City of Everett Information Technology Department
Online Performance Scorecard
Overview
The Information Technology Department consists of five divisions: Administration, Help Desk & Desktop Support, Network & Cybersecurity Operations, Software & Business Applications, and Project Management. Together, these divisions carry out strategic technology objectives aligned with operating principles, mission, and city priorities.
Supporting City Priorities and Directives
In 2019 the Mayor's Office outlined key priorities for the City that support ensuring the best quality of life possible for residents. Responsive and responsible government is the primary City priority the Technology Department's work supports. In 2023 the Mayor's Office launched five new mayoral directives. Key investments in innovation have resulted in projects that align with Prosperous City, Behavioral Health, and Climate action and sustainability directives.
Our Mission
Best solution provider, enabling City department customers to deliver efficient and effective government.
Our Principles
Enterprise Outcomes by EL-CO
For solutions, we will take an enterprise-first posture, focusing on:
- Essentialism - the disciplined pursuit of less
- Lean - creating value with less resources
For our customers, we will drive outcomes, focusing on:
- Customers - delivering what we would buy
- Outcomes - business results of solutions
Our Objectives
Operate, Modernize, and Innovate
Operational excellence through EL-CO – focus on business outcomes; deliver what you would buy
Secure and modernize the enterprise – cloud-first and compute everywhere; secure the new perimeter
Rule-break for innovation – perfection is the enemy; move fast and break things
Horizon Investments
The Three Horizons Framework is a well-known framework by McKinsey for measuring innovation. We apply this framework to our three objectives of operate, modernize, and innovate.
The graph communicates how we have allocated resources to the three horizons since 2016 as a percentage of available resources.
Horizon 2 and 3 have grown from 18% of resources to 30% of resources since 2016.
Horizon 1: Operational excellence through EL-CO
Driving operational excellence in the technology business is Horizon 1 for us. Around 73% of our technology resources in 2022-2023 went to maintaining the current technology portfolio. 70% is a healthy target, leaving 30% remaining to fund Horizon 2 and Horizon 3.
We apply operating principles to pursue the essential, create more value at lifecycle replacements, focus on our customers, and deliver outcomes.
The principle of Essentialism was introduced by Greg KcKeown. We cannot do everything well. We eliminate the trivial by prioritizing effectively and establish routines to execute on our greatest priorities.
The concept of Lean has been around for a long time. Waste is everywhere. We eliminate steps that do not create value for the customer.
The golden rule. Deliver to the world what you would be willing to buy if you were on the other end of the transaction. We deliver services we would buy with our own money.
A focus on outcomes supports the belief that the business results from a technology solution are more important than the solution itself. Outputs and outcomes are different. We understand the difference and focus on the results produced from the solutions we support.
Horizon 1 Resource Allocation
- 2016-2017: 79% of resources
- 2018-2021: 73% of resources
- 2022-2023: 73% of resources
Key Strategies
- Sustain quality management programming
- Responsive and timely incident resolution
- Improve IT service management
Key Investments
- Asset management system transition to Cityworks
- Timekeeping system transition to UKG Dimensions
- Core financial system upgrade
Our quality management programming drives down our reactive ticket workload as measured by "Monthly IT Requests to Organizational FTE". This ensures technology staff have adequate time for us to invest in Horizon 2 and Horizon 3.-Steven L. Hellyer, Technology Director
Our investment in UKG Dimensions lowered the total cost of ownership of the technology while expanding the capability of electronic timekeeping to all employees.-Kevin Walser, Technology Project Manager
Horizon 1 Key Performance Indicators
Horizon 2: Secure and modernize the enterprise
Modernizing the technology business is Horizon 2 for us. Around 18% of our technology resources in 2022-2023 went to increasing service quality and creating new capabilities with existing products. 20% is a healthy target, leaving 10% remaining to fund Horizon 3.
We are a cloud-first municipal enterprise. Over half our data center footprint has been moved to the cloud and our employees have the capability to compute from everywhere. Modernization has resulted in a new security perimeter. Our security posture has been adjusted for the new perimeter and our security program expanded to include the Transportation and Water and Wastewater critical infrastructure sectors.
Our modernization initiatives since 2016 have allowed us to increase resource investment to Horizon 2 and Horizon 3.
Horizon 2 Resource Allocation
- 2016-2017: 14% of resources
- 2018-2021: 16% of resources
- 2022-2023: 18% of resources
Key Strategies
- Implement secure access service edge strategy
- Modernize telecommunications infrastructure
- Improve network, computing, and storage infrastructure
Key Investments
- Implement Managed Detection Response Service
- Implement data classification standards and data loss prevention software
- Transition phone system to Teams
- Transition to Extreme Network fabric
During the pandemic when most staff worked from home, we realized the network identity was the new perimeter and started on a journey to implement our secure access service edge strategy.-Lucas Haehn, Cybersecurity and Network Operations Lead
We don't have the employee resources to monitor our network 24x7. Our partnership with a Managed Detection and Response service gives us piece of mind there is a team monitoring our environment 24x7.-Steven L. Hellyer, Technology Director
Horizon 2 Key Performance Indicators
Horizon 3: Rule-break for innovation
Innovating with our business customers is Horizon 3 for us. Around 10% of our technology resources in 2022-2023 went to creating new products or services that create new value. 10% is a healthy target, leaving 90% to invest in Horizon 2 and Horizon 1 to modernize and maintain the technology portfolio.
We have a startup culture in the technology department. Money is set aside annually to opportunistically fund innovation. Our culture is one of eschewing perfection in the spirit of moving fast and breaking the status quo. Experimentation is encouraged, and failure is seen as an opportunity to learn.
Increased digitization of services requires organizational agility with a strong focus on customer experience. Our key investments in Horizon 3 are supported by increasing agility by focusing on products and business capabilities in lieu of projects and departments.
Horizon 3 Resource Allocation
- 2016-2017: 6% of resources
- 2018-2021: 11% of resources
- 2022-2023: 10% of resources
Key Strategies
- Increase research and development
- Improve software and business application services
- Improve project management process
Key Investments
- Implement Everett at Work 311 System*
- Build Low-Code/No-Code development community*
- Increase AdobeSign adoption
- Implement telematics for electric bus fleet*
Key Investments marked with * align mayoral directives: with Prosperous City, Behavioral Health, and Climate action and sustainability.