MUNICIPALITY OF CHATHAM-KENT CORPORATE SERVICES INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES INFORMATION REPORT

Transcription

1 MUNICIPALITY OF CHATHAM-KENT CORPORATE SERVICES INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES INFORMATION REPORT TO: FROM: Mayor and Members of Council Joann Kjeldsen, Project Manager, ITS DATE: October 17, 2011 SUBJECT: Information Technology Strategic Plan Update (ITSP) Tactical Cycle 1 SharePoint Implementation Phase I This report is for the information of Council. BACKGROUND On March 3, 2008, a presentation by MGCG of the Information Technology Strategic Plan was received by Council. Council approved that all recommendations contained within the Information Technology Strategic Plan developed by MGCG Limited be taken into consideration and referenced specifically when planning future budget and work plans for information technology services. The following slide, presented to Council by the consultant MGCG, depicts the projects and budgetary requirements to implement Tactical Cycle 1.

2 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 2 What is SharePoint and why was it selected for our Organization? SharePoint is a browser-based platform from Microsoft that allows for easier, timely and effective document and content management. Using SharePoint as a business platform in an organization promotes collaboration among employees and enhances communication within an organization. Please see appendix A for a full overview. SharePoint was chosen as an enterprise solution for Chatham-Kent due to the following: The Municipality of Chatham-Kent requires a document management system even if a simplified one. Customer service channels need continuous improvement both internally and externally. The municipal call centre requires a corporate content/knowledge base that is easily searchable to respond to customer inquiries. All employees and elected officials require document collaboration capability and document search capability (reports to Council, by-laws). The Community Portal was 6 years old at the time (2008) and in need of a redesign and rebuild. Upgrading our Microsoft Content Management System (CMS) that is currently used for our Community Web Portal requires us to upgrade to SharePoint. Microsoft no longer supports CMS version SharePoint is the next version of what we already have invested in and adheres to current ITS standards. The following diagram depicts what SharePoint will enable us to do as an organization:

3 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 3 Benefits to becoming a Knowledge-Based Organization: Other Municipalities Currently using SharePoint Municipality Version 2007 Version 2010 Used Internally Used Externally for Internet City of North Bay X X X X City of Kitchener X X Niagara Region X X X City of Brantford X X X City of Oakville X X Greater Sudbury X X X City of Brampton X X X County of Lambton X X Region of Waterloo X X X Region of Peel X X X City of Windsor X X X Halton Region X X X Haldimand County X X Previous Reports to Council At the June 23, 2008 Council meeting, Council approved the recommendations of RTC 177 in that the first phase of the ITSP be approved and implemented through Tactical Cycle One over the next two year period. One of the projects included in the list was the SharePoint/Web redesign.

4 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 4 On February 10, 2009, an Information Report from Economic Development regarding the Economic Development and Tourism Web Strategy, indicated that Economic Development and Information Technology Services (ITS) would work together to implement the web redevelopment recommendations. These recommendations are to be implemented as part of the overall SharePoint Phase 1 project. The Request for Proposal for SharePoint Implementation Phase 1 was released March 18, 2009 and closed on May 13, The request for proposal included many items within the scope of work with the largest component being a complete rebuild and redesign of our current Community Web Portal. Eleven proposal submissions were received that ranged in cost from $349,000 to $2,500,000. The median cost, based upon the cost quotations received from all eleven submissions was $645,000. Based upon the median cost, a competitive cost range was established and determined to be between $445,000 and $845,000. On July 13, 2009 Council awarded the request for proposal to Concept Interactive Inc of Mississauga Ontario (Concept). Concept Interactive was contracted to provide technical and consulting services in the amount of $641,555 (taxes excluded) for the SharePoint Implementation Phase 1. The monies for the project were funded from existing base budget, provincial grant initiatives, lifecycle and reserves. Previous Working Relationships with the Consultant In early 2002, Concept Interactive Inc (Concept) was the company awarded to develop the first Community of Chatham-Kent Portal, under the provincially funded Connect Ontario project. Concept also developed our current portal Identity Management Service (sign-on with security) in 2004, the on-line Patient Appointment Request Service in 2004/2005 and the on-line Property Tax Information Service in 2005/2006. Throughout all of these projects, Concept maintained a very good working relationship with the Municipality, demonstrated quality delivery and produced innovative and leading-edge portal technologies and applications. A total of 7 international, national and provincial awards were received by the Municipality as a result of this partnership Excellence in Municipal Systems Award, Property Tax Information Service 2006 Excellence in Municipal Systems Award, Patient Appointment Request Service 2005 Silver Award, Canadian Information Productivity Award, Organizational Transformation, not for profit category, Patient Appointment Request Service 2005 Gold Medal, Canadian Government Review e-award, Citizen-centric Interjurisdictional Category, Community of Chatham-Kent Portal

