To: Board of Supervisors
Department or Agency Name(s): Information Systems Department
Staff Name and Phone Number: John Hartwig 565-6055
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Information Systems Department Reorganization
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Approve Information Systems Department organizational change. (4/5th Vote Required)
end
Executive Summary:
County Administrative Policy currently requires certain types of departmental organizational changes be approved by the Board of Supervisors. This item presents recommended organizational changes that: 1) consolidates two operating Divisions (Systems and Programing Division and the Information Management Division) into a single Enterprise Development Services Division, 2) formalize a Division level project management team to focus on Innovation Services and special projects and; 3) establishes an Assistant Department Director position. This re-organization will also reposition existing services related to Business Resiliency/Disaster Recovery, Cybersecurity, and Innovation Services to report to the Assistant Department Director. This change will improve operational focus and visibility of critical cross-departmental functions.
The changes will improve cross-technology team collaboration, help position the department for improved technology efficiencies in operations, and establish a sustained focus on both technology innovation and security management, in a manner that leverages all functional area resources. Refining the executive management structure will enhance succession planning and make sure department operational capabilities are both maintained and improved.
The Information Systems Department Director believes these changes are critical to position the department for continuous improvement in departmental operations and help clarify technology plans and roadmaps to best address existing and new opportunities. This item presents organizational change concepts and seeks approval to move forward with appropriate classification and allocation changes to implement the organization changes. These organizational changes will not increase the department’s position allocations or the adopted FY 19-20 budget.
Discussion:
County Administrative Policy 4-5 requires departments to obtain Board approval on certain types of departmental organizational changes. This item seeks Board of Supervisor approval on the Information Systems Department’s recommended organizational changes. This item discusses the concepts and recommendations. Actual job classification changes and position allocation changes will be addressed in future administrative actions to implement this report’s recommended changes. The department’s overall position allocations will not increase as a result of these actions and no additional funding in the adopted FY 19-20 budget will be needed to implement the recommendations.
County of Sonoma’s Information Systems Department provides a portfolio of information technology services and products to all County departments and many special agencies/districts. Currently the department consists of 116.5 full-time employees (FTE). Program and service areas include: service desk and desktop support (incident, work request, software and account management, annual device replacement, etc.); data center operations (servers, storage, databases, backup systems, etc.), networks and communications systems (campus, remote sites, internet connectivity, security systems, etc.); systems and application development (business analysis, application programming and maintenance, vendor coordination, data integration, etc.); information management (web development and site maintenance, geographical information systems, electronic document management, records management, mail services); and administrative functions (HR, fiscal, procurement, facilities).
Information Systems services are critical to virtually all department’s business operations and provide both personal and organizational productivity. The systems and tools in the County technology portfolio amplify the abilities of employees to deliver County services with improved work processes and information access. Effective management helps coordinate and deliver support services to make sure an appropriate level of expertise and knowledge is available across the diverse set of technologies to deliver a timely and highly reliable resource to County departments and the public.
Recent vacancies in senior management have emphasized the importance of maintaining a leadership structure that is responsive to evolving technology needs and innovation at the County of Sonoma. The organizational structure of the department has been relatively unchanged for 10+ years with internal adjustments and consolidation of work under the existing structure. Information Systems leadership worked with one of the County’s leading organizational consultants, Delia and Associates, to evaluate the department’s structure. Changes were recommended that will facilitate organizational efficiencies, innovation, and a focus on critical cross-functional Information Technology management functions. These changes will clarify reporting structures needed to increase hands-on leadership of specific areas deemed critical to success.
Organizational challenges:
• Information Systems has a complex set of highly specialized functions that need to work well together to accomplish objectives consistent with enterprise Information Technology development and operating needs. This includes increasing compliance and risk mitigation requirements associated with cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, and interoperability. The specialized functions can present organizational inefficiencies as work efforts needed for the specialized functions compete with ongoing operational requirements for each of the functional areas.
• Prioritization of support efforts to maintain production environments also competes with increasing needs to improve our focus and work efforts on disaster resiliency, IT recovery, and innovation initiatives. The competing priorities can cause significant challenges when trying to maintain forward movement on the initiatives that often get interrupted with everyday production issues within functional areas.
• Strategic planning and leadership outreach to insure Information Systems services are aligned to customer expectations is limited as increased activity has been needed to provide internal administrative and operational management oversight. This level of increased hands-on management will continue to be needed to help insure timeliness and quality of work on both initiatives and ongoing operations.
• Succession planning is a challenge with the current divisional focus that does not easily establish position(s) with appropriate responsibility and accountability in place across the whole department. Special assignments have helped initiate roles important to developing leadership skills across all department functions but certain gaps continue to exist as turnover across all areas is expected to be significant due to retirements and regional competition for skilled IT staff.
As a result of these challenges and in consultation with Delia and Associates, several organization objectives have been identified:
• Incorporate a balanced management structure with appropriate responsibility, accountability and agility.
• Increase leadership capacity to help improve the needed hands-on management and staff support.
• Consolidate two of the three technology oriented operating divisions to achieve balanced and appropriate management and supervisory spans of control.
• Remove critical cross-functional resources from individual operating divisions to create more streamlined reporting directly to department leadership and to improve focus for these critical functions across the full department.
Specific recommendations are as follows:
• Establish an Assistant Department Director to expand leadership capacity and to improve operational oversight across all department functions. This new position will be off-set by the elimination of one vacant Administrative Aide position and salary and services/supplies savings.
• Consolidate the Information Management Division and the Systems Programing Division into a single Enterprise Development Services Division. This new division will include approximately the same employee count as the Technology Services Division for a balanced span of control in operating divisions.
• Reposition three Project Manager Positions from the Information Management Division, and an Administrative Aide position from the Administration Division to report directly to the Innovation Services Division Director expanding our focus on outreach, innovation and special projects.
• Realign the existing Security Analyst (Senior Systems Analyst), the Disaster Recovery Analyst (Senior Systems Analyst) from the Technical Services Division along with a vacant Project Manager Positon in the Information Management Division to a work group reporting directly to the Assistant Department Director.
Attachments A and B are provided as an anticipated before/after organization chart. Human Resources will complete a classification study for the Assistant Department Director and a future consent item will be submitted to align the effected positions with the correct budget unit and to formalize any resulting classification and position allocation changes.
These organizational changes are anticipated to be implemented in a cost and position neutral manner, and no negative impacts to incumbent employees are expected.
The Information Systems Director recommends these changes as a sound approach to address current challenges and to establish an equitable executive management structure for the Department as we move into the future. Human Resources has reviewed the concepts and supports these recommendations.
Prior Board Actions:
N/A
Fiscal Summary
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
Detailed explanations of fiscal impacts will be included in a future Board report, which will entail the actual implementation items such as position allocation changes. The cost of adding an Assistant Director will be offset by the deletion of a vacant Administrative Aide and salary and services/supplies savings.
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
Detailed position allocation changes will be included in a future Board report. Information Systems anticipates deleting one vacant allocation and adding one allocation for the new position of Assistant Director.
Attachments:
Attachment A Current Information Systems Department Organization Chart.
Attachment B Anticipated Information Systems Organization Chart.
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board: