City-Wide Strategic WAN Plan

Client Description

Client was a medium-sized city government organized as 32 agencies managing and running the city. The IT
department was under the Finance Dept. The city was looking to modernize their IT organization and develop a
Strategic Plan for enhancing their wide area network capabilities and management.

Value Proposition to Client

To manage their IT department as a highly-valued organization in the city, we worked with the city to develop an
organization structure that would minimize intrusion into the daily work of the city, yet would give the city IT
organization the recognition and authority in the city that it needs in an information-driven government. We also
needed to provide the city with an analysis of existing and projected WAN infrastructure needs and a roadmap for
getting to where they could provide that infrastructure. The infrastructure and plan would work within budget
constraints and on a fast-track to meet growing communications needs within the city government.

Nature of Work

• Developed an open-ended interview to conduct with IT managers and agency heads
• Interviewed the city’s top IT decision makers and managers
• Performed an analysis of the gap between existing WAN capabilities and needed WAN capabilities
• Developed a WAN Strategic Plan and a WAN Phased Implementation Plan
• Presented the final plan to the Mayor’s Office, with confirmation to move forward with the recommendations

Key Project Outcomes/Successes

The city now has a Wide Area Network strategy based on the city’s mission and strategic goals for the near-term
future. The WAN strategy leverages existing WAN and telecommunication assets, while providing a path to
increase the city’s WAN infrastructure to support growing communications demands and to secure the WAN. The
City has implemented many of the WAN Strategic Plan recommendations in a phased approach. The city now has
improved IT and network functionality and responsiveness, and direction to move forward with providing the
WAN infrastructure needed to support a growing metropolis.