The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications - Essay Example

The Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications (DoITT) oversees New York s (NYC) use of existing and emerging technologies in government operations, and NYC's delivery of services to the public. DoITT's current projects fall into 2 main categories - a) accessibility for residents, businesses, and visitors to government and b) improving systems behind the scenes. Its key areas of operation are: Collaborating with other organizations in order to manage information systems that support City operations and public access to City services. Operating NYC's 311 Citizen Service Center, which provides the public with information and services for over 300 agencies and organizations. Managing and operating NYC's data center, website, telephone systems, fiber-optic network, radio network, internal data network, and television and radio stations. Administering NYC's telecommunications. Enhancing the work of City government through the Geographical Information System (GIS) and a 911 emergency response unit upgrade. GIS improves the way citizens gain information about their neighborhoods and how City agencies are performing in their area. City planners use this same data to assist in policy making. Determining the exact number of NYC employees is an inexact science since different agencies count them in different ways. The NYC website announces that NYC has more than 300,000 employees, but the Mayor's report claims that he had inherited 325,000 staff in 2001 and had 288,931 by 2004 (Bloomberg and Page, 2004).1 The only way to account for the discrepancy is that the website is including part-time and casual employees as well as full-time permanent employees. According to the Mayor's Report, DoITT moved to a new method of counting employees in 2001, but there is no readily available explanation of how numbers were or are calculated. Employees have increased from 392 in 2002 to 882 in 2005, and DoITT estimates that it will require 1053 employees in 2006. DoITT is comprised of 5 identifiable business units, each with a separate agenda: Information Utility Division (IUD) - responsible for installation, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure Office of the CIO (OCIO) - responsible for project management, IT workforce and systems analysis Office of Franchise Administration and Planning/General Counsel - undertakes three main tasks: 1. Granting Franchises and Agreements 2. Drafting Legislative and Regulatory Filings 3. Planning Technology Initiatives NYC TV - responsible for managing and programming the City's media (TV, radio and web) assets with content ranging from informative and entertaining shows to coverage of City proceedings and traffic conditions Office of Strategic Technologies (OST) - plans and implements technology initiatives at DoITT and other City agencies. OST is comprised of Project Support Services - providing consultants to other agencies in NYC - and Strategic Projects. DoITT also works with external agencies, such as the NYC Department of Education, Time Warner Telecom, and Cablevision, to increase accessibility to high speed broadband Internet access throughout the City. While NYC government's involvement in cable and internet connectivity and access is nowhere near as ambitious as Philadelphia's current plan to provide high-speed, broadband wireless connectivity to all points within the city, a similar plan is currently a topic of discussion. The extent to which there may be intra-business unit cross over is perhaps best exemplified by the Senior Management chart which makes it clear that IUD and OST do not have a specific Senior Manager. One reason this may be so is that there is considerable overlap in the remits of each business unit, and it is more practicable to condense lines of reporting. DoITT has almost doubled its expenditure between 2001 and 2005 from $162.6m in 2001to $227.7m in 2005, an increase of $65m with an increase to $270.4m projected for 2006. DoITT employees took home just under $727,000 in overtime earnings in 2005 compared to $330m in 2001. At the same time DoITT has been able to increase its revenue - albeit not at the same level of growth - from $108.9m in 2001 to a $114.2 in 2005. P: Blank undertook her research in 1986 at a time when there were more than 300,000 civil servants and 33 identifiable agencies in New York City (NYC). Almost 20 years later there are 98 identifiable agencies and 288,931 employees in NYC government. Some of the new departments reflect the changing demographics of NYC, while others reflect changing emphases in legislation. In particular, there has been devolution of some services - such as Personnel - back to the individual agencies, where it could be argued they are better able to meet their personnel needs. (COULD YOU CLARIFY WHAT THIS MEANS I'M A BIT CONFUSED. YOU DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE TO CHANGE THE TEXT BUT IF YOU CAN EXPLAIN IT TO ME EITHER HERE OR IN A MESSAGE ON THE WEBSITE, I'D APPRECIATE IT! - Blank suggested that it was inefficient to have Personnel recruit specialist staff - as they are effectively clerks with no specialist knowledge of each business unit. So 'devolution' means 'away from centralization') DoITT did not exist in 1986 as a distinct agency. It is currently listed under Infrastructure, Administrative And Community Services (WHAT CONTEXT IS THIS IN IS THIS A BREAKDOWN DONE BY NYC GOVERNMENT WHERE CAN I FIND THIS INFORMATION Yes. It is under this heading in the full Mayor's Report.) along with 13 other departments. Blank defines productivity as 'the greatest