Information Technology Services

Gwinnett County will be a leader as a model of excellence and innovation in the use of technology, which enables business practices that foster better government.

• Solution Delivery - Enhance constituent interaction by providing solutions that will improve the quality and efficiency of services using technology, where appropriate
• Enterprise Architecture - Provide and support a current, stable, secure, flexible and supportable standards-based technology infrastructure
• Centralized Technology Funding - Maintain a centralized IT funding model, enabling timely strategic investments
• Governance - Provide enabling IT policies and procedures that encourage collaboration and guide County organizations in planning, deployment and maintenance of IT solutions
• Privacy and Security - Provide centralized technology security oversight and direction
• Information Technology Workforce Management - Implement strategies to recruit, retain, and invest in a highly-skilled technology workforce that is available, trained, and effectively employed to efficiently achieve Countywide objectives

DoITS has a number of strategic objectives focused on a variety of areas that enable the enterprise.

Enterprise Architecture: DoITS will define and deploy a robust Enterprise Architecture model that provides guidance and support to all County organizations. The Enterprise Architecture provides the roadmap to the future by aligning the business processes that are executed throughout the County with the solutions and technologies that support those business processes. This alignment of business and technology helps to identify redundant solutions, common requirements and processes, and opportunities for shared solutions. This approach yields significant cost savings and improved efficiencies for the County. Defining an enterprise architecture is instrumental in the selection of new technologies and solutions and ultimately builds the foundation for the County's overall technology direction.

DoITS will publish a Countywide business model that will enable the alignment of technology and business processes. This architecture will integrate the Countywide Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution with business processes to leverage the significant investment that has been made and improve operational efficiencies. All enterprise architecture documents will be published so that all facets of the enterprise are aware of the overall technical architecture and can leverage it in a manner that future projects and IT initiatives reap tangible benefits through compliance.

Centralized Technology Funding: County government will maintain a centralized IT funding model, enabling timely strategic investments. Budget cycles rarely align well with IT investment opportunities or the IT needs of County organizations. A centralized funding model will provide County leaders the flexibility to invest in technologies and solutions in the most cost-effective and timely manner when needs or opportunities present themselves outside the traditional County budget cycle. This will be established together with the Department of Financial Services (DoFS) to ensure that a framework for a centralized IT funding model, including allocation, administration, and governance policies and procedures are in place.

IT Availability and Reliability: The County will enable agility and realize additional computing capacity to address growing needs of all County organizations. With an increased focus on shared services and solutions, centralized hosting, and cost management, the availability and reliability of the County's technical infrastructure becomes more important than ever. Enhancing application reliability, using new technologies to deliver more robust and flexible citizen services, and continually improving operational processes will provide consistent improvements in availability and reliability. Centralized capacity planning will be used to address the goal of providing sufficient computing capacity to satisfy the County's growing business and IT needs. DoITS will maintain a centralized data center for the County, providing multiple active power and cooling distribution paths, redundant components and fault tolerance, and 99.995 percent availability. This center will offer increased security and capacity well into the future, including monitoring tools and metrics that will enhance systems' reliability and performance. DoITS also plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of a Countywide Business Continuity planning methodology and provides disaster recovery services for systems and services that are critical to the continuance of government.

Governance: County government will provide enabling IT policies and procedures that guide County organizations in deployment of IT solutions. IT organizations throughout the county require guidance and standard processes in order to deploy solutions that take advantage of developments in technology and services. Providing policies and guidelines, professional project management practices, along with common shared solutions, will result in reduced IT costs while deploying newer technologies that address County business needs. Shared solutions should be leveraged whenever possible to enable citizen access to government services.

DoITS also has an established project management office that delivers successful IT projects and programs and offers project management and organizational change management services to the County enterprise.

Privacy and Security: DoITS provides the County with centralized security oversight and direction that benefits the entire County and its partners by providing education, awareness, technologies, and practices that ensure consistent protection of the privacy and identity of every County employee and citizen, minimizing risk and protecting the County's assets. DoITS also provides the foundation to support and promote compliance with all laws and regulations regarding privacy and security with the versatility to evolve as requirements change. Confirmation of online identities helps reduce risk and protects information entrusted to the County with an enterprise approach to ensure conformity and uniformity across organizational boundaries.

Information Technology Workforce Management: DoITS has implemented strategies to recruit, retain, and invest in a highly-skilled technology workforce that is available, trained, and effectively employed to efficiently achieve Countywide objectives. With the increased focus on shared solutions and self service options for citizens, the county organizations will rely more heavily than ever on the IT workforce. It is incumbent upon the County to provide unparalleled career opportunities for professional growth and education for the IT workforce in order to ensure minimal turnover and maximum retention of its IT professionals.