County creates IT board

Move hopes to save money

Published Friday, June 5, 2009

The Lawrence County Commission Thursday took another step toward streamlining the county’s computer systems and services in an effort to save money.

The commission created a 5 to 7 member Automatic Data Processing Board that will oversee computer and related purchases in the future. The board will consists of the county auditor, treasurer, recorder, clerk of courts, one commissioner and the board of elections director and/or deputy director.

“This is good, it brings some accountability and makes sure it gets to a unified structure,” Commission President Jason Stephens said.

Right now each county office has its own computer system. Officeholders or department heads select and purchase their own individual computer system, software and technical support services. Stephens thinks the county may be able to save money by making its information technology more cohesive.

Last week the commission received the results of an evaluation of the county’s IT systems. The report, compiled by the Proctorville-based company NET illect Technology, found that the county’s separate systems often means there is a fragmented approach to acquiring computer systems and services and, as a result, limited ability to pool the county’s resources.

“Shared storage is limited or non-existent,” the report said. “Entities with shared storage utilize limited resources to host shares while others have no resources at all. Many users resort to storing sensitive data within their local computer systems which magnifies the risk of data loss.”

The report said Internet ability is another common problem: some have it and some don’t and few have the same kind of service.

“…10 independent Internet service provider connections exist within the courthouse alone,” NET illect said in its report.

The report also said technical support is a problem for many offices with one staff member in each office serving as an IT person. This means a staff member is sometimes taken away from some other task to perform IT duties. The report also said contracting for such services can be expensive.

The report recommended the county take action to make its systems more cohesive and listed three options: hiring an IT manager, getting future services from an IT contracting firm or creating an IT committee.

In other news, Commissioner Les Boggs wants to meet with a representative of the U.S. Census Bureau to discuss how the commission might help educate area residents on the necessity of cooperating with census workers in next year’s census canvass.

Boggs pointed out federal funding for many programs is often based on census data. Representation in the U.S. House of Representatives and congressional re-districting are also based on population.

“It is very important to get the best, most accurate census,” Boggs said.

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