance |In house Google “MINI” search appliance |
| | | |
The “Open Government” financial transparency area on the City web site was initiated in FY 2011 to provide residents with interactive searches into budget to actual data, salary history, and revenue/expenditures.
• ERP Replacement
The remaining component is governmental budgeting with Hyperion Public Sector to be implemented in FY 2012.
• Electronic Plan & Permit Submission & Review
The ProjectDOX system is in the pilot implementation stage at the end of FY 2011. The goal is to take this system into full production in FY 2012.
• Document Management & Archiving
A major step forward was taken in FY 2007 with the implementation of the SIRE Technologies’ Document Management System (DMS.) This system is front ended by powerful high speed indexed document scanning equipment and has enabled the City to build up a large scale document repository organized into logical cabinets and folders. The DMS has saved money by shrinking physical storage space and provides very powerful search and retrieval capabilities.
• IT Support for the City’s Lean Government Initiative
The City will be entering the fifth year of its Lean Government initiative in FY 2012 and was awarded the Strategic Leadership Award by the International City/County management Association (ICMA) in September 2009. The Lean Government program involves utilizing the Value Stream mapping and kaizen approach to waste elimination pioneered by Toyota and used extensively in the manufacturing sector and now spreading to the back-office. ITS is committed to supporting departments as they perform kaizens to break apart business process flows and re-engineer them in a lean manner. ITS staff have actively participated on cross functional kaizen teams and will continue to do so in the future. We see opportunities to make improvement utilizing electronic workflow as the Lean initiative moves ahead.
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
GIS technology is central to City operations. ESRI ArcGIS was deployed and upgraded to ArcGIS 10 in 2011. The implementation is enterprise based using a central SDE server. For web applications ArcGIS Server is deployed along with the Freeance application builder. Due to the central role that GIS plays, a separate and comprehensive GIS Strategic Plan is updated annually and published along with the Information Technology Plan on the City website – see ault.aspx
• IT Infrastructure Capacity, Resiliency, and Security
The IT infrastructure plays a central role in supporting the strategic applications. A multi-year program is in place to ensure capacity, resiliency, and security for both the windows server environment andthe wired and wireless network infrastructures in a cost effective manner.
Key elements of our approach are as follows:
Capacity:
Storage: Storage Array Network (SAN), SATA low cost drives; data de-duplication
Server processing power: Virtualization, server blades
Network capacity: dark fiber, metro Ethernet, single-mode fiber, wireless
Resiliency:
Servers: failover, replication
Network: redundancy
Security:
Firewall upgrades and redundancy
URL filtering
SPAM filtering
Traffic monitoring
V Key Projects
V.i Review of FY 2011 Major Projects:
Business Applications
Launching the “Open Government” Site:
As a key component of financial transparency a special area was developed on the City’s website to provide a gateway for the public to obtain information and key documents about how the City of Cape Coral spends tax dollars and other revenues to provide services:
Budget: An area where residents can access the current and historical budgets as well as associated presentations and materials considered during the budget adoption process.
CAFR: An area where residents can access the current and historical Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports
Monthly Financial Reports: This is a new, easy-to-read format showing revenue trends and overall fund performance
Salaries: Searchable database of unaudited employee salaries. Includes search and drill-down capability.
Completion of JD Edwards Financial ERP implementation:
The second phase of the implementation was completed including inventory, fleet management, and work orders.
Fuel System upgrade:
The fuel system was migrated to the latest hosted version of SCI Distribution’s fuel management software.
Network & Telecom Infrastructure
Redundant Internet Connectivity: The City transitioned to the Lee County Clerk of Courts (LCCoC) as the ISP in March, 2010. Primary connectivity to the LCCoC is via Metro-Ethernet. A second redundant path via Comcast was implemented in FY 2011.
Disaster Recovery Facilities: The EOC and Police HQ data centers are each others’ primary back-up data centers. In FY 2011 co-location space was set up at the Lee County Clerk of Court [LCCoC] data center and real-time failover of the City’s e-mail system was successfully tested. Use of this resource will be expanded in FY 2012.
Data de-duplication: This system is operational at PDHQ Data Center and is replicating to a second system at the LCCoC data center. Data de-duplication will be limited to critical production systems at this time due to storage limits. This system will provide significant savings from reductions in Backup Tapes and Storage. In FY2012 the storage will be increased at the backup site, which will extend the quantity of data stored and the retention times.