5 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update ShowCase Ontario, Award of Excellence, Community of Chatham-Kent Portal 2003 Microsoft Canada Case Study, Portal Innovation 2003 Bronze Award, International Astrid Award in Design Excellence, Government Category Original Timelines of the Project The request for proposal requirements included the ability to deliver the project within the following timelines. These timelines were expressed as mandatory for the consultant: Milestones and Deliverables Completion Date All elements required and included for an updated redesigned: February 26, ckenergy.com and ckutilities.com internet sites. Expansion of Chatham-Kent Energy intranet for affiliated May, 2010 companies (Chatham-Kent Hydro, Chatham-Kent Utilities Services and Chatham-Kent Energy). Chatham-Kent Employee on-boarding, changes, termination. June, 2010 Scope of the SharePoint Implementation Phase I RFP The Request for Proposal included many items over and above the redesign and development of the Community Web Portal, although this was one of the largest deliveries within the project. The items within scope included: Installation and setup of the complete SharePoint architecture necessary to support the three-year plan for municipal deliverables. It included the setup of the development, quality assurance and production environments. A complete rebuild and redesign of the current Chatham-Kent.ca site (known as Wave 1) o Moving from one size fits all philosophy to 4 unique designs, 21 complete sites with home pages and 38 content areas are more complex due to individualized nature. o Migration of existing portal content into new portal site. Adding new web features to our web portal such as: o News feeds - 4 ways of profiling a News feature. o Build your itinerary for Tourism site o Municipal calendar(s) of events by site o Ability to share content with other sites RSS feeds, Social Networking (automatic links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Delicious)

6 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 6 o Global Page Enhancements such as page feedback, print a page, a page, automatic text resizing o Ability to embed YouTube videos into content pages o Advanced Search tool bar that includes ability to select: Search full site, search this site, A to Z listings, How Do I questions, electronic services list, maps, Business & Service Directory categories and By-Law Library. o A Chatham-Kent Community Jobs Board that will allow employers to signup and post their own employment opportunities (not yet marketed) o Send a Postcard (from the Newcomer site) o Download a Package Feature (ability to create custom packages made up of various documents for self-service capability) o 9 internet e-forms (fillable on the web site) Recreating current portal custom applications and adding enhancements: o Rebuilding Council Meetings, CK Matters, Media Centre, Subscription Services and Business and Service Directory components to mimic current functionality. o Enhancing Municipal Jobs to include a template-driven job posting process. o Enhancing Bids and Tenders to include on-line registration and selfservice eliminating the need to pick up paper packages at the front service counter. Minimal intranet for the Municipality of Chatham-Kent Additional project components (known as Wave 2): o Rebuilding the entire By-Law Library and moving from Lotus Notes into SharePoint. Exposing By-Laws both internally and externally on the internet site. o Building a SharePoint intranet for CK Energy and companies. o Completing a new forms and distribution process for Road Closures, streamlining the entire process and eliminating the need for manual faxing. o Completing new electronic forms process for new hires, internal transfers, employee changes and terminations. This process will eliminate 23 current paper-based forms and merge down into 6 electronic forms. Will have workflow approval and auto distribution mechanisms. Will result in real-time employee data for the organization based upon form usage. o Creating SharePoint-based staff profiles from the new employee database, eliminating the entire Who Does What forms and duplicate data process. The staff profiles will now include pictures of employees along with contact information, work location and high-level description of their role in the organization. This report details the progress made on the above noted deliverables.

7 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 7 COMMENTS Background for Current Web ITS is responsible for supporting the back-end technologies and platforms to ensure a smooth running web site. Design work is completed by contracted consulting services as the municipality does not currently have anyone hired to perform digital graphic design services. The business areas are responsible for all content profiled within the current Community of Chatham-Kent Portal as they are the subject matter experts and have been fully trained over the past 9 years to manage their content using a two-stage process. An author creates content, an editor performs the final check and ensures quality control before approving the content to go live on the web site. Approximately 120 staff have been trained into the roles of content author and content editor over the past 9 years. ITS is not involved or responsible for the management and maintenance of corporate web content. Much like a car, ITS is responsible for making the web engine run and ensuring all mechanical parts are in good working order. The staff within the municipal divisions actually drive the car by providing the informational content on an on-going basis that complete the sites. The SharePoint-based web sites for Newcomer, Economic Development, Tourism and Small Business Centre have been live since These sites are comprised of over 400 content pages. Due to the delays in the project and inability to train the proper staff, ITS has committed to complete all content updates required for these four sites until such time that the environment is stable and ready for the staff to be trained. Currently, the business units who are subject matter experts for these sites are responsible for providing updated content and information to ITS staff. ITS staff has been proactive in requesting updated content in order to keep these sites updated. Project Accomplishments to Date September to December 2009 Milestones o 120+ Stakeholder review meetings o Finalization of Site Taxonomy and Site Designs o Finalization of Application Requirements (Municipal Jobs, Community Jobs, Bids & Tenders, Council Meetings, CK Matters, Media/Press Releases) o Finalization of Farm/Server Architecture and Topology o Purchase of all Hardware Components o Installation of SharePoint on 3 farms (Sandbox, Internal Farm, External Internet Farm)

