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Key Strategic Initiatives
The challenges currently faced by the County of Orange have never been greater – to be more efficient, cost effective, convenient and easily accessible to our constituents. A key element in meeting these challenges is to understand the business needs of the County and align the efforts of Information Technology to aid in meeting those needs. The Office of the CIO has collaborated with County business partners to ensure that the needs of County constituents are met through the implementation of strategic Information Technology initiatives. Some of these initiatives that are currently underway include; eGovernment (eGov), Public Mass Notification System (PMNS), Regional Wireless (WiFi) and the implementation of a 311 Service Center. These key initiatives are described below. Current initiatives that are underway include: eGov Initiative The eGovernment initiative is a re-design of the County's website using state-of-the-art Internet Portal, Content Management and Search technology. The new portal will enable the County to deliver more effective and efficient services to each of its constituent groups anytime, anywhere, 24/7. The eGOV Initiative moves Orange County in a direction to improve constituent services by availing services and information based on "Life Events" with improved navigation and consistency throughout the site. Citizens can more readily find the information they need through the new Internet portal without having to know which County Department delivers the services for which they are looking. Specific eGOV objectives include: - Improve Services: provide a more effective, integrated service delivery channel for information gathering and transaction processing that is timely, accurate, easy to use and available on demand.
- Improve Outreach and Prevention: promote greater understanding of, access to, and availability of government services and information, especially around prevention and early intervention programs.
- Increase Operational Efficiency: streamline internal business processes to increase employee productivity, decrease cycle time and reduce costs.
- Enhance OC Resident Participation: improve customers' access to information; get them more involved in government activities and decision-making.
- Redefine Communities: promote virtual communities for county-wide knowledge-sharing and collaboration, promote civic pride, and help bridge the digital divide by extending the reach of County online services.
- Improve Policy Formulation: help connect government decision-makers directly to their constituents and to each other.
- Enhance Economic Development: foster cooperative development and partnerships with the private sector; maintaining the County's reputation as a technology leader by streamlining business interactions with the County using Web technology.
The new Orange County Internet Portal technology will be launched in January 2008 with a subset of County Agencies, with the remaining agencies being converted throughout the year. Public Mass Notification System (PMNS) In an emergency, prompt notification of response personnel and the public is critical. Government departments that are responsible for police, fire, health and emergency management need the ability to respond to emergencies quickly and safely. Using automated emergency notification products or services, government municipalities are leveraging technology to alert the public quickly in emergency situation. Automated emergency notification systems provide rapid, consistent notification to anyone, anywhere, anytime, on any device. They have been recognized as an appropriate disaster notification technology the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and are quickly becoming an integral part of Disaster Recovery systems throughout government. Different emergencies require different types of notification; therefore, it is advantageous for a county to have alternative methods to notify the public. Disasters can strike at any time. The older methods of sirens and broadcasts are still important; however in the new world of mass emergency notification, no single system is sufficient. Governments need to use multiple methods -- traditional and new - to keep the public informed. The County of Orange Information Technology department is in the process of working with County Emergency Operation Responders to implement a mass emergency notification system throughout the County. This system will allow the County to notify citizens of emergencies by phone numbers provided by local phone companies. Citizens also will have the opportunity to register additional phone numbers, cell phones and email addresses via the County's website. The county-wide Public Mass Notification System is scheduled to be launched June 30, 2008. Regional Wireless (WiFi) Current wireless connectivity within the County of Orange is limited to a collection of hot spots, or concentrated areas within cities that have chosen to deploy their own WiFi networks and service offering, such as the City of Anaheim and downtown Fullerton. The vision of countywide Regional Wireless Access WiFi network deployment would be to provide a low-cost, high-speed, outdoor, wireless infrastructure that is seamless throughout Orange County. Local citizens, businesses and visitors would be able to connect to e-mail and conduct web-based transactions anywhere the network is in place as easily as they do at home. City and county government agencies would be able to use the network to implement wireless applications that would increase their efficiency and productivity. This project would be done in three phases - Project Envisioning, Detailed Requirements Definition and Deployment. Phase I is currently underway and includes the following objectives: - Documented and agreed upon benefits of an OC-Regional Wireless network
