CC SR 20151201 D - Five Year IT Strategic Plan UpdateCITY OF RANCHO PALOS VERDES
MEMORANDUM
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
REVIEWED:
HONORABLE MAYOR & CIT(\~UNCIL MEMBERS
DAN LANDON, IT MANAGE R~-Q
DECEMBER 1, 2015
FIVE-YEAR IT STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE
GABRIELLA YAP, DEPUTY CITY MANAGER~
DOUG WILLMORE, CITY MANAGER VVV\J
RECOMMENDATION
Receive and file -project status update.
FISCAL IMPACT
Budgeted Amount:
Account Number:
BACKGROUND
$ 23,000
101-2030-411-32-00
The objective of this Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP) is to identify the key
steps that should be undertaken to smoothly procure technologies that are needed to
accomplish City goals and initiatives over a five (5) year period. Technology has become
the most prolific enabler of efficiency and customer service for organizations both public
and private alike. Practically all activities have some dependency on technology, making
the strategic planning of technology critical to almost every organization. This long term
planning process is known as an Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP).
Long term technology planning is particularly complex in the public sector for two reasons.
First, core technologies that support future initiatives must be budgeted and often
purchased several years in advance of a particular initiative. Second, because the
external environment including technological advancements and the goals themselves
are continually changing.
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DISCUSSION
The City's current IT strategic planning process focuses on budgeting for technologies
such as hardware and software purchases in an attempt to smooth annual purchase and
maintenance spending. While this process helps in budgeting expenditures, the obvious
deficiency is that without alignment with organizational goals, purchases made today may
not be appropriate to support future initiatives, leaving a gap in technical capabilities.
In August 2014, a technology spending plan was presented to City Council that included
plans for this Five-Year IT Strategic Plan. Conducted much like a SWOT (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, identifying the aspects of the internal
and external environment has proven to be the most effective way to insure that day-to-
day decisions will best align with future initiatives. This comprehensive process involves:
• Evaluation of the current internal technical environment;
• Capturing goals across the organization;
• Predictive analysis of changes in the internal and external environment; and
• Gap analysis of initiatives required to most effectively accomplish future goals.
The ITSP process will take into account both known and predicted technological
advancements, and resident and other stakeholder expectations. Since both are likely to
change unpredictably from year to year , annual reviews of the plan and relevant updates
will be performed by City IT Staff.
The vendor selected for this ITSP process, Oceanview Technologies, was identified after
an informal Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process that included three (3)
organizations. One organization was determined not to have the required expertise, and
a second was a substantially higher price. Oceanview was determined to have the
expertise needed to perform the required environment analysis and interviews, as well as
the industry experience required to create the operational plan, at a reasonable cost.
Oceanview's bid of $23,000 is within City Manager purchasing authority. Working closely
with the City IT Manager, Senior Consultant Ken Watts and President Dan Rico of
Oceanview Technologies will perform the steps required to prepare the ITSP. The project
is expected to be completed in early 2016 with an in person presentation of findings to
City Council shortly after. Staff will then use the ITSP recommendations in preparing the
upcoming IT budget that will be sent to City Council for approval as part of the FY16-17
budget process.
CONCLUSION
It has become increasingly critical to coordinate initiatives from across the organization
with IT so that technology purchases are aligned with organization goals during the
annual planning and budgeting process. A third party analysis of the internal and external
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FIVE-YEAR IT STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE
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environment is an important component of the process to insure that technology
purchases are indeed aligned with organizational goals. The Five-Year ITSP will be a
step-by-step roadmap to follow as the City plans IT related purchases and initiatives.
Attachments:
Attachment A - 5 Year Strategic Plan Scope of Work
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Presented to:
The City of Ranchos Palos Verdes
Attn: Dan Landon
Honorable City Council of the City of Rancho Palos Verdes
Five Year IT Strategic Plan Proposal
Presented by:
Oceanview Technologies
Ken Watts
Daniel Rico
OVTech.net
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Plan Proposal
In response to your inquiry regarding the development of a Five Year IT Strategic Plan for the City of
Rancho Palos Verdes (City,) Oceanview Technologies LLC (OVTech) is pleased to present the following
project summary information proposal and pricing.
