DEPARTMENT BUDGET SUMMARY

MISSION STATEMENT: To provide the technology resources for the County and set the vision for future technology investments.

The work of the Department of Technology Services continues to be founded on the goals established in the e-Government Master Plan of 2001:

• To be responsive to the needs of the community;

• To set the technology direction and standardization for all information technology initiatives;

• To implement the best practices of program management;

• To re-engineer and streamline the delivery of government processes;

• To implement a network infrastructure to support the e-Government initiatives;

• To create a data architecture to define the e-Government services;

• To build information services architecture for delivery of e-Government services.

These goals have been expanded in the e-Government Master Plan II: Realizing the Vision, 2004 – 2009. The primary theme is to build upon the first plan by recommending that all future technology investments be determined by the business needs of the County.

FY 2006 PRIORITIES: The FY 2006 priorities of the Department of Technology Services are:

• To continue to implement the electronic government plan by understanding the business needs of the County and to select appropriate technology investments that will further the satisfaction of these goals.

• To manage the expansion of the current network and system architecture.

• To continue the development of policies, procedures and standards.

• To gather metrics and recommend the alignment of staff to effectively support the technology needs of the County.

• To grow the technology expertise of the subject experts in the departments so that effective technology investments can be made to further their departmental goals.

• To develop approaches to fully identify the total cost of ownership of technology acquisitions.

• To create programs that accommodate the scheduled refreshment of technology resources and the incorporation of new technologies as appropriate that furthers the effectiveness and efficiency of the County.

PRINCIPAL PROGRAMS:

• Network Services:
  Network Management
  Telecommunications
  Desktop Support

• Data Management

• Program Management

• Information Services:
  Computer Operations
  Applications

• Office of the Chief Information Officer:
  Cable Administration

• Technology Investment

SIGNIFICANT BUDGET CHANGES: The FY 2006 proposed budget for the Department of Technology Services is $14,064,990, a four percent increase from the FY 2005 adopted budget. The proposed budget includes the following significant changes:

• An increase in personnel expenditures ($408,324) for normal salary and benefits adjustments as well as the re-allocation of 4.0 FTEs (1.0 FTE from the Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development and 3.0 FTEs from the Department of Human Services) to Desktop Support. The reallocation of 4.0 FTEs totals $261,620.

• An increase in non-personnel expenditures ($216,536) to fund an increase in Verizon telecommunications, records and storage maintenance contracts.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

• In FY 2005 and FY 2006, the CIO will be guided by the new IT strategic plan entitled "e-Government Master Plan II" which establishes a new set of strategic goals. Revised measures have been included to measure performance against those goals established by the new plan.

• Performance measures that were used under the first strategic plan "e-Government Master Plan I" are presented as N/A in FY 2005 and FY 2006 and their purpose is to show historical information. New measures that are refined for "e-Government Master Plan II" show N/A for FY 2002-FY 2004, however project estimates for FY 2005 and FY 2006.

FUTURE BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS:

• Meeting increased demand for more content-oriented electronic government solutions that will permit the constituent to interact directly with internal government systems to conduct business, to pay fees, fines and taxes, and participate in the political process in a timely manner.

• Transitioning the enterprise systems (human resources information/payroll, financial management, budget preparation, and revenue assessment and collection) from a costly mainframe environment to an open and flexible web-based architecture will require significant investment over the next several years. This investment is necessary because the business needs of the County have outgrown the capabilities of these aging systems, and furthermore many of these systems are soon to be no longer supported by their vendors.

• Development of individuals who are able to express business solutions so they can be adapted technologically could require additional training and recruiting advanced level technology skill sets.

• The County is moving toward a more structured process for the periodic refreshment of its technology investments. Many of the existing systems are far past their useful lifespan, resulting in increased operating and maintenance costs and reduced ability to share information and respond to the growing expectations and needs of Arlington residents and businesses. This program may initially require some additional resources to refresh systems having the greatest need.