Travis County Commissioners Court
September 25, 2007
Items 14
Number 14 is to receive report on phase planning and phase implementation of the tiburon version 7 upgrade to the public safety modules of the integrated justice system.
>> good morning.
>> as you recall, the tiburon version 7 public safety modules need to be upgraded. We came back to court last year with this conversion project and broke it into two faces. Phase one was to do the planning and ize the time line and finalize the actual cost that it would take. So we have completed phase one. We are ready to contract with tiburon for the phase two implementation. Just to refresh your memory, if judy will tell why we are doing the project, and I'll cover the results of phase one and what we plan to do in phase two.
>> judy pits ford it s. To remind you, the primary reason is the security, the new security requirements that are required by us, by the fbi and the sheriff's office is very much interested in making the deadline for that. And the new version upgrade includes those requirements and will get Travis County in compliance with the fbi new compliances. In addition, this ijs piece has been implemented since 2000. So the age of the equipment which was proposed in 1996 is now approaching 12, almost 13 years old technology. So the age of the systems that the applications are running on is another factor. There are approximately nine different the to 1tive functions --13 different functions from an application standpoint implemented in mthe year 2000. And that was the public safety side of the ijs system which includes the sheriffs office, automated field reporting system the records management system for incidents and warrants. Those are just a couple of the modules that it covers. And the jail management system, which includes central booking and jail discipline and so forth. As well as the county attorneys prosecutor information management system and the district attorneys prosecutor sill. --system. Included in that is an automated pretrial system all integrated together. Those are all new versions. One of the other reasons that we would be going to this version is a complete change in database. We are currently on a version of the database that is not supported. It's a cdbg --db 2 version by the vendor. They are moving their platform to sql database and windows platform which the rest of the industry alluded to. We talked about that when we said there's a technology shift going on in our world. It's a good thing and bad thing. It's a good thing because it offers a lot of ease of use. It's a bad thing, in my opinion, because it's harder for i.t. To manage. I think you have seen that in our budget request. The other thing that it will offer is improved functionality to the citizens of Travis County. There will now be available for them, and I'll be glad to turn this over to anyone from the sheriff that might want to speak to this, a way for our citizens to retrieve incident report on line. We'll also improve functionality and processes within the departments through things like bar codinging and mug shots. We've gone through a lot of business process reviews and have identified new processes, each department, that will improve efficiency and their functions in their department. So that's our primary reasons why we feel that this project needs to be completed but most importantly, there is a September deadline for Travis County to reach the new cegis federal requirements. I don't know if the sheriff's department had anything they wanted to say.
>> what is the deadline?
>> September 30.
>> next year.
>> next year. And in order to get data converted, which I think all of you, if you look back on the current fax implementation, a lot of our delays were due to data and accounting inaccuracies that had to be corrected. So mthis particular case, I think our data conversion will be a little bit easier because we have been using the system. And the system is going to be upgraded. So the data mapping is much simpler. But we do need to get started mhad --in order to get that tcic ncic, cegis implementation done in time to mete and be in compliance with the federal government.
>> during the phase one of the project, she mentioned the business process reviews were covered. Did you want to jump in here?
>> I just wanted to reiterate to the court, major general long with the sheriffs office. And one of my responsibilities is the i.t. Section. This new version upgrade will enable us to get to the next level. Just like any other technology, you know, five years it has to be updated. This is going on ten the, 12 years. One of the items that judy talked about was cop logic which is a self reporting system for citizens which will be linked to our website where they can report a minor property crime and stuff like that. That may relieve some responsibilities for patrol officers as well in the long run. The mug shot system and the evidence bar coding system and a lot of other stuff comes along with that that is technology that at the sheriffs office and the rest of the other public safety entities all integrated together will need for the coming years. This is an investment. We've already invested, the court has already invested a lot of money, $28 million in the system and it needs an upgrade just like anything else of just like a windows-based product. You can upgrade that too. For tcic and ncic, which is the main functionality for a law enforcement agency, this is a must. It's not a nice to have. This is a must.
>> let me ask this question. Meeting deadlines and target dates on a lot of these applications has really been a challenge for its and others in the county. We have heard several departments that have come before the Commissioners court during budget hearing and the course of the year, somewhere having shortfalls by implementations or dates supposed to have been adhered to and they just aren't being met. Here we are talking about something that may be upgraded. We have a September 1 deadline, according to what I am hearing this morning, of next year. To meet another deadline. My question is this. Since departments have come in and for whatever reason have testified before this court that they have been not given the results as far as what they had anticipated, and they have asked us to even fund things this year because of those shortfalls, my question to you is what involvement level do we have at this time to make sure that all the departments and all the users of this particular plan are on board, everybody knowing exactly what is going on, the users, and also a reporting mechanism during the course of looking into the deadline, which is again, September 1 of next year, will be met. What can we do the make a heck of an improvement in meeting these target deadlines? That's the question questions.