The objective of this project is to articulate a vision for the technology requirements in support of the
goals for the City of Ranch Palos Verdes, and provide a roadmap to achieve the stated goals. This will be
accomplished through detailed analysis and documentation resulting in a complete guiding document
that can be used to plan information technologies and systems into the foreseeable future.
Deliverables
The Five Year IT Strategic Plan will provide analysis and documentation with the following sections:
1. Current state of technology in the City (typically 6 to 10 pages):
o Status of existing technology implementations including design effectiveness, estimated life
cycles, flexibility and sustainability of solutions.
o Projects and plans currently in process of implementation.
o Analysis of previously documented assessments including the 2008 Management Partners,
2011 Nexlevel IT Assessment and 2012 Matrix reports.
o Existing management and governance including current policy and procedures and formal
and informal practices and strategies.
2. Desired future state of technology in the City (typically 8 to 12 pages):
o Analysis of public desires through a select group of like municipalities and or digital
communities' from available documentation and plans locally and across the state.
o Determine organizational goals and priorities through interviews with City management,
staff, stakeholders and other leadership.
o Analysis of appropriate technologies, best practices, techniques, standards, and governance
steps should be implemented to best position technology to accomplish the identified City
goals.
3. Roadmap for success (typically 8 to 12 pages):
o Articulate the overall cohesive vision for accomplishing the desired goals over the next five
years.
o Identify the specific resources required to achieve the identified goals, taking into account
industry trends, emerging technologies, budget considerations, timeframes, and public
demands.
o Recommended changes to processes and procedures required by the projected changes in
the technical environment.
o Recommended process to insure the Five Year Strategic Plan is updated and conforms to
annual changes in the market, goals and capabilities.
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o Present findings and recommendations to City Management and City Council to validate the
rationale behind the recommendations in order to increase the likelihood that
recommendations will be implemented and improvements will result in positive change.
Scope of Work
The scope of the Five Year Strategic Plan development process includes:
• Evaluation of the City's current technology environment, including services provided
infrastructure, existing business systems, funding, service methodologies, organizational
structure, service agreements, and governance to determine satisfaction, adherence to best
practices, and alignment with strategic goals.
• Conduct interviews with policy makers, City Council, City Management, City Staff, and other
stakeholders to obtain insight on desired technology state in support of City goals.
• Document deficiencies in areas where City technology is not aligned with established best
practices, is not positioned for optimal stability or flexibility to remain nimble enough to react to
changes in the external environment, or opportunities to improve fiscal responsibility.
• Evaluate the City's current business process requirements and recommend technologies that
will enhance productivity, satisfy public demand for increased services, or provide needed
functionality and services in support of the future goals.
• Document the City's desired future technology environment, including enhancements to
current services provided, establishment of future capabilities in support of City goals,
infrastructure, systems, funding, service methodology, governance, organizational structure and
service agreements to ensure the City's ability to effectively use technology to support business
goals.
• Create a Five Vear IT Strategic Plan that fully documents all findings and provides a
recommended process with flexibility to plan for adjustments over the next five year period.
• Present findings to City Management, and provide a presentation with findings,
recommendations and rationale of the Five Year IT Strategic Plan at a City Council meeting.
