Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution to review and adopt FY 2022/23 – 2026/27 Union City Information Technology Services (ITS) Department Five-Year Strategic Roadmap (attached as Exhibit A).

Goal D.: Create a healthy, sustainable community and maintain and improve the City infrastructure.

Strategy 3: Establish an IT committee to prioritize technology investments and implement the citywide information  technology plan.

In 2019 the City was hit by a cyber-attack.  The catastrophic impact to the information technology (IT) systems demonstrated the critical importance of IT services to the operations of the City.   IT services are used daily by employees to interact with vendors, the public, and colleagues to provide effective community services.  In the last three years, the City has completed many IT projects to restore services and improve the systems in place.  Some of these projects include overhauling the City email and office applications to Office 365, upgrading the server computing infrastructure, increasing and upgrading the SAN storage, and rebuilding the City data backup system.  New security systems and training were put in place to protect computer and server assets.  A new 24/7 security operation center was enabled to monitor and react to the constant influx of new cyber threats. 

The IT projects to date have been mostly driven by changing security threats, ITS Department driven changes, or other department requests.  Historically, there was no formal methodology for prioritizing projects or resources, and projects would often fall to “first come first served” basis.  The ITS Department has, and continues, to evolve from solely responding to immediate needs to better anticipating and planning for future department needs.  This Strategic Roadmap is a major milestone in that evolvement.

Staff is presenting the City’s first Information Technology Strategic Roadmap that focuses the City’s resources on the efficient and effective use of technology to deliver City services.  The Plan describes the ITS Department, the strategic technology goals, and provides an overview of the general trends in technology. The ITS Department is responsible for delivering technology and support services to City departments. 

The Strategic Roadmap includes the IT vision, mission, and values to govern the daily actions of the ITS Department and to plan for new technology projects.  The Strategic Roadmap proposes a methodology for decision-making related to new technology and describes ITS funding.  The Plan defines the IT strategic initiatives as well as specific projects over a five-year period from FY 2022/23 through FY 2026/27. The projects listed in the Strategic Roadmap will be reviewed and revised, as necessary, on an annual basis to remain current with the City’s evolving IT environment, prioritized by the City Council, City leadership and the future IT Governance Committee.

The Plan discusses three multi-year goals. Each goal has multiple strategies to achieve that goal. 

• Goal A: Technology – To ensure the City has sufficient software, hardware and security to deliver efficient services and safeguard data.
  
  
•  Goal B: Infrastructure Support – To provide adequate infrastructure to house, maintain, and connect the City’s IT services. This includes adequate and reliable power, environmental controls that are energy efficient and effective, and security appropriate to the preservation of public records.

•  Goal C: IT Governance, Training and Staffing – To enable City staff to be proficient in the use of technology and to ensure there are sufficient skills held both by department and expert technology staff to carry out the City’s IT mission.

The City is positioned for success with the development of this Strategic Roadmap that provides a plan for future information technology resource and funding investments. It is the result of a collaborative effort by all departments and the City leadership.  The Roadmap is a living document that requires the commitment of all City departments for the City to realize the associated benefits from carrying out the strategies, while balancing the daily departmental operations. The next step in the strategic planning process is to develop detailed implementation plans to identify specific actions, schedules and timeframes, and resource requirements such as staffing and funding for the projects identified in the Roadmap.

There is no fiscal impact associated with adopting the Strategic Roadmap. 

ITS Department strategies that have not been previously budgeted, or those which result in additional funding needs, will be requested through the City’s annual budget process or the appropriate approval process.

Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution to review and adopt the FY 2022/23 – 2026/27 Union City Information Technology Services Department Five-Year Strategic Roadmap.

Mario Vallejo, Information Technology Director

Mario Vallejo, Information Technology Director