2018-2022 Financial Plan

CFS – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Services Provided The goal of the Information Technology Department (IT) is to enable the City to leverage technology solutions that meet business objectives while providing an excellent customer experience. The IT Department is also responsible for managing corporate computing devices, data resources and hardware and software infrastructure. The IT team supports the operation of 425+ business computers, 100+ servers, 1000+ networked devices and all associated telecommunications, applications and databases across 10 locations. More than 20 different enterprise-wide business systems run on the computing network, including financials, property, taxation, payroll, asset management, budget, recreation, business licences, incident management, action requests and the Geographic Information System. The department maintains corporate communications assets which include telephone, email, networks, switches and servers. Beyond day-to-day operations, the department also coordinates strategic technology direction and investments, develops common standards and architectures and provides business solutions to help frontline departments deliver public services efficiently. A major service area for the department is in providing technical advice, data management and reporting as well as developing business solutions to maximize the use of our technology investments and add value to the business units in their use of information technology.

2018 Workplan Emphasis One of our IT strategic priorities is the continual focus on improving efficiency to get the most out of our available resources. We will achieve this by implementing a new technology configuration in the Blaney Room, building a Business Planning Tool which will allow staff to manage their business plan items in an online database and undertaking a no cost pilot project to inventory all signs with the use of cameras. If this is successful, there will be significant cost savings in staff time for collecting and maintaining sign inventory. Maple Ridge citizens are expecting easier and greater access to City information and services, outside normal business hours anywhere and at any time. Growth of our online self-services is a strategic priority, as defined in the IT Strategic Plan. To address this demand we will increase access with the introduction of a Tax and Utility IntelliSearch and complete negotiations with SHAW on their “GO” Wi-Fi project. To maintain a dependable and reliable computing environment we will review mobile inspection software for the Fire Department, consolidate Enterprise Applications into a single Database Platform (Tempest, Amanda, Crystal Reports, Cemetery, GIS, Hyperion, ROSS Financials, Empath), ensure we are licensed appropriately for our growing infrastructure, upgrade desktop operating systems and office productivity software, increase security and undertake a System Architecture Review for Data and Reporting.

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