Experience:
Oceanview Technologies staff have served in technical and management capacities in numerous
organizations, and have completed strategic or governance projects including:
• The City of Rancho Palos Verdes -Network analysis and creation of a full document library
• The City of Big Bear Lake -Director of Technology-Completed a 5 Year Strategic Plan
• The City of Rialto -Contracted Chief Information Officer -Documented Strategic Plan
• Loyola Marymount University -Network and Security analysis
• Ernst & Young I Kenneth Leventhal -Merger analysis and technical roadmap documentation
To accomplish the plan objectives as summarized above, Oceanview Technologies has assembled a team
of experts, each with extensive background and experience:
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Ken Watts -Project Manager, Analyst, Systems Engineer
Ken Watts brings over 36 years of IT experience including over 20 years in municipal and
public agency specific IT management. He has led similar strategic IT planning efforts
for a number of public agencies including the City of Rialto, Rim of the World School
District, and the City of Big Bear Lake, and has completed hundreds of hardware and
software project implementations
Ken will assume overall responsibility for the effort, research and collection of
information, interface with City management, authoring of the final documentation, and
presentation to the City Management and Council.
Daniel Rico -Systems/ Business Analyst, Manager, Network Engineer
Daniel Rico is a Systems and Business Analyst with extensive working knowledge of
network infrastructures, security methodologies, and administration and engineering.
He has worked with organization large and small including Ernst & Young, Grant
Thornton, Loyola Marymount University, and countless others. He brings with him over
twenty years of hands-on experience in a technical role alone with interfacing with C
and D level leaders and managers.
Dan will be conducting interviews, surveys, organizing meetings, and will examine and
review all resulting input. From the insight he gains, he will investigate and analyze
appropriate systems and process changes, and then provide essential input,
documentation and engineering requirements.
James Pavlick-Project Engineer/ Architect, Programmer, Systems Engineer
James Pavlick is an Advanced Systems Engineer, Programmer, and System Architect with
over nineteen years of experience utilizing various programming languages and
frameworks. James has provided companies large and small with significant
improvement in their information systems technologies, and provided the
methodologies to better manage critical systems and applications. James played a key
role in the development of the RFP for the City of Ranchos Palos Verdes, and continues
to serve the City with Sr. level technical skills.
James will provide a thorough analysis of systems technical architecture including
applications analysis and network documentation. He will provide all technical research
on current systems and will lead and organize technical meetings.
Proposed Pricing:
Oceanview Technologies will provide the resources as indicated above at an hourly rate of $110.00, and
not exceed a total of $23,000.00, billed at the end of each of the below phases after sign off of
milestone and approval of the City IT Manager.
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5 Year IT Strategic Plan -Estimated Hours
Praje · Syste ms I Business Project Tota~ 'EStimated
Ma nager Ana lyst Engineer J Arch itect HGurs
Evaluate Current Technology 7 12 10 29
Conduct Interviews 16 8 3 27
Document Deficiencies 10 10 10 30
Evaluate Business Processes 15 15 10 40
Document Future
Environment 20 15 5 40
Create IT Strategic Plan 40 40
Presentation to Council 3 3
Project Total 209
The table represents an estimated breakdown of hours by role.
Any related work out of scope or not part of this effort will be billed at the project rate above, and prior
approval will be obtained from the City IT Manager or appropriate manager.
Conclusion:
Oceanview Technologies is uniquely qualified to prepare this Five Year IT Strategic Plan because of our
intimate knowledge of the current state of technology at the City. Oceanview provided detailed
documentation and systems analysis for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes during the 2014 Request for
Proposal (RFP) process for an IT Services Provider. Oceanview is also unique in the market because in
addition to our strategic planning expertise, we provide technical staff directly to numerous other public
and private companies and have an intimate understanding of the real world challenges in
implementing transformative technologies.
This recent knowledge of the systems, network, and business units at the City of Rancho Palos Verdes
along with real world day-to-day technical experience will allow Oceanview to quickly assess the current
environment in comparison with similar organizations. Our experience enhances our ability to align the
City's business unit and overall goals with the City's strategic plan for Information Systems and
Technology, delivering the most effective planning document possible.
The Oceanview Technologies project team brings over 70 years of combined experience in the practical
application of Information Systems, a strategic knowledge of industry trends past and present, and a
sincere desire to improve Information Systems and Technologies for all our clients. We appreciate and
thank the City of Ranchos Palos Verdes for the opportunity to serve.
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