The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) contracted RNR Consulting to conduct an Information Technology Needs Assessment to examine the current state and future goals of information technology across the District. Specifically, RNR Consulting was charged with the responsibility of identifying opportunities to:

• Break up “information silos” and increase coordination among departments;
• Increase sharing of information-technology related skills;
• Consolidate the reach of District-wide services;
• Decentralize department services;
• Increase cost-effectiveness and improve process quality;
• Improve data management standards and processes;
• Eliminate work which is “nice-to-have” but not necessary;
• Eliminate process, function and information redundancies.

Information obtained from reviews of resources and materials provided by the IT Department was utilized by RNR Consulting in developing comprehensive interview questions aimed at assessing the state of the District’s information technology organization. We then conducted interviews and focus groups with IT Department staff, end-users and information technology content managers. Interview findings and the results of our analysis facilitated our understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the District’s Information Technology. Specifically, the project team reviewed the following areas within the IT functions: 

• Application and Network Architectures;
• Information Technology Application Lifecycle;
• Patch Management Strategies;
• Role