Data Center Consolidation and Data Replication: In FY 2011 production processing was transitioned to the EOC and Police HQ data centers with the City Hall data center hosting Test, Development, non-critical, and any legacy iSeries applications only. Data replication was fully enabled on mission critical applications between systems at the EOC and PDHQ sites.
Virtualization & Cloud Computing: Virtualization using VMWare is the default choice for deploying new applications. Only when virtualized servers display shortcomings- such as noticeable slowness - under production type loads will a decision be made to deploy hardware based (e.g. blade technology) application servers. The default for choice for database storage is the SAN.
In FY 2011, hosting for the Kronos Workforce Central HRIS/Payroll system was virtualized along with most of the CRW application (to be completed in FY 2012.) The e-mail archive (Symantec Enterprise Vault) was moved to the Cloud in 2011.
Telecom: The Metropolis Technology Office Watch call accounting system was implemented.
Email: The upgrade from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 was completed in FY 2011.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
ESRI Software upgrade: ArcGIS was upgraded from version 9.3 to 10
V.ii Key Projects planned for FY 2012:
Business Applications
Implementation of the Hyperion Public Sector Planning & Budgeting software:
This software is being implemented in the first quarter of FY 2012 to support the FY 2013 budget cycle. It is being integrated with both JD Edwards financials and Kronos Workforce Central.
Implementation of the Kronos Workforce Central Self Service module:
This capability will allow employees to view and maintain information online. It also includes electronic workflow for performance appraisal, vacation approval, etc.
Extending the “Financial Transparency” Site:
An “Expenditures & Revenues” section will be built to provide an interactive searchable database of unaudited expenditures & revenue by category, payee, and department. Will include search & drill-down capability.
Bentek integration:
Bentek is the hosted solution which will be used in FY 2012 for employee open enrollment and benefit management. ITS will support the initialization of this system using data from Kronos.
Network & Telecom Infrastructure
Concurrent with the development of the annual Information Technology Plan, the Network & Telecom division also prepares an update to the “Technology Infrastructure Plan” – Document No. IT-PO3.2-Technology Infrastructure Plan. Following are some of the more significant projects from the FY 2012 TIP:
Enterprise Application Virtualization: Funding was secured for FY 2012 to complete server virtualization for the CRW application and to virtualize the server environment for both the JD Edwards financial ERP and the Sire Technology document archive.
Redundant and expanded WAN Connectivity: The City will work with Lee County Government IT to secure high bandwidth redundant fiber connectivity to the Lee County Clerk of Courts data center to support both internet access and co-location facilities.
Disaster Recovery Facilities: In FY 2011real-time co-location was provided at the Lee County Justice Center data center for the City’s Microsoft Exchange e-mail system. This will be extended in 2012 to provide recovery for the CRW system. We also intend to test connectivity to co-location space at the City of Gainesville.
Business Impact Analysis and Risk Assessment: All departments will be completing formal Business Impact Analysis (BIA) documents so that ITS can evaluate Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO.) The resulting information will be used to update the Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan. ITS will also work with the City’s Emergency Management function in order to integrate the updated DR plan with the overall Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plan.
Email: In FY 2012 we will evaluate the possibility of moving to a cloud based hosted e-mail solution. Residual Exchange based e-mail would still be required, however, to handle emergency intra-City e-mail in the event of a failure of the local electric grid and internet access during post hurricane recovery.
Desktop Virtualization: Due to the high number of desktops that are currently without warranty and over 5 years old, ITS is evaluating new Thin Clients that may replace the current desktop and extend the usage period from 5 years to 10 years. This will target a portion of the workforce that only requires Internet and Email and will include the usage of Google Docs. There is a significant cost savings over the long term from the cost of a new computer and Microsoft licenses.
Supporting Software: We will implement the Numara Track-It! Inventory & Asset Management software with auto-discovery features to significantly assist with asset control. Additionally we will migrate from the CA Service Desk package to Trak-It!’s Help Desk module. Overall this change will provide increased capability at lower total cost.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
2011 Aerials: Implementation of the 2011 Aerials into the Enterprise GIS Database.
Automation of Spatial Data Layers into other Databases: This involves automating updates of multiple layers, council districts, code enforcement zones, CRA, future land use, zoning, etc. The process will take a zone and pull the appropriate parcels for a particular value. The value can then update other databases such as CRW, D-Fast and JDE, thereby eliminating the need to do data entry and the possibility of typographical and/or other manually-created errors.
