Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 29, 2010,
Item 19
>> item number 19 is to receive update regarding the implementation of the iqm 2 electronic agenda system.
>> employ morning, judge and commissioners. Brenda psycher from its. I'm acting as the implementation project manager for the e agenda system for the agenda. I thank you for this opportunity to come in and give you an update on our status. We're excited about how far we've gone. We're also excited about how much farther we have to go and we hope that the court and the departments are equally looking forward to the final product. I'd like to introduce nyra lynn klein. She works with me in its on this project. And david farris from the county clerk's office, who is on the minutes maker team. And bonnie floyd from purchasing who is working with the purchasing department to help load the system and configure it for purchasing, get all of their users in and their templates and make it work for them. We have a tentative go live date for the minutes portion, and that date is july 13th. Of course that's going to be dependent on working with the vendor, getting the system configured. Jillian porter, who is trying to keep a low prix file over here -- profile over here, works diligently weekly now updating the system and doing the indexing while she's in court, more or less practicing. Al jackson from media is working with the video streaming, and we've worked hard to get that configured and make it work with the system as well. They're going to go live a little bit early and then work in conjunction with the agenda portion when they go live september 21st. We have been working diligently going out to the different departments, helping them look at their current work flow system, documenting that and showing them how it's going to work on the system, gathering their work flow information and making sure that all of their key uses are in the system. We have now probably put in over 300 users into the system not only with their contact information, but their roles and responsibilities. We've worked with purchasing, tnr, the auditor's office, hr, pbo and this week and next week we have appointments with facilities, hhs and emergency services. So as you can see, we're not just waiting for it to happen, we're going forward to the departments and they're helping us load the system with their information. After we talk to all the departments, and right now we're hitting the bigger ones and then we'll go out to the smaller departments, the ones we're talking to now are the ones who use the system predominantly every week. Then our training begins. Nyra lynn is going to tell you a little bit about the training for the users.
>> training is currently scheduled for the end of august and beginning of september. Users requiring additional training will be able to access prerecorded training sessions on the internet at their convenience. A trainer from the its will also be available to provide training to additional users as needed.
>> we'd like to give mr. Farris an opportunity to talk about the minutes maker portion.
>> this is an exciting change for us. We have our current system is working, but we needed additional functionality. It also is going to allow us to have a connection with all the departments that are presenting items for agenda so that we can incorporate those directly into our minutes and have minutes in such a way that internal and external customers can have more access to the information that is available for this court's record. I think the mention of jillian's weekly work is more like daily work. She's tasked with if at all possible breaking the system before we give them any checks, and i think she's asked -- she's taken that task rather seriously.
>> [ laughter ] so far we haven't been able to break it. What we've done is we've identified items where we need to work with the vendor and perhaps with other departments to make this system work at its best so that you and other customers internal and external can get ahold of the information. So far it is wonderful in that the iqm2, the vendor, has said it's flexible and the down side of that is of course that it means that we have a lot of information to put in all the users, for instance, and the indexes and everything else that builds it for a system for this application. We're finding more and more that we don't fit a mold that may have been set by their other customers, but we're designing it custom for us.
>> bonnie, would you like to say a word for purchasing?
>> i've been working on -- first of all, brenda took all of our standard language, the language that you see every week on the agenda, and put all those in as templates. I think there's 26 or 28 different templates. And i've been working on those for the last couple of weeks perfecting -- trying to figure out the work flow and just make them work the way we need them to work. Figuring that purchasing has items on the agenda every week and probably a very complicated approval process within our own department and working with the auditor's office and county clerk and pbo and those other departments makes it a little more complicated than maybe some of the other departments that post on the agenda. So i've been working on that over the last couple of weeks and finding problems and working with brenda and the vendor to try to fix those problems before it goes any farther. I think it's going to be a great system once we get all the bugs worked owvment we're working through the bugs, but it will be a great system once we get it worked out. We want to find the problems now instead of later.
>> we would also like to thank all the departments for taking the time to work with us. We know it's a very busy time in everyone's schedule with budget. Thank all you departments for taking that time.
>> so when should the commissioners court be ready for the -- ready to do our part on the electronic agenda system?
>> the system should -- if we stay on schedule, and we're trying our best to do that, should roll out on september 21. So you should be able to bring your laptops to the dais and check it out and follow through if you want to.
>> september 21 of 2010.
>> yes.
>> okay.
>> and currently we are capable of -- currently its has made it possible for us to have everything with regard to backup electronic. What e-agenda is really about is having the agenda items in the backup submitted electronically and to build the agendas over time so that we as commissioners can look three weeks in advance and say oh, this is what the agenda is shaping up to look like. What should i be preparing for, how can i move the ball along, which will be very helpful.
>> as we talk to the different departments and they see how the system is going to work for them to help submit their items electronically and approve their items within their department and within the other departments that they need to go to as well as keeping others informed internally and externally about their specific agenda items. They're excited about the opportunity to do this and be able to work easier, more efficiently --
>> with greater transparency.
>> yes.
>> there are instances, though, that sometimes you have items on the agenda and you do not have the adjacent backup as the judge continues to insist that -- you have to i don't your -- to r backup. So what do we do if there are departments that have agenda items and yet not timely about getting the backup associated with that particular agenda item? What happens -- right now there's a deadline. The judge kind of insists on all of us to follow the rules; however, there are occasions when sometimes out of whatever case-by-case basis there are times that it's not possible to do it and no backup is with the agenda item. So what do we do in those particular -- what are you recommending that we do on those particular items? And i guess it's the judge's call eventually because he's the one that controls the agenda. And so since he's the head person in that, i'm just still concerned about not having backup timely. And we have to sometimes scrape and scream and holler to get stuff in to be able to review it in a timely manner to make decisions and that's still a struggle for us. It is for me. I'm speaking for ron davis, i'm not speaking for anybody else, but it is for me. I like to have my backup early on so we have adequate time to review it thoroughly and make sure we can base whatever we review we come up on the dais to make decisions. How would you address that?
>> that's a very good question, commissioner.
>> it sure is.
>> there are just by nature of the beast always going to be some items that come in at the last minute. Hopefully the will get the backup in in a more timely fashion, but the judge's office being what it is, one who works many, many hours and a fair judge and i know --
>> the judge is warm and compassionate.
>> he certainly s.
>> he's not cold hearted.
>> a warm and compassionate --
>> i didn't want to drag you through it.
>> [ laughter ]
>> my conjecture would be that the present situation is going to continue and that those last minute items will still be coming in at the last minute. And our judge will look at those and decide which ones will be able to go on the agenda. But they will be added once the cutoff date in the system is reached, the judge's office is the only one that can add an agenda item. It will be entirely up to the judge's office.
>> they have the means to add a backup early in the process as soon as they create the agenda within the system, as brenda says, but if they're late, they're still going to -- it may still come in late.
>> hurry. You want it.
>> all right. Remind me of the significance of that july 13th date.
>> we're looking forward. That's our tentative go live date for the news maker portion that this system has an a and a b, i guess. And the a is the agenda and b is the builder. We're hoping to have july 13 the. There are some circumstances that may move that a week, but we are looking to avoid any of those problems. We don't want to keep creeping it away. We want it on now.
>> any questions, comments?
>> tamara, anything in order?
>> as far as i know, yes. No problems.
>> okay. Sounds like -- thank you very much. Appreciate it.
>> thank you.
>>
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 2:35 PM
