Information Technology
320 Ottawa Avenue, NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503-2301
Phone: (616) 632-6500
Fax: (616) 632-6505
Mission Statement
The mission of the Kent County Information Technology (IT) Department is to provide quality, responsive and cost-effective information technology solutions and services that enable County departments, agencies, and local government units to be successful in achieving their respective missions, striving always to exceed expectations.
2009 Vision & Strategic Plan (PDF)
Acceptable Use Policy (PDF)
Overview
The Kent County Information Technology (IT) Department links County services to the general public by providing a secure and robust computing environment to more than 30 departments and several local governments. The Information Technology Department is organized into work teams that facilitate delivery of application and infrastructure services.
- Applications Teams
- Financial Systems Team: Maintains software for the County’s accounting, payroll, and human resource systems.
- Justice Systems Team: Supports applications for the County Prosecutor’s Office, multiple courts, the Sheriff’s Department, and the Correctional Facility.
- Customer Service Team: Supports desktop computers, printers, and applications; operates the County IT help desk
- Geographic Information Systems Team: Supports the design, implementation, and maintenance of GIS.
- Specialty Applications: Provides customer applications design, support, and implementation capabilities to County staff.
- Infrastructure Teams
- Network Support Team: Supports the networks which connect systems within the County, the County’s connection to the Internet, and secure connections to local governments and the State of Michigan, as well as the County’s PBX telephone system.
- Systems Team: Operates, administers, and maintains the servers, storage, archival, and backup systems that support the County’s computing environment.
Major projects planned for 2009 include significant upgrades to the County’s network infrastructure, the continuation of our server replacement cycle, completion of the replacement of the fingerprint and mugshot applications, security enhancements to maintain compliance with all applicable regulations and industry best practices, roll-out of wireless technology to selected County facilities, introduction of imaging/workflow technology at the Friend of the Court, and other efforts aimed at reducing cost and increasing efficient operations.
Strategic Goals
- Provide a robust and fl exible computing infrastructure that is capable of handling current and projected needs of internal customers and client agencies
- Provide a full range of application services, including consulting, project management, and business process analysis/re-engineering
- Provide leadership to the county in applying technology to the challenges of local government in the 21st Century
- Provide responsive and cost-effective support of installed applications, services, and hardware.
Operational Goals
- Provide an increasing level of service to those that use the County’s computing environment when they require additional services or experience difficulties
- Provide an attractive, easy-to-use online portal that assists citizens and other interested parties
- Provide high quality, cost effective application development, integration, and maintenance services to County departments and agencies
- Provide a stable, reliable, secure, and cost-effective computing infrastructure environment that supports County departments, agencies, and local units of government
2009 Adopted Uses: $6,035,315
2009 Adopted Revenues: $1,393,298
Selected Performance Measures
Performance Measure |
2006 Actual |
2007 Actual |
2008 Actual |
2009 Expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increase adoption rate for Vital Records to 15.50% by 2008 | 12.82% |
14.50% |
15.30% |
15.50% |
| Increase adoption rate for Deeds to 62.50% by 2007 | 62.97% |
60.20% |
62.00% |
62.50% |
| Meet or exceed published Service Level Agreement levels of 90% for
all categories |
79.40% |
85.97% |
92.00% |
90.00% |
| Maintain average server availability at or above 99% | 99.90% | 99.95% | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Servers supported per employee | 24.30 | 23.43 | 24.00 | 24.50 |
Department History of Uses
| Uses |
2006 Actual |
2007 Actual |
2008 Adopted |
2009 Adopted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Personnel |
$3,331,700 | $3,650,512 | $3,727,286 | $3,747,332 |
Commodities |
14,447 | 12,486 | 28,900 | 27,800 |
Contractual |
1,605,553 | 1,566,380 | 1,970,096 | 2,053,383 |
Operating Capital |
420,504 | 461,382 | 232,530 | 206,800 |
Other Charges |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Total Uses |
5,237,352 |
5,372,204 |
6,271,087 |
5,958,812 |
Personnel FTE |
43 |
43 |
42 |
42 |
Significant Budget Issues
We anticipate continued increases in revenue from
online transactions placed using the County’s accessKent.com website.
The rate of increase will likely
slow as a result of fewer deeds transactions, reflecting
economic conditions. Revenue from support for the
61st District Court will be stable in 2008. The major
cost pressure in the budget is growth in information
storage requirements. This experience mirrors that of
both the public and private sectors, and is fueled by
both increasing demand and the capability to store
information in a wide variety of formats, including
audio, still pictures, and full-motion video.
Four part-time Co-Op Students or the equivalent of
1 FTE were eliminated from the Help Desk in 2008.
History of Uses (in millions)