VI Best practice frameworks
VI.i The COBIT Best Practice Framework for IT Governance
COBIT® (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology) is the best practice framework for IT governance published by the IT Governance Institute (ITGI.) COBIT version 4.1 provides 210 control objectives applied to 34 high level IT processes categorized in four domains: Plan and Organize, Acquire and Implement, Deliver and Support, and Monitor and Evaluate. COBIT recommendations cover issues related to ensuring the effectiveness and value of IT along with information security and process governance.
During FY 2009 ITS performed a self assessment against the 34 high level processes and subsequently began the process of upgrading/developing documented processes in all four domains. To date, a total of eight policies, procedures, and documents (including standards) have been documented in the Acquire & Implement Domain; forty in the Deliver & Support Domain; twenty-seven in the Plan & Organize Domain; and one in the Monitor & Evaluate Domain.
VI.ii Service Management improvement via ITIL
ITS began implementation of a formal ITIL v2 program in late 2006. The majority of ITS staff members passed the EXIN International and itSMF supported Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management. The ITIL framework has been utilized to build Service Support procedures covering Change Management, Incident and Report Management. The Computer Associates (CA) Unicenter Service Desk software application was procured and implemented in 2008 to support the program.
A decision was made in FY 2009 to emphasize the COBIT framework to guide the review and development of all other IT processes.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) Development: In conjunction with the development of the ITIL procedures, formal SLAs were developed, agreed to by the user base, and published on the SharePoint intranet. The following SLAs are in place:
IT-SLA-01 Desktop Support
IT-SLA-02 SIRE DMS Application
IT-SLA-03 Kronos Workforce Central HRIS/Payroll Application
IT-SLA-05 Financial Applications (JD Edwards, Utiligy, Sympro Active Government)
IT-SLA-06 Community Development Applications (CRW TRAKiT, Avolve
ProjectDox)
VII Project Management
Project Management – Major Projects
Formal Project Management techniques are employed for the implementation of major tasks including enterprise class application implementations and major infrastructure projects. The governing procedure is IT-PO10-01, Project Management - Major Projects. This procedure details the mechanics for adhering to the precepts included in the PMI publication “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge”, Third Edition also known as the PMBOK® Guide. Associated with this procedure are City forms and computerized toolsets to support the PMBOK methodology. In many cases an application vendor or implementation partner will have developed their own methodology which is compliant with PMBOK. The City will generally accede to utilizing these methodologies as they tie in closely to the vendor’s experience in implementing their particular application. Recent examples utilized by the City include the Kronos “Momentum” methodology deployed in 2008 for the implementation of the Kronos Workforce Central HRIS/Payroll system and the AMX “Polaris” methodology for the implementation of the JD Edwards system in 2009. The City’s own methodology and toolsets were deployed for the implementation of the CRW TRAKiT system.
All these project management methodologies employ the following components:
• Assignment for roles:
o Project Sponsor
o Project Manager
o Project team members with specific responsibilities including SMEs
o Project stakeholders
• Project Charter
• Project Scope
• Execution Management
• Change control
• Detailed time/resource planning
• Cost management
• Quality control
• Communications
• Risk identification & management
Use is made of collaboration web sites and computerized toolsets including Microsoft Project and comprehensive workbooks detailing PMBOK components.
Project Management – Routine and Small Scale Projects
ITS frequently develops niche applications especially for the E-Government initiative. The applied man hours for these projects are limited – frequently being in the range of 40 – to 100 man hours. For these projects we utilize a lightweight Project Management approach. The governing procedure is IT-PO10-02 – Project Management- Routine and Small Scale Projects. The main control feature is the “ITS Project Form” which identifies:
• Project Sponsor
• Project Manager
• Project Developer(s)
• Project Description
• Summarized Purpose and Objectives
• Deliverables
• Date Required
• Benefits
• Out of pocket cost and FTE man hours required
This document is reviewed and approved by the appropriate ITS manager(s). A SharePoint area is used to track actions and optionally Microsoft Project may be used for a Gantt chart depending on scope.
VIII IT Enterprise Architecture & Standards
The City’s approach to IT Enterprise Architecture is detailed within policy IT-PO3.1-01 which is available on the ITS Strategic Planning area on the City website:
The overall architecture structure is shown in the following table:
|City of Cape Coral IT Enterprise Architecture |
|Infrastructure |Application |
|Network |Software |
|Platform |Data/Information |
|Security |
Plans for Infrastructure development are detailed in the annually updated “Technology Infrastructure Plan” – document IT-PO3.4.
