Wellington City Council(MIS100 2011)

Size of IS shop: 120

PCs: 1250

Mobile PCs: 150

Terminals: 400

Hand-held devices: 400

Total screens: 2200

Industry: Government and defence

PC environment: Windows, HP, Dell

Server environment: Windows, HP

DBMS: SQL, Sybase, Oracle

Address: 101 Wakefield Street, Wellington 6140

Website: www.wellington.govt.nz

Key IS projects this year: Backup refresh; unified communications, online services, BPM.

Wellington City Council looks to focus chosen ICT solutions on customer service, citizen engagement and creating financial capacity.

The Council’s Strategy and Policy Committee recommended rate increases in March this year, as a result of the slower than expected economy and resulting budget pressures. As ICT budgets shrink, while project numbers rise, getting the maximum ROI from solutions grows in importance, as savings can be reinvested into the business to support future budgets and projects.

The impact of social media on the way the Council conducts its business becomes increasingly relevant. Associated security issues are at the forefront of conversations and planning by the IT department. The Council is active on Twitter, has a Facebook presence and maintains picture and video footage on Flickr and YouTube.

Obtaining and retaining skilled IT staff has once again become a challenge for the organisation, says David McLachlan, Manager Knowledge Solutions, as the local marketplace shows increasing signs of movement.

A continued focus on ERP, virtualisation, cloud computing and e-business will be maintained this year, with work also taking place in wireless and knowledge management. Key ICT projects for the council include a backup refresh; introduction of new online services; roll out of greater unified communications functionality; and process optimisation through business process management (BPM), with the goal of faster delivery and greater customer engagement. Major business intelligence and CPM initiatives from 2010 will support BPM objectives this year.