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"CA has created a true partnership with Oakland County... The CA solutions...will help us achieve the county's goals for growth." |
A county transformed
Officially established in 1819, Oakland County has 82 governmental divisions and departments that serve more than a million people in 62 cities, villages and townships, as well as 200 public safety agencies that span southeast Michigan's seven counties. It's the second most populous county in Michigan, and the twenty-sixth most populous in the United States.
The county also has become the economic center for the state of Michigan. Oakland County now has the fourth-largest per capita income among similar-sized counties in the nation, and enjoys Moody Investors' highest bond rating: AAA. Managing this growth and success required strong business management capabilities and a nimble organization.
Manage growth, drive economic success
As business in the state of Michigan transitioned from manufacturing to a more knowledge-based economy, Oakland County needed to adapt to maintain job growth and a high quality of life.
Creating an environment that would be attractive to businesses in emerging sectors was the first priority. The county needed to focus on building an infrastructure with the services that would attract high-tech, high-paying jobs from the world's largest businesses. Under the direction of County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, several initiatives were started to help build and maintain the county's position as a leader in economic growth. These projects included Automation Alley, a consortium of high-tech businesses; Wireless Oakland, a county-wide wireless network; and an Emerging Sectors initiative, to attract businesses in growth industries.
Improve IT management processes
Two keys to success would be the ability to execute, and to align the various county agencies to support, each new initiative.
But with a basic technology infrastructure developed in the 1990s, the county was wrestling with the management of ongoing services — not to mention the management of new technology and growth initiatives.
"The backlog of jobs was high and there was little confidence in the county's IT department," says Phil Bertolini, Deputy County Executive and CIO. "The county knew this needed to change, and that the role of technology had to be business-driven in order for us to be successful."
IT governance aligned to the business
Oakland County needed to formalize and build out its IT Governance processes, both to get a handle on overall IT management, and to support new initiatives. The first order of business was to better capitalize on the county's Project Management Office (PMO). The PMO was designed to help the IT organization:
- Manage projects efficiently to keep costs under control
- Prioritize requests to optimize the use of IT resources
- Manage customer expectations to create better relationships
- Become more process-driven and adopt best practices to ensure that IT would be more responsive and effective moving forward
The county launched its PMO in 1997 using Project Workbench, and has since evolved to a complete solution for IT Governance using CA Clarity Project Portfolio Manager. This has enabled a master planning process that covers all the essential bases:
- Effectively allowing customers to articulate their IT needs
- Prioritizing and better managing the county's IT project portfolio
- Better assigning IT resources to meet those needs
- Creating a framework to measure and evaluate IT performance
Building stakeholder involvement
As project management performance steadily rose, so did customer confidence. The project management process was at once more efficient, transparent and customer-friendly.
As processes became more transparent, the department sought to further advance user participation. This culminated in the formation of County Leadership Groups. Drawing representatives from across county government, these groups are now responsible for developing a 24-month master plan that serves as a dynamic blueprint to measure each project according to three criteria: business need, expected ROI and alignment with the county's strategic objectives.
Employing best practice processes and training
Internally, Bertolini's team is working to further tighten up processes by developing and deploying ITIL-based best practices. These practices will first be applied in early 2007 to Incident and Problem Management; in the future, they will be extended to Configuration, Change and Release Management. According to Bertolini, ITIL is essential to the department's evolution; it will ensure customers that projects in Oakland County will benefit from the most sophisticated approaches to development, support and problem-solving in the industry.
To address cultural transformation, the department recently enrolled in CA's highly innovative ITIL Apollo 13 training program. The program, which simulates NASA's legendary, near-disastrous lunar mission, puts trainees in command of Mission Control and the fight to return the astronauts to earth. Says Bertolini: "It really brought home the impact ITIL can have to our team. We weren't able to bring the astronauts home on the first try, but after we improved our processes and communication, on the second try, we succeeded."
Lessons from Apollo 13 have led to a retooling of service support, based on CA's Service Management Solution. With help from CA's Technology Services Group, the department has taken a fresh approach to trouble-ticket management, including the introduction of a customer self-service portal. To an extent, these new processes have required retraining — both for county IT staff and users. The benefit, however, will be that IT plans to handle more calls and deliver much better service — and do it without adding additional people and costs.
Meeting goals for growth and economic leadership
Oakland County's approach to IT Governance and ITIL have aligned the county's IT resources to enable its growth objectives and maintain an economic leadership position, not only in the state of Michigan but across the country.
The implementation of best practices and the creation of a transparent organization have assisted Oakland County with planning for the official implementation of the Wireless Oakland project. Scheduled for completion in late 2008, it will make the county the first in the United States to provide free wireless Internet access to residents and visitors alike.
Through improved IT Governance, Oakland County has realized a host of quantifiable benefits in several critical areas:
SAVINGS FROM ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
- Reduced fixed labor expenses 8 percent by leveraging development across multiple entities
- Saved $10 million on development of a single Geographic Information System through an enterprise development approach
IMPROVED OPERATING EFFICIENCY
- Cut millions of dollars in costs through more effective management of vendors and selective outsourcing
- Increased productivity by 5 percent per employee (to date) through improved IT Governance
- Kept operational costs flat over the past five years even as the number and size of projects rose
- Vastly improved customer relations and confidence through better service — and better-managed expectations
GREATER ROI
- Achieved 193 percent ROI on the overall CA Clarity PPM implementation
- Business justification and ROI are now a requirement for every new project
In short, Oakland County has become a national example of what can happen when government agencies align IT with specific business objectives. "CA has created a true partnership with Oakland County," says Bertolini. "The CA solutions are critical to our IT Governance and ITIL strategies. They will help us achieve the county's IT goals."
Content posted on: 16 July 2007