VIII.i Network Architecture
The City of Cape Coral IT environment resides on a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) using optical fiber, leased lines and wireless infrastructure. The Public Safety (Fire and Police) network interlinks to the City network via optical fiber and is managed by routers and switches. The “remote” facilities with LANs consist of Public Works water plant/maintenance complexes; Parks and Recreation complexes; and the Fire Stations. Facilities located at the City Centrum including City Hall, the EOC/Fire Department Headquarters, City Complex building, and Police Headquarters are all fiber interlinked. Broadband cellular wireless using VPN is used to provide field workers access to the central applications.
The Public Safety Network covers the Emergency Operations Center (EOC)/Fire Department HQ, the Police Headquarters building and an increasing number of Fire Stations – currently ten. The Fire Stations were initially provided with public carrier T1 connectivity but this is now being superseded with the 4.9 GHz Public Safety Broadband Wireless system as the primary interconnect mechanism and high speed DSL for backup – see below. A private broadband wireless cellular network provided by Verizon/CenturyLink is used to interlink Police and Fire vehicles with the Public Safety network.
Service for the “City” network – including all “remote” sites for business applications and e-mail - was transitioned in FY 2011 from the City Hall data center to the EOC data center. The Public Safety network applications are hosted via the EOC and Police data centers.
Internet connectivity is provided by a 50 Mbps transit through the Lee County Clerk of Courts which is the Internet Service Provider (ISP)
The City deploys 802.11 wireless network segments based on standardized protocols in the larger facilities. Within the City Hall complex a separate public network is available for the convenience of residents, visitors, and the press.
In terms of the Voice network, an NEC PBX services the City Hall complex, but Cisco VoIP technology is being deployed in the larger “remote” sites, including the new Police HQ and the EOC, and interlinks with the PBX via the data lines.
• Data Communications: The City’s data communication utilizes the TCP/IP protocol and is built on a 10Gb backbone connecting the three main data centers. LAN segments are connected using a combination of City owned optical fiber and CenturyLink supplied Metro-Ethernet circuits. For Public Safety applications, use is also made of 4.9 GHz broadband wireless – see below.
• Wireless Data:
o Public Safety Broadband Wireless: The City was the first agency in SW Florida to deploy the FCC licensed 4.9 GHz pre-WiMax broadband wireless spectrum for public safety communications. The first phase of a three phased program to cover the entire 116 square miles of the City using Alvarion technology was implemented in early FY 2008.
▪ Phase 1 covers the central and SE sectors of the City and interlinks Fire Stations in this zone to the Public Safety data center.
▪ Phase 2 completed in September 2009 provides coverage to the central and SW sectors of the City. Within both zones coverage is also provided to the Police Mobile Command Center vehicle which has been equipped with an Alvarion subscriber unit and antenna as the primary data communication link to the Public Safety data center.
▪ Phase 3 will provide coverage for the northern sector of the City. This phase is placed in abeyance until a cell tower is constructed on the North Water Plant property at some point in the future.
o 802.11b/g: The City deploys a secure 802.11sytem within the City Hall complex for employee use. A separate public version is also used for the convenience of visitors, the public, and the press. This permits local newspapers to e-mail their reports back to the newspaper office in real time when reporting public meetings.
• Voice Communications: City Hall voice communications backbone is the NEC PBX. A similar NEC PBX servicing Public Safety was replaced by Cisco VoIP in FY 2009. All the other complexes and facilities of any size (i.e. Parks & Recreation and Public Works) have also been upgraded to VoIP. NEC Key systems are in use at 3 small locations and the Fire Stations have CenturyLink B1 service. Although our current standard is the Cisco based VoIP, there are no plans to convert City Hall or any of the other non-VOIP sites at present.
In FY 2011, the City transitioned to a stipend reimbursement methodology for cellular phones/smart phones thereby eliminating the need for most City supplied devices.
• Video Communications: The City maintains a Polycom video conferencing system at the EOC. Interconnection is via the web and the partner site does not need to utilize Polycom technology. There is no separate network in place for transporting video communication. Streaming video is transported across the data WAN/LAN.
• Switching/Routing/Firewall environment: The City deploys Cisco technology.
Internet and Intranet Network Architecture
The Internet/Intranet architecture supports the City’s extensive E-Government deployment enabling residents and businesses to pay utility bills on-line, submit requests for service and complaints, renew licenses, search archives, view information and so on. Additionally the architecture supports web access for City employees.