- Identified cities and special districts (Fire Authority, Transportations Authority,, Sanitation District and Municipal Water District) who would be willing to partner with the County of Orange
- Documented cost reduction / process improvement opportunities for all city and special district partners
- Completed survey to determine Wi-Fi activities within local city and special district governance
- Proposal for a Governance Body to provide oversight
- Identified agency partners with documented cost reduction / process improvements
- Completed needs assessment, detailed requirements and architectural design
- Completed Business Case and Cost/Benefit Analysis
- Identified and documented path forward - "Go" or "No-Go" for RFP issuance for full scale Wi-Fi implementation
- Complete draft scope of work for full scale RFP issuance for Regional Wireless Access implementation
Business Summit, May 8, 2008 The County recently hosted a Business Summit on May 8, 2008, to bring together local government and businesses and review findings from our Phase I study. Click here to view the presentation. Technical Summit, June 27, 2008 The County of Orange hosted a Technical Summit in support of their study on a countywide wireless Internet network. Conducted in partnership with the Orange County Business Council, the summit brought together city and public agency IT professionals, wireless experts and vendors. Attendees engaged in interactive discussion with experts who gave presentations on interoperability, network design and security of wireless networks. Projects underway in the cities of Riverside, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Corpus Christi, Silicon Valley, Chicago and Baton Rouge were among those highlighted. Intel, Cisco and others presented case studies on how wireless has enhanced the infrastructure of cities and counties around the nation. Manufacturers, network carriers and applications developers alike are investing heavily in new products and services that will leverage wireless. Many cities also offer wireless Internet access to their residents. Steve Reneker, Chief Information Officer for the City of Riverside, discussed his city’s experience with implementing their wireless network. The city entered into an “Anchor Tenant” agreement with AT&T, which allows revenues to be shared with the city for granting AT&T use of public assets to mount antennas. The implementation required some creativity, as Reneker described the city’s decision to “dress up” the required 80-foot tall transmission towers as flag poles flying the U.S. flag. Automated meter reading, video-surveillance and remote-control of city ballpark lights are among those services made possible by a new suite of wireless applications. Building upon the momentum of the Summit, the County will meet with local government during the month of July to further discuss the future of a regional Wi-Fi system. Questions about the study may be directed to the County’s wireless program manager, James Mata. At completion of Phase I in August 2008, a determination will be made whether to proceed with additional phases. 311 Service Center The purpose of this project is to establish a centralized county-wide non-emergency 3-1-1 call center for the citizens of Orange County. This call center will serve as a "one-stop" resource for the public when they have questions related to non-emergency government services or agencies. By providing 3-1-1 access, the County of Orange will simplify the user experience without requiring internet access for the public. We will have the capability to be available 24 x 7 with access to multi-language support services. Other benefits of the 311 Service Center include: - Easy to remember, easy to use public access to county government
- Connects people with resources
- Human connection with a trained information and referral (I&R) specialist
- Efficient service delivery with opportunities to consolidate and integrate databases
- More effective use of "telephone answering" resources
- Saves money by consolidating call answering in one location
- Keeps 911 lines available for emergencies
- Provides improved capability and capacity to respond to citizen needs during an emergency
- Provides flexibility to partner with other call centers as needed to manage extreme call volumes.
- Link "live answer" service delivery with web-based e-Government service delivery capability. Brand and reinforce that Orange County government is accessible and easy to do business with
- Improve individual department service delivery and accountability through real-time, countywide service performance tracking and reporting.
- Provide "closed loop" communications with citizens by integrating front-end service requests with the back-end resolution processes.
- Partnership opportunities with cities and special districts
The 311 Service Center is currently in the initial planning stages. An RFP is in progress to secure a vendor consultant to create detailed a business case that will include business process analysis, design, architecture, infrastructure, support system and software requirements. The target for board approval and formal project kick off is 1st quarter, 2008.
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