8 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update Milestones o All municipal web content migrated into SharePoint platform o Creation of a default SharePoint-based corporate intranet o Content updates, revisions and quality control work completed on all content required for the provincially-funded sites o April: Welcome Newcomer s web site launch o May: Tourism Site Launch o June: Economic Development Site Launch o August: Small Business Centre Site Launch o February to June: deployment of some applications/tool sets and 1 st round of user acceptance testing by CK Project Team o July: Review of all RFP requirements with the consultant o September: High-Level Review of Requirements for remaining Project Deliverables (By-Law Library, CK Energy Intranet, Electronic Forms, Community Calendar Migration, Subscription Service, People Profiles/People Search, Road Closures, etc) o September: Presentation of Publishing Process to CK project team and decision point o September/October: New Publishing Process Review o October 2010 to January 2011: Employee On-Boarding/Electronic Forms: Full requirements review Stakeholder review and sign-off. Stakeholders include staff from the following areas: Human Resources, Licensing, Building Maintenance, Fleet, Information Technology Services Systems, design and data mapping documentation completed. Technical specification documentation finalized. o December: Operating System updates completed, SharePoint updates completed on all SharePoint servers Milestones o Resolution of Performance issues for web sites in production (Newcomer, Economic Development, Tourism, Small Business Centre) o Implementation of a new content publishing process o User acceptance testing completed for: Content Publishing, Search, RFP s, Bids & Tenders, Plan Your Itinerary, Media Centre, Council Meetings, CK Matters, and Municipal Jobs. o Functional and Design specification documents completed for: By-Law Library, Road Closures, CK Energy Intranet and People Profiles/People Search. o Completion of the structure required for the new Corporate Employee Data Layer (required for Employee On-Boarding/Electronic Forms component) o Completion of updated process/procedures for employee Photo ID s.

9 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 9 Remaining Work in the Project o Completion of all remaining web portal dependencies required for go live. These items include finalization of: Content Publishing Process, Portal Search, Media Centre, RFP s, Bids & Tenders, Plan Your Itinerary, Media Centre, Council Meetings, CK Matters, and Municipal Jobs o Deployment and user acceptance testing of subscription service and Community Calendar o Ensuring new site(s) meet accessibility requirements o Site Map o Resolution of all documented user acceptance testing issues o Reviewing and updating of all municipal content for the Go Live of the new Chatham-Kent.ca (Wave 1) o Training of approximately 120 staff to assume the roles of content author, content approver and overall site moderator o Complete remaining project deliverables for all Wave 2 components which include: Chatham-Kent Energy Intranet, By-Law Library, Electronic Forms for Portal, Road Closures, People Profiles/People Search o Development, testing and corporate implementation of the Employee On- Boarding, Changes and Terminations, Electronic Forms Process Current Situation The implementation of the SharePoint Phase I project has had considerable challenges as outlined in the closed session report presented to Council, October 24, Due to the challenges with the project to date, additional municipal resources have been required. A contract project assistant was hired to assist the project manager from December of 2009 to July In July of 2011, it was determined that in order to complete the other municipal obligations of the project, two six-month contract Web Marketing Coordinators were hired to re-address all of the corporate web content (approximately 1,200 pages of content). All three contract positions were realized by utilizing existing Information Technology Services (ITS) base budget dollars left by other position vacancies within ITS. Currently only 1 contract position is dedicated to perform all of the content work required. To date, $538,000 has been spent out of the total $642,000 committed to the project. CONSULTATION Consultation has taken place with the CAO, General Manager of Corporate Services and Legal Services. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS Financial implications are as outlined in the closed session report presented to Council on October 24, 2011.

10 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 10 Prepared by: Joann Kjeldsen, CIWP Project Manager, Information Technology Services Reviewed by: Reviewed by: Helen McLaren, CMM III Director, Information Technology Services Gerry Wolting, B.Math., CA General Manager, Corporate Services Attachment(s) Appendix A What is SharePoint? cc :ran

11 ITSP Tactical Cycle 1 Update 11 Appendix A: What is SharePoint The packages of functionality built into the SharePoint platform include six functional abilities: Content: SharePoint provides a central location to put content such as files, documents, or general information and provides basic document management capability. Communities: SharePoint supports the formation of communities within an organization - these communities may form around teams, projects, clients, geographic locations, etc. SharePoint also provides social features and social integration. Sites: The ability to make and use multiple web sites, internal intranets, external internets, collaboration areas for departments, divisions or business units. Search: SharePoint provides a range of search abilities, within documents, within internal or external content (such as network shares or public websites), and in staff user profiles. Insights: SharePoint provides data integration, data crawling, and report design to enable business decision making. Composites: SharePoint provides an application platform allowing no-code solutions to complex business problems, **Web and external portal technology only one component of the entire SharePoint platform solution.