• Physical access to the web: All City staff supplied with computers are allowed web access. Physical connectivity is provided via public carrier Metro Ethernet. The bandwidth may be readily augmented as required.
• Server Infrastructure
o Public Access Web server: The City’s Dot-Net-Nuke (dnn) based web site providing extensive information for residents and the public at large and acting as the portal for web based E-Government services, is the front end server for various back-end application and database servers supporting certain E-Government capabilities.
o Intranet Server: Supports the City’s employees. The intranet is SharePoint based and hosts a wealth of information including City wide regulations, policies and procedures, address listings, departmental policies and procedures and action registers for departmental and cross-departmental projects.
o Application and Database Servers: Certain servers are required to be securely accessed by web users to support various E-Government services such as utility bill payment, license renewal, archive searching, etc.
VIII.ii Platform Architecture
• Application and Database Servers: The City’s Financial and Community Services enterprise application transitioned to the Microsoft platform from the IBM i-Series platform in FY 2009. Other than the Kronos Time & Attendance system all our other applications are now Wintel based. The IBM X server is the primary server platform for these applications utilizing Microsoft Server 2003 as the Operating system. Microsoft SQL 2005 is the database server engine for these applications.
• Network Servers: Microsoft Active Directory is used to support the City’s LAN/WAN environment. A/D supports the directory services, authentication and authorization.
• Virtualization & Blade Servers: Extensive use is made of Virtualization technology and blade servers to consolidate servers and reduce cost.
• SAN environment: IBM SAN storage is used extensively to minimize storage cost and to enable a resilient failover environment.
• Desktop environment: Dell desktops and laptops are deployed as a standard throughout the City using Microsoft XP as the standard O/S. Panasonic Toughbook ruggedized laptops are deployed for Public Safety (Fire & Police) officers working in the field and for other field workers including Code Enforcement officers and Building Inspectors. Refresh programs are in place and budgeted for both desktops and laptops. Due to the current budget environment, the replacement cycle has been extended, however.
VIII.iii Software Architecture
Software architecture facilitates the selection and acquisition of commercial software and the design and development of niche applications to automate and maintain City processes and provide a foundation for interoperability, integration, collaboration, and communication. It also supports the economical and efficient provision of City information and services to residents. The policy at the City is to utilize Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) applications wherever feasible. Internal development will be undertaken when only when dictated by cost concerns or when the requirement is not available commercially. Additionally, report generation will be undertaken when an application does not provide the specific report format needed “out-of-the-box.”
Business Application Software: Section IV.i above “Application Deployment across City Departments ” describes the business application software currently in use across the City. These deployments are currently spread across both Microsoft and i-Series platforms. As covered in section VII.iii above, the City will be fully migrating over time to the Microsoft environment.
Personal Productivity Software: The Microsoft Office Suite of products is deployed as the baseline for personal productivity. Microsoft Project is the standard for Project/Gantt charts and Microsoft VISIO is the standard for flow charting.
Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is used for internal collaboration. The Enterprise version of Crystal Reports is the primary report writing package.
Programming Software: Microsoft Visual Studio is the City’s standard for the development environment.
Middleware: with the deployment of the JD Edwards package in FY 2009, the IBM WebSphere middleware has become a standard.
Database Software: The standard is now Microsoft SQL with i-Series legacy applications on DB2.
Messaging Software: The City’s messaging infrastructure utilizes Microsoft Exchange server and Outlook clients. Outlook Web Access is provided for secure access for City employees to e-mail from home or when traveling.
Encrypted e-mail as an option was deployed in FY 2010 with the acquisition of a small subset of licenses, and is used only upon request or acknowledged requirement. This is to provide additional security for the transmission of any HIPAA related traffic. The vast majority of electronic messaging for Florida government agencies is subject to public record requests and encryption is not required.
Web Development Architecture:
• Web Application Framework: The City’s web sites are all constructed using the open source DotNetNuke (dnn) framework. Full use is made of this framework’s key features including skins, modules, and content management to provide maximum utility to City departments. Dnn is built using Microsoft for the framework.
