HomeMy Public PortalAbout11-InfoSys 03.2020 Dept RptMemo
To: City Council
From: Chris Curtin, Information Systems Manager
CC: Anette Spickard, City Manager
Date: 04/09/2020
Re: Monthly Department Report — March 2020
City of McCa11
1. Personnel:
Information Systems Staff are considered essential employees. Both Chris and Vlatko are working
from home during the COVID-19 shutdown. Our cell phone #'s and desk phone extensions continue
to be available to Staff and Council during business hours as well as after hours on a limited basis.
2. Network Infrastructure, Projects and Services:
InfoSys is beginning the project to convert City file shares into SharePoint making access to the
internal file structure simpler. We are accelerating this project with our professional services partner
Xerillion and hope to have it complete before the end of April. Council will see the contract for these
services at the April 9 meeting.
3. Software Applications and Services:
Current infrastructure design, with Staff working remotely, seems to be working very well. VoIP
phones allow Staff to answer phones without being at their desk and Office 365 (Outlook and Teams
particularly) has made a relatively seamless transition possible. There are some challenges with a few
of the larger software packages (Caselle — e.g.) that are cumbersome to use via VPN.
InfoSys staff worked with McCall Donnelly School District (MDSD) to enable free WIFI on both the
City Campus and the MDSD High School campus as a way for the community to get free access to
the internet via WIFI hot spots. Members of the Community can pull up to the Library, the High
School main parking lot and the parking lot at the corner of Stibnite and Mission and get onto
"McCallWifi". The idea was to make it easy for families to get free access to the technology they need
to get their kids back to school via online resources. Basically, becoming a virtual coffee shop. This
information is available on the City website and Facebook and will be updated with other locations as
they become known. The City GIS department, Garrett Mapp, helped create a map of the locations
that will also be published.
Monthly Department Report —Information Systems