HomeMy Public PortalAbout16-InfoSys Department Report March 2020
Monthly Department Report – Information Systems
Memo
To: City Council
From: Chris Curtin, InfoSys Manager
Date: 3/12/2020
Re: Monthly Department Report – February 2020
1. Network Infrastructure, Projects and Services:
The system experienced an outage related to our firewall that revealed a needed change in our
infrastructure. Basically, we had a single point of failure that took our internet connection offline. As
the City moves more toward internet hosted applications, this legacy design would be an Achilles heel
to our ability to do business. Staff worked to redesign the front-end connectivity to provide for a
hardware failover by adding a redundant firewall. Additionally, a failover for the primary internet
connection to the CableOne connection was added effectively making it unlikely that we would
experience a true outage going forward.
2. Personnel:
Laserfiche Empower (attended by Chris Curtin (IS), Amanda Payne (Clerk) and Julia Kolano (PD))
was a tremendous resource of information. Laserfiche continually expands their product to meet end
users needs. This year, they introduced Artificial Intelligence and Workflow Bots that can pull
information from any application without the need for custom programming or interfaces. I foresee the
City benefitting greatly by leveraging this technology going forward. It will create efficiencies which
will save taxpayer money and reduce error and redundancy in our processes and procedures.
3. Software Applications and Services:
IT will be spearheading a new training initiative. Staff has asked for training on applications and
programs to give them a more in-depth view into the software they encounter in their day to day
operations. A survey to staff will be sent out to determine what type of training will be most appreciated
– online, lunch and learn etc – and what applications staff has the most questions about. I expect that
this will be an ongoing initiative.