number of outputs for each unit of input' and argues that good business management is the antithesis of democracy. The operational scale of most corporate entities is much smaller (than what - a democratic government A democratic society Than New York City.), and they have only one objective - to maximize profit. Conversely, DoITT starts with largesse with services free at the point of access. (WHAT EXACTLY DOES THIS MEAN DoITT has a mandate to provide the services free at the point of access. This over-rides the profit motive which Blank considers to be part of good business management) Its audience is not the shareholder, but the taxpayer. And, in the same way that a corporate entity must keep the shareholder happy with return on investment, so must DoITT. Blank claims that, in bureaucracies, contracts go the lowest bidder and that promotions and raises are routine, not rewards. This seems to be only partially true at DoITT, and perhaps this is the nature of today's bureaucracies which utilize a combination of the best practices in management styles and accounting. (what is an example of how it is only PARTIALLY true rather than fully true DoITT is a service provider as well as a commissioner of services. There will be services it does not outsource even though it may be more 'competitive' to do so, because it would not be good politics to do so eg 311. Also look at the Commissioner's Resume - he wasn't promoted internally, but after some considerable time out in private industry.) If we look at DoITT's targets (by targets, do you mean goals Yes), they are similar to those of any other IT consultancy with an emphasis on remaining within its budget and leveraging the taxpayer's dollar to maximize return on investment. A/M: 2005 was the end of Bloomberg's first term in office (4 years). NYC had to face a $6b deficit following the 2001 terrorist attack and its impact on Wall Street in particular (Bloomberg et al, 2005)2. The 325,000 staff members that he had inherited in 2001 had been reduced to 288,931 by 2004 (Bloomberg and Page, 2004):3 City agencies were directed to do more with less, manage resources more wisely, and maximize the use of cost-effective technology. Over the past four years, the City's budget was cut by a total of over $3.6 billion, and the size of the City-funded workforce was reduced by 14,500.4 (Cut the first sentence. Keep the 2nd.) DoITT has been able to make the necessary staff and budget cuts without adversely affecting 'core services' by: delivering vital services more efficiently, identifying services that are not producing results, eliminating duplicative practices, and securing alternative sources of revenues to support worthwhile programs. The measures used to evaluate the efficiency of DoITT are the same as those used in any large IT consultancy - meeting project deadlines and improving in-house and external "customer" satisfaction. A recent success was the introduction of the 311 Citizen Service Center in 2003. As a result of this initiative, government is more accessible and accountable than corporate entities of a similar size (why the comparison to a corporation What does this imply or mean Why does it matter This was Blank's starting point - comparing business to the public sector with business being the good guy). However some of the criticisms Blank raised 20 years ago have been raised more recently by the Mayor - though not specifically in relation to DoITT. In the 2004 Executive Budget, Mayor Bloomberg attacks NYC employee's fringe benefits5. Modifications include making employees partners in controlling cost, imposing a minimum 40-hour week for all civilian titles, reducing vacation, reforming the rules governing overtime, union business time and termination pay, eliminating automatic promotions and reforming work rules to reduce unnecessary payments or inefficient use of resources. (NOT ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE WRITTEN IN THE BUDGET ARE THE OTHERS PROPOSALS OR HAVE THEY BEEN IMPLEMENTED WHY DID HE DO THESE THINGS. He mentions all of them in the Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2004. Implementation Not as far as I can see. He doesn't mention it in the FY '06 Executive Budget. Why Perhaps because it's good financial management.). There is no breakdown in the figures regarding race or educational background of DoITT employees, but one would expect that the most noticeable change would be that more members of previously under-represented groups are now be in the higher echelons and that an increasing number of well-educated, highly-qualified people are working in civil service as the labor market took a down turn in the 80s and again after 9/11. The Commissioner of DoITT is an example. He first became involved in NYC government in 1980 and worked his way up toward more responsibility until 1997 when he moved to the public sector to work for Cisco, a prominent network communications company. He returned to city government in 2001 to head DoITT and, with a proven track record in managing multi-billion dollar projects, stands head and shoulders, both academically and experientially, amongst many of his contemporaries. As is the custom, he was officially appointed by the Mayor. There is no evidence or rumor of 'clubhouse politics' (or its more modern equivalent) having influenced his appointment, as Gino P Menchini seems to have more than enough credentials and experience to qualify for the position. One of the differences between NYC government and a corporation of a similar size is that NYC is a legislative making body. As much as possible, it must be and be perceived by the public as transparent