>> I think to address that is what the purpose of breaking the project into two phases you was. Phase one was to meet with all the department, which we have done , and the meet with the its steering committee and get the user buy in and commitment to review all the processes and all the systems were reviewed during the business process review. We feel everything was nailed down in terms of what the requirements are and what they are going to need. We're not converting from an old system where the databases are not where we can bring them across very easily. We are converting from a tiburom product. So we feel that the schedule and the dollars coming out of this phase one, that is the target we are going to hit and where we are going to stay.
>> it would be very prudent, I think, on us and on the department, and the departments of this county, if we are going to spend, in my opinion, if you are going to look at these particular upgrades and things as we're doing now today, it appears to me that somewhere there ought to be some reporting mechanism, whether it be quarterly or whatever, coming to that target date, someone should come and let some of us know exactly where you are on that process. We shouldn't have a slippage, at all, in my opinion, on some of the stuff that we have experienced in the past. I have a real heartburn on a lot of slippage because of whatever.
>> yeah.
>> you know, I want to make sure that whatever we are doing here today to meet these deadlines and target dates, everybody is on board and we need to know, in my opinion, I need to know, I don't know how anybody else feels up here, but I like to know where we are on a quarterly basis leading up to this target date of September 1 of next yea.
>> we already glad to schedule a session quarterly with the court to give you an update. Any time something new comes up that were unknown before the schedule is changed or elongated we'll bring that back to the court.
>> let me, Commissioner, I agree with everything you've said as far as the concerns of slippage. Those are things that we don't like. We're just as frustrated, I think, as possibly user groups and court when something happens and has happened in the court project. But ret me come pare the two time lanes of the time lane that we are coming forward today is called an upgrade. Really and truly, for i.t, it's a complete new installation. So we are factoring in that from an i.t. Standpoint. From a user standpoint it's an upgrade. That's a little different than the facts project because the facts project is a completely new database, new application, new software program, new hardware, new everything. And so when you got into that, that means we're taking the data and we're converting data from a previous system, an unisys system, that didn't have some of the data fields possibly that the new system had. So data conversion was not necessarily a simple, I'm going to take data and put it into the same application. In this particular project, the version 7 upgrade project, we are going to take the data that is in the sheriff's records management system, which is the system that has to be live by September 30. That system for Travis County to be in compliance. We're going to take that data and convert it in a tiburon records management system that is the same application. So that should make it a little easier. I'm not going to say there won't be some data bumps. There could be. There's a different conversion effort than the one that we went through with the court's conversion. There are no gasb 34 requirements in this. That should also help simplify the time line. But what we are going to bring back to court next week is a request to approve the contract for us to move forward so that we can move forward with the separate project. At that time we will also include a manner which if there is any change to what has been defined in these business process reviews, anne change, we will come back to the court.
>> I hope the contract has in it the deadline. In other words, the date. Again, I hear what you are saying but a target date is a target date with a target date.
>> yes, sir.
>> we have been missing target dates here for whatever reason. I don't know all the reasonsment for whatever reason, we have been missing target dates. So whatever, the contract does come back, I hope it is in agreement to
>> [pwha] --to what we are looking for.
>> I agree.
>> another thing is that the users of this, I see the sheriff is here, but there are other users other than the sheriff.
>> I would like to answer that. We have a users committee, we meet with the district attorney's office, county attorney's office, representatives of all the users. I guarantee you, we communicate with them on what our issues are or what is coming up that we are unhappy with something, they hear from us pretty quickly. As this new project and upgrade is being implemented, we will be meeting as users and will communicate with the courts on the progress of this. We want those, we have to have those deadlines met.
>> I understand. That is the urgency of what I'm talking about. I have not only heard it from you, but I have heard it from other departments and other factors. Of course, you brought in the pack that it has to be a new installation, a new process, new installation and stuff so that is going to take time to do a lot. Have you to --you have to do a lot of testing before you go live. My point s I want to make sure everybody understand that we need to watch this very closely. If you want to come back next week, that will be fine. I have no problem. That is my last question on this item, anyway.
>> we have funding for this in car.
>> proposed budget has the $2.6 million in a co and you will need to come to a conclusion on the funding of this out of car soon. Along with a variety of other capital issues that are facing you.
>> so we will need this money before co issuance.
>> right. The receipt of co funds.
>> okay.
>> you will have two choices. One is a reimbursement resolution, which you are facing a number of reimbursement resolutions that have not yet gotten before you. Or funded out of car. Simplest will be to fund it out of car.
>> okay. Questions? Additional comments? We'll have this back on next week.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> next week we need an action part. That's what I'm hearing.
>> right.
>> okay.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 18:30 AM