MBIT July 2019

Macon-Bibb's city services automation project has been selected for inclusion in the Microsoft/DataKind Virtual Accelerator for AI in Cities program! Ours is one of an excellent cohort of projects that will be participating, with representation from across the country and in domains including housing, intelligent city services, sustainability, and education.  

• 20 Verizon Devices (15 Cell Phones and 5 MIFIs) activated
• Coordinated Mainframe Decommission Team Meeting (Operation Sunset)
• Created Voice of the Customer Translation Matrix (Directly addresses Customer issues)
• Successfully moved the Coroner off the Mainframe (Testing Phase)
• Process Walks with Superior Court Clerk (Receivables), District Attorney’s Office, Superior Court Probation, and Superior Court Judges

• Solid Waste Inventory and Routing App for Downtown
• SmarterTogether Project Planning
• MaconInsights Data Academy Executive Cohort
• MaconInsights Data Academy Cohort B

1.    Completed Project -  Coroner Office- successfully created new application to get Corner Office migrated off mainframe, ready for parallel testing.

2.      Action Items - Mainframe Decommissioning Project

·        Several (34 departments) have moved of mainframe to a variety of applications software. Erica Woodford, Clerk of Superior Court is 80% ready to migrate off mainframe. She has already chosen Cott Systems for the Superior Court Receivable Office and will prob

·        Sheriff Office SSI payments for inmates - ready to run a parallel test and would like to run the new process and the mainframe process together, so that we can compare the files and data. If everything in the data files looks good during the parallel run, we should be able to use the new web-based sheriff ssi system going forward.

·        Work with District Attorney Office to create new application.

·        Work with Superior Court Probation to create new application

·        Eliminate and reroute printing of A(Arrest) – docket card for Municipal Court    

 3.    Special Reports & Forms       

Activities for the month of July.

• Still working with Howard Whitsitt with knowB4.
• Ran cabling for the municipal court move to the court house.
• No major activities going on now.
• There were no annual saving for the Month of July.

• Aligning and kitting radios for new BCSO vehicles

• Breezy Hill Tower Site work in process with Procurement, Legal, etc.

• EOC Tower Site with Legal for contract completion.

• PO has been issued to AllState Tower for Phoenix Project Knight Road.

• Discussions with Navicent Medical Center to use rooftop radio tower.

We welcome a new Database Administrator, Andrew (Cory) Bloodworth to the team. Cory was a former IT director for a global business and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Macon-Bibb IT.

Public Defenders Office 365 conversion project has been completed. We installed Microsoft Office 365 Pro on approximately 40 computers and laptops, converting and upgrading their existing Outlook 10 email format to the latest Outlook 365 format. 

Phishing attacks are one of the largest security issues faced by Information Technology Professionals. Training users on how identify and avoid these attacks is the number one key to avoid becoming a victim. Macon Bibb IT has launched a program to test and train our users, contracting with KnowBe4, one of the industry leaders in Phishing testing and training. We have just completed baseline testing that indicated 24.9% of our users are phishing prone. Now we ready to start the training stage.

Data backup project is under way. Due to the recent rash of ransomware attacks on State and Local governments we have started systematically backing up critical databases and storing them offline as a precautionary measure.

1.       Replacing a failed backup system. Referred to as Project Redemption, we received the final approval from commission to purchase a replacement for our Avamar, a backup system that failed because it reached maximum capacity.
2.        Gilead and other parks networking.
3.       Preparations for an upcoming audit.
4.       Securing all websites and associated data base connected to them.
5.       Securing, updating, and diagraming the current network infrastructure.
6.       District Attorneys Document management project.
7.       Municipal Court relocation.
8.       Sheriff’s Department AEGIS update.

• Coordinate Mainframe Decommission Team Meeting (Operation Sunset)
• Continue Process Walks
• Finalize Solution for Municipal Court to move off the Mainframe



• eCourt Upgrade
• Internal Audits for New World Systems
• Mobile Inspectors Application
• NeoGov Integration

• Macon-Bibb Website Update
• Department Website Updates
• Microsoft/DataKind Virtual Accelerator for AI in Cities Project
• SmarterTogether Advisory Board Planning
• Business Development Services Application
• Georgia Smart Cities Project - SmartNeighborhoodMBC
• SmartAddressMBC Project
• MaconInsights Data Academy

Mainframe Decommissioning Project

Network closet audit for Macon-Bibb.  

• Kick-off meeting with AllState Tower for Knight Road Tower Site.
• Kick-off meeting with OnSite Communications for Town Creek Tower Site.
• Meet with Site Acquisition firm at Town Creek to begin property review.
• Review properties in south Macon-Bibb County for location of Allied South search ring.
• Meet with Navicent Medical Center for Downtown Macon radio coverage solution.
• Annual inventory check.
• Aligning radios for Solid Waste and Parks & Beautification.

• July 1 – August 1 (1 month into fiscal year = 8.3%)
• 15% of total IT budget has been spent (Overall Budget Performance Report [Includes Microsoft EA Agreement])
• Highlights:
• 3% of IT Personnel budget has been spent
• Created initial requisitions for FY 2020 Budget
• Processed contract modification for New World/NeoGov integration
• Legislative actions that passed Commission:
• $200,874.74 purchase of data backup/protection
• 3-year Microsoft EA agreement
• Current FY2020 Radio Systems budget proposal appears to have funding for several smaller issues and projects.
• No funding appears to have been made for major system upgrades and needs.

• Hired Database Administrator
• Hired Network Administrator
• Have a need for at least three positions to be added to the Radio Division.

• Staffing for SmarterTogether Smart City Strategy
• Decision for financial account for BDS permitting application
• Equipment maintenance funding: radio system, microwave system, battery backup systems (proposed in FY2020 budget)