in everything it does. Within DoITT, a single body is responsible for both legislative and executive functions. Thus, it has more powers, but also wider duties than a comparable corporate entity. DoITT is working for the common good with many stakeholders. Blank agrees with Donald M. Kendall, chairman of Pepsico, who says that the top man has to have a vision. There is no doubt that the Commissioner of DoITT has a vision for the direction NYC will be headed throughout the 21st century, and ensuring that the infrastructure is in place should a large corporation wish to move to NYC. (HOW DOES THIS FIT IN This comes back to Blank's comparison of public sector entity with corporations.) More generally, DoITT has a clearly-stated purpose and a single-minded vision, serving New Yorkers to the best of its ability within the constraints of the budget. Ideally, NYC government is, in essence, a public servant, and agencies must therefore respond to the public need as expressed not just at the electoral booths, but in every call to 311. To a certain extent much of Blank's argument regarding the role of unions - which Blank argues are undemocratic and anti-productivity - is inconsistent. If democracy refers to government by the people on behalf of the people then unions are democratic. They seek the greatest good for their members and their antagonist is an equally powerful unionized NYC. A public agency is not a manufacturer of widgets and cannot be usefully assessed using the same metrics. Management styles have moved on and what Blank refers to as democracy is now referred to as Corporate Governance. Much of what Blank critiqued in the civil service is now viewed as de rigueur in the corporate world. Mayor Bloomberg who has an impeccable corporate background and is a self-made billionaire has argued that firing staff was actually anti-productive and that it was actually more dollar-efficient to increase the productivity of existing staff. (I'M CONFUSED - DID NYC GOVERNMENT HIRE STAFF AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY, BUT THE MAYOR SAID THAT THE FIRING WAS ANTI PRODUCTIVE OR DID THEY ONLY FIRE STAFF AND THE MAYOR IS SAYING THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE KEPT STAFF AND TRIED TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY WHY DID THEY FIRE STAFF IF THE MAYOR THOUGHT IT WAS A BAD IDEA I THOUGHT HE HAD A LOT OF SAY IN THAT. This comes out of the Executive Budget for Fiscal '04. Normally when the City is under financial pressure it fires staff. Bloomberg pointed out that this was not an option he favored for the reasons I highlighted above. The logic of Blank's argument is that a good manager would fire staff if the corporation was under financial pressure. I found it interesting that Bloomberg who is a 'good manager' disagrees and has a strong counter-argument, that is, there are other ways of generating cost savings that do not involve lay-offs.) An organization the size of NYC government - and, by implication, DoITT - can generate cost savings through more efficient deployment of the workforce or reductions in pension or benefit costs associated with City employment. 7. [I feel like the very last part of the assignment is not entirely addressed. Although you could assume that the budget cuts were a ":problem" that the agency had to deal with, it's not really specific to DoITT because the whole city had to deal with that and pretty much responded in similar ways. (Leaving your main point aside for a minute, DoITT would have responded as if the directive regarding budget cuts was addressed solely to it and taken steps which would be unique to it. So I'm not sure I agree with you here. Actually I am sure I don't agree with you here!!) Also, the last few questions in the assignment seem to imply that the problem is supposed to be CURRENT and not totally solved even if it is being addressed. And then we are supposed to say whether or not various reports about the problem are realistic or fair. And then we are supposed to suggest some solutions. (for more clear info, see the last part of the assignment, #4). Sooooo, I'm not really sure that this paper addresses this part entirely. Could you add something or change it so that this is more fully addressed ***Even though it says 6 pages maximum, if it's easier for you to do more, that's fine. If it's just as easy to keep it to 6 pages, that's fine too. Whatever is best for you. (I'll have to come back to you on this one for ideas. The only 2 things I can find that DoITT has lead on in the past 4 to 5 years are the post-9/11 infrastructure reconstruction and the 311 service, both of which they are winning praise for.) Bibliography Blank, Blanche, (1986). Bureaucracy: Power in the Details, Chapter 5 in Urban Politics, New York Style, Jewel Bellush & Dick Netzer, Eds. Bloomberg, Shaw, Madonia and Kupferman, (2005), The Mayor's Management Report Fiscal 2004, City Of New York Bloomberg & Page, (2004), The City of New York Executive Budget Fiscal Year 2004, Available from: www.nyc.gov/html/records/pdf/govpub/557sum4_03.pdf - 2004-07-08. Last viewed on 30 November 2005. McCall, H. Carl, (2004), Review of the Financial Plan for the City of New York: Fiscal Years 2001 Through 2004, Office of the State Deputy Comptroller for the City of New York, Report 13-2000, Available from: http://osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt1300/rpt1300.htm. Last viewed on 30 November 2005. Menchini, Gino P, (2005), Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Supplementary Indicator Tables. Available from: http://www.nyc.gov/html/ops/html/mmr/mmr_sub.shtml. Last viewed 30 November 2005. Read More