Let's Get IT Together

Monday, April 22, 2013

Mobile Applications (Apps) Policy

County Employees: The following announcement was made today by the CAO. As you know, County Executive Leggett and I are very supportive of innovation at all levels and in all aspects of County operations and services. We believe our well educated and highly informed residents and businesses are anticipating more advancement in government innovation and transparency, and easier access to government services, information, and data. A growing number of County residents are utilizing mobile device technology to access County services and information. To better respond to the needs of the community, we plan to leverage and exploit this mobile device proliferation to provide better access and service to our residents and improve internal business processes. A key component of this effort is the creation of applications used by mobile devices (mobile apps). As a follow up to the March 13, 2013 CountyStat session on mobile apps, and consistent with our newly launched openMontgomery initiative (http://montgomerycountymd.gov/open) and Digital Government Strategy (Digital Government Strategy (pdf)), we have developed the attached Mobile Application Policy. The policy provides guidance for the selection, acquisition, and support of applications designed for use on mobile devices of any kind regardless of whether they are intended for use by the public or internally by the County. Many of you have identified and demonstrated exemplary ways to successfully extend County services to mobile devices owned by residents, County partners, and employees. We want to make even more of these innovations available to our residents and partners, thereby improving customer service and County efficiency, and reducing costs. The development of new apps will enable our residents to use their smart phones and tablets to connect to more County services at high speeds, from anywhere, at any time via simple, easy-to-use interfaces. This policy provides guidance and establishes standard enterprise processes your organization can follow to cost effectively deliver mobile apps for public and in-house use while ensuring that the apps are sustainable. The Department of Technology Services and the Office of the County Attorney have created contract templates for mobile app acquisitions in support of this policy. These templates and additional guidance can be found on DTS’ Intranet page at the following link: http://portal.mcgov.org/dtitmpl.asp?url=/content/departments_intranet/dts/Services/MobileApplications/index.asp. The County is in the process of negotiating County-wide accounts on both the iTunes and Google Play app stores, and we expect to publish the first set of County mobile apps there soon, making them conveniently available to consumers. I have directed DTS and the Office of the County Attorney to work with your staff to ensure that new app opportunities are reviewed and high value solutions are approved expeditiously. I am requesting your cooperation with the policy and the outlined processes to help us provide the best and most sustainable mobile apps for our residents and employees. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Fariba Kassiri at Fariba.kassiri@montgomerycountymd.gov or (240) 777-2512, or Sonny Segal, Chief Information Officer, at Sonny.Segal@montgomerycountymd.gov or (240) 777-2822. Thank you for your participation and support.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Open Government Public Service Announcement

Check out the new Open Government public service announcement developed by the County's Office of Public Information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnkhPYDDIuM&feature=youtu.be

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Ask the County CIO

County Chief Information Officer (CIO) Harash "Sonny" Segal just wrapped up his interactive on-line “Ask the County CIO” discussion. Please visit: http://portal.mcgov.org/askthecio to view the full transcript.

Monday, February 25, 2013

DTS DCM Program Recertified as ISO 20000 Compliant

Montgomery County's Desktop Computer Modernization (DCM) program recently passed its SEVENTH annual recertification audit by the NSF-ISR International Auditing body. In 2007 Montgomery County was the 8th operation in all of North America to receive ISO 20000 certification and the first Public Sector organization to do so. DCM is now the 5th longest standing certification in North America.

Friday, February 01, 2013

New IT Help Desk Ticketing System as of February 1, 2013

The IT Help Desk has moved to Remedyforce effective this morning, Friday, February 1st. All NEW IT INCIDENTS MUST BE CREATED IN REMEDYFORCE. Note that the work queue/group names are the same as THEY WERE IN SDE. You can also send an email to HELPIT to have an incident opened in Remedyforce. Additional training (video on the web site and live training) will be available for Remedyforce in the near future. Note that you are NO LONGER able to create new incidents in Service Desk Express (SDE). However, YOU WILL be able to continue updating and closing existing SDE incidents. The IT Help Desk will be migrating remaining open SDE incidents into Remedyforce over the next several weeks. The SDE tickets will be cross-referenced to the new Remedyforce ticket then closed in SDE. Please contact the IT Help Desk at 240-777-2828, option 1 if you have any questions or problems with Remedyforce.