• Web Development: The DotNetNuke framework is upgraded as new framework releases are provided by the DotNetNuke Corporation. Microsoft Visual Studio is the tool-kit that ITS use for dnn development. Responsibilities between ITS and the web coordinators in each department are broken down as follows:
o ITS: DNN application development; development of Modules and skins; overall site management including page hierarchy.
o Departmental web coordinators: Content Management at the Page level: addition & deletion of text, modules, documents, links and images. The standard for documents to be posted is Adobe pdf and tif, For images, gif, png, and jpeg are all permissible.
VIII.iv Data/Information Architecture
Data/Information Architecture focuses on the process of modeling the information that is needed to support the business processes and functions of the City. Data/Information Architecture outcomes are expressed in the form of data models, information flows, and analysis of inputs/outputs for city processes. This provides a framework for business process re-engineering and the optimization of City processes.
Given the City’s application environment where commercial, off-the-shelf software provides the backbone applications that support City processes, the data architecture embedded within these systems provide the basis of the City’s overall Data and Information Architecture. From 2007 through 2009 the City replaced its legacy ERP system with best-of-breed solutions spanning Financial, Community Services, and Human Resource Management activities. These systems combine features of best business practice along with the flexibility for defining almost unlimited user defined fields. As a key component of the implementation of the Financial and Community Services ERPs, business processes were carefully reviewed and the systems configured to meet the optimized processes. Extensive use was made of user defined fields within the Community Services application to accommodate specialized needs and additionally some vendor built customizations were required. In the context of the City, data and information flow modeling comes into play as a component of IT support for the City’s Lean Government program where as part of the “kaizen” process it is required to generate Process Value Stream maps. Where information technology is either embedded in the process or its introduction can add value and/or eliminate waste, data modeling will typically be required.
The key applications defining the data/information architecture are:
Financial ERP: JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
Community Services: CRW TRAKiT
Geographic Information System (GIS): ESRI ArcGIS
HRIS/Payroll Kronos Workforce Central
These are augmented by a common mechanism for accepting payments provided by the ActiveGovernment cashiering and payment management system.
Additional support for the City’s Lean Government initiative will be provided by deploying specialized workflows via the Sire Technologies’ Electronic Workflow Engine.
VIII.v Security Architecture
The City has an information security program in place to ensure confidentiality of information, the integrity of data, systems and operations. The security architecture must be resilient and provide effective controls over the public/private network infrastructure. Periodic external audits and reviews are performed by qualified security experts to provide guidance on areas for development and enhancement. Security constraints apply to both the wired and wireless environments. Network authentication to the Microsoft Active Directory is an integral part of the security architecture.
The following Security Policies and Procedures are posted on the ITS section of the City’s SharePoint intranet:
IT-DS5.2-01 Information Technology Security Plan
IT-DS5.2-02 Information Security Policy
IT-DS5.2-02-01 Metrics for Security Management
IT-DS5.2-03 Security Roles and Responsibilities
IT-DS5.3-01 Request for Network and Application Access for New Users
IT-DS5.3-02 Password Management Policy (defining the use of strong passwords)
IT-DS5.3-03 Notification of Terminated and Transferred Employees
IT-DS5.3-04 Periodic Review of User Access Rights
IT-DS5.3-05 Information Security for externally hosted and managed applications
IT-DS5.3-06 Authentication and Directory Services
IT-DS5.5-02 Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration
IT-DS5.6-01 Security Incident Response
IT-DS5.8-01 Encryption Technologies
IT-DS5.10-01 Firewall Change Request Procedure
IT-DS5.10-02 Server Hardening Policy
IT-DS5.10-03 Patch Management Policy
IT-DS5.10-04 Request for Remote Access
IT-DS5.10-05 Remote Access Policy
IT-DS12.2-01 Physical Security
IT-DS12.2-02 Physical Safeguards – Device and media Controls for HIPPA Compliance
IT-DS12.3-02 Facility Access Control Policy – HIPPA Security
The Information Security Policy and the Password Policy are provided to software application vendors as a routine part of our requirements to ensure that they can comply with defined standards.
External Security Audits: Audits addressing various aspects of the security infrastructure are commissioned routinely by both ITS and Internal Audit to assure the security infrastructure is robust and to identify potential areas for improvement.
VIII.vi City of Cape Coral Information Technology Standards
The City’s Information Standards are available at the following address:
IX IT related awards & recognition
The City was awarded 6th place in the 2009 Center for Digital Government’s Digital Cities Survey for cities in the 125,000 – 250,000 population category, up from 8th place in 2008.
The City received the “Transformation Award” from the SW Florida Regional Technology Partnership in May 2009.
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