Department of Information Technology

Charles Henderson, Chief Information Officer

ADOPTED FY23 BUDGET

$11,223,416

Department Mission

FULL TIME EQUIVALENTS

60.5

The mission of the Department of Information Technology (IT) is to partner with county departments, offices, agencies, and organizations to determine where and how information technology can be used to improve the services these teams deliver. The department is working to improve communication with residents through web‐based technologies and to provide applications for county departments to create new operational efficiencies and communication improvements. The department will continue to focus on process automation allowing customers to access government services through the county’s websites at their convenience, using any device.

Budget Overview

The 2023 adopted budget for the Department of Information Technology is $11,223,416, a decrease of $543,421or 4.6 percent from the 2022 adjusted budget of $11,766,837. Personnel costs comprise 48.4 percent of the budget for 62 positions (60.5 full time equivalents). Operating expenses account for the 51.6 percent of the budget.

Significant Changes

The adopted budget includes items to support the department’s continuing goal of modernization of communications such as $85,000 for construction costs of a digital public notice display, $30,000 for telephone message management enhancements, $80,000 for secure employee access to resources on the external CountyNet 2.0 employee portal. Additionally, the budget includes contractual pricing increases.

The County Council reduced the department’s budget by $1,041,303 (8.5%) compared to the County Executive’s recommendation to remove the value of 75% of vacant positions.

Core Business Functions

The Department of Information Technology is responsible for the management of:

→ County website and internet‐based communications

→ Email systems, databases, mapping, and other core applications

→ Network and server infrastructure

→ PC support

→ Custom applications

→ Cybersecurity

Programs And Services

Geospatial

Enterprise GIS manages the St. Louis County Geographic Information System (STLCGIS). St. Louis County’s cooperative, multi‐department, GIS approach allows IT to focus on the specifics of the enterprise approach to GIS. It provides efficient, high‐quality GIS leadership, coordination, infrastructure, and services to meet the business needs of our customers and clients in St Louis County Government.

Service Management / Automation

Service Management and Automation offers digital management services that provide online access to critical services both internally and externally. This offering also allows for enhanced process automation, allowing for efficient processing of customer requests both internally and externally. In addition, it connects all the processes to the county’s web presence allowing for multiple connection points for customers to engage in these services.

Remote Work Force Support / Hybrid Conference Rooms / WebEx Events

Remote Work Force Support provides technical support for a secure remote workforce for St. Louis County as well as hybrid conference rooms supporting both remote workers and in person collaboration. It offers a secure remote public meeting services via scheduled WebEx Events ensuring no interruptions of critical public communications on the operations of county government.

Application Development

Application Development is a team of software development professionals who create stunning modern, mobile first applications for operating systems or devices. In addition, they oversee the entire life cycle of a software application. The team designs and creates application code and tests the product for functionality and errors. In addition, the team must ensure other requirements are met, such as performance and security as well pieces of project management discipline.

Web Development

The Web Development Team is responsible for the coding, design and layout of the county's public facing website according to the county's standards and specifications. The team takes into consideration user experience and function, with a focus toward mobile first approach in both graphic design and user experience.

Business Analysis

Business Analysts engage with county leaders and users to understand how data‐driven changes to processes, products, services, software, and hardware can improve efficiencies and add value. They must articulate those ideas and are responsible for bridging the gap between IT, county departments and offices. The Business Analysts use data analytics to assess processes, determine requirements, deliver data‐driven recommendations and reports to leadership and development teams.

Application Management

Application Managers oversee software applications as well as software and system upgrades. They plan out which software applications are needed for smooth operations and supervise the installation and daily maintenance of those applications, as well as the associated network and hardware installations. They are responsible for the access and education of enterprise‐wide systems and ensuring that those systems remain current and add value to the county. In addition, they provide no/low code implementation of solutions via the configurations of the various applications in place.

Infrastructure

The Infrastructure Team is responsible for managing the back‐end computing environment for the county. This includes on premises servers and associated hardware, as well as cloud services which allows departmental, enterprise, and vendor solutions to operate on our network. The team is responsible for several county‐wide enterprise systems such as data backups, software delivery, email, collaboration, and management systems that allow us to manage the workstation and server environments. The team also provides Tier 3 problem resolution support for all county users and after hours on call support.

Desktop Support

The Desktop Support Team is responsible for Tier 1 and Tier 2 problem resolution for all county users. The Help Desk is the first line resolution for technical support. The Help Desk provides technical assistance and support for incoming phone calls and emails related to computers systems, software, and hardware. The team is responsible for computer hardware maintenance and repair and software systems support. Services include technical support in the diagnosis and resolution of complex software and hardware incidents, requests, and problems. Additionally, the team builds and deploys all new computer systems and is responsible for network cable terminations.

Information Security

The Information Security Team is charged with implementing technology and training needed to protect county government from hackers, malware, and other cyber threats. The team is responsible for reviewing data transmission and storage to verify technology and processes meet the regulations the county is required to adhere to. Information Security is the cornerstone of the county’s IT enterprise. Using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework as a guide, the county rebuilt its program over the past four years to address security gaps in all IT disciplines. Additionally, the Information Security team is responsible for the implementation and management of effectively administering the Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) security practices along with adherence to regulatory compliance requirements.

Network

The Network Team is contracted to Regional Justice Information Services (REJIS) and maintains the county’s enterprise networking infrastructure. The team ensures stable connectivity between the county’s disparate systems, locations, and remote connectivity. The team also provides Tier 3 support for all county users and after hours on call support.

Telecommunications

The Telecommunications Team oversees all aspects of telecommunications which includes the enterprise Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone systems, cell phone management, Call Center management, wide area network circuits, telecom circuits and billing. The team also provides Tier 1 – Tier 3 telecom support for all county users and after hours on call support.

Strategic Priorities And Performance Metrics

 Priority 1 (IT1.1): Reduce the likelihood of an attack penetrating layered defenses (GG – Efficient and Responsible)

 Priority 2 (IT1.2): Minimize the possible damage done by a successful attack (GG – Efficient and Responsible)

 Priority 3 (IT1.3): Be able to rapidly recover from an attack (GG – Efficient and Responsible)

 Priority 1 (IT2.1): Improve resident and employee experience when consuming county services (GG ‐ Efficient and Responsible)

 Priority 2 (IT2.2): Build capacity to track and generate metrics on all interactions. (GG – Improve Effectiveness)

 Priority 3 (IT2.3): Develop the ability to push knowledge and self‐service to reduce wait times and employee workload. (GG – Improve Effectiveness)

 Priority 4 (IT2.4): Provide high quality internal customer service. (GG – Constituent Experience)

 Priority 1 (IT3.1): Eliminate or replace hardware and software that introduces risks for support and security as well as systems that do not provide the functionality or data needed by the business unit (GG – Efficient and Responsible)

 Priority 2 (IT3.2): Make data contained in old systems available and accessible to other applications and dashboards (GG – Improve Effectiveness)

 Priority 1 (IT4.1): Map, analyze, optimize, and automate the most time‐intensive processes (GG – Improve Effectiveness)

How well did we do? (Quality)

Is anyone better off? (Effectiveness)

Note: an “x” included in a performance metric data field means that data has not historically been reported. The 2023 business plan includes many new performance metrics where the department will capture and report data going forward.