The Elkhart County Story

Overview

Moser presented an IT staffing and operational transformation proposal for Elkhart County. Moser evaluated Elkhart County’s technology footprint and business priorities to identify areas of short-term and long-term focus. Moser conducted an Elkhart County Information Technology (IT) Assessment, including staff skill evaluations, technology footprint, and network/security evaluation. From the evaluation Moser created a list of priorities based on business input where immediate changes could result in the most immediate value to the County by conducting a full assessment. Additionally, Moser became an active consultant to the county and the IT organization to implement changes, focus on IT Service Management best practices, and execute projects focused on the identified priorities.

IT Assessment

During the assessment, Moser determined that the IT staff, while skilled, lacked an operational cadence with silos of knowledge across the team. The team was not using common best practices outlined in an IT framework like ITIL where information could be gathered and knowledge created to simplify resolution of common technology issues. Additionally, the county has a highly complex technology footprint which stretched the IT team’s capacity and Moser was able to identify skill gaps where vendor relationships were used to try to fill those gaps.

The assessment was used to identify immediate priorities and develop a long-term strategic plan.

• Highest Priorities to address in the first 6 months.

  • IT Operational Effectiveness – Moser spent time understanding how IT delivers technology solutions, the engagement of IT with County Departments, and the effectiveness of IT delivery of solutions.

    • Institute ITIL framework best practices to address IT delivery deficiencies.

    • Collect technology asset details within county, providing basic needs (i.e. PCs, network), implement technology standards, refresh best practices.

    • Institute an operational cadence within the IT organization to focus on prioritization of issues and remove knowledge silos within the IT organization.

  • Elkhart County IT budget planning and scope appropriate for their technology footprint.

    • Consolidate vendor contracts across the county.

    • Address technology asset inventory, address standardization of technology and direct spend into standard negotiated contracts.

    • Renegotiate contracts with new contracts based on business needs and demands.

  • Elkhart County IT vendor relationships and evaluation of existing contracts.

    • Review vendor contracts in place and assess their return on investment to the business.

    • Review vendor system needs provided to the business and address operational deficiencies in service delivery and support.

    • Negotiate optimal contracts which provide county with best-in-class solutions within cost impacts to the county.

• Future priorities for Elkhart County require longer business engagement timelines. These priorities are part of a one-to-five year strategic plan developed by Moser.

• Identification of duplicate technology and consolidation to a single solution where cost and business priorities align.

• Identification of end-of-life and aged technology which can be replaced by current technology.

• Establish a technology assessment and vendor evaluation process across the county for technology acquisition. Build relationships with departments (business partners) to collaborate in selecting technology which aligns with county technology standards and practices. Establish a tool for county officials to verify technology standards are aligned. Ensure a cloud-first approach is prioritized over IT managed systems with priorities on vendor technology, security best practices, and legal compliance to county expectations.

• Establish a datacenter strategy which focuses on cloud-first applications with hybrid/private cloud as business needs for critical systems.

• Simplify vendor relationships and consolidate to single vendors for non-core IT functions like physical security and printer/copier functions.

IT Operational Effectiveness

The Moser team worked with county leadership and IT to reach out to departments (business partners) to establish relationships and identify pain points. We used an ITIL based product set to develop a single point of contact for the IT department and establish SLAs to meet the technology issues impacting the business. We also implemented an IT cadence focused on business priorities, issue prioritization, and IT team collaboration to break down silos of knowledge. 

The Moser team worked directly with the IT organization to establish an operational cadence where daily issues are prioritized, cross collaboration is part of daily operations, and project priorities are evaluated in relationship to daily issue management.

In collaboration with county IT and Moser, the IT team established daily stand-ups for the IT team to set the priorities of issues and projects. IT Project Management skillset was introduced to the management department and county-wide projects were established to ensure a balance of daily issues and projects.

Finally, once established cadence and operational effectiveness was achieved, the Moser team evaluated county IT for gaps in skillset and ongoing needs to support the county’s technology footprint. Considering IT workload, SLAs and technology demands, we developed a staffing plan which provides the minimum required staff to support all county technology. The long-term goal is to simplify the technology footprint, push application support to vendors through effective technology selection, push knowledge to Tier 1 Support and end users, and transform the IT organization into a project and consultant-based support organization to departments (business partners).

In Summary

Moser recommends taking a wholistic approach to evaluating a county’s IT department to ensure it is able to fill critical skill gaps, develop staff, mature operational practices, and strengthen cybersecurity, ensuring reliable and strategic IT support for county operations. Moser has helped Elkhart County save $1.2M annually on IT vendor contracts in 6 months. We have improved their IT service delivery, making it more effective and efficient. We have built partnerships with county departments, helping them find technology solutions to meet their ongoing technology needs. And we have helped establish a culture of collaboration and partnership between departments and the county IT organization.