Town Weighs Options to Update IT Infrastructure

The town of Windham can have a better than average technology infrastructure in less than 12 months and fit the upgrades into the budget, according to Information Techonology Director Eric DeLong. 

As was revealed during a recent IT assessment completed by AdminInternet, which is owned by resident Scott Baetz, the town is lagging behind with its equipment and many of the employees need better training.

"What it amounts to is a merely adequate situation in which efficiency, security and ease of use are all being compromised on a daily basis," DeLong said during a June 18 Board of Selectmen meeting.

He added that he wants to work toward helping people understand that adequate is "not good enough," and that while the current situation the town is in is not yet an emergency, it still needs to be addressed.

DeLong went through many of the tasks that need to be taken care of, including a replacement of the voicemail server, removing underperforming equipment and replacing consumer products with enterprise products.

The hard details will not be hashed out until future budget discussions, which will take place in August.

Town Administrator Dave Sullivan said that he would like to see a three-year implementation plan at that time, with a cost identified for every item.

The goal is to implement the recommendations made by the AdminInternet assessment.

Selectman Chair Bruce Breton suggested possibly considering IT as a capital improvement item, since Baetz' assessment has what he referred to as "significant capital items."

Sullivan noted that the CIP threshold was recently reduced to a $40,000 minimum, which could fit the technological needs in.

DeLong also said that the best thing to do will be a complete replacement of the entire operating system and workstations all at once.

"Lease it all out – take advantage of the cost savings that are associated with that," he said. "That addresses a lot of the confusion and the issues that we have . It puts the same operating system on everyone's computer."

Also part of DeLong's plan is to re-constitute the Windham Technical Advisory Committee, which he said has not met regularly for over a year. That committee would then help direct the Board of Selectmen to make the best choices.

DeLong also tossed around the different directions the town could go, even posing a scenario where every board member has a tablet at meetings, eliminating stacks of paperwork.

He explained that its an advancement that other towns in the state have already adopted.

According to Breton, the IT department currently operates on a $200,000 budget, a good chunk of which is consumed by DeLong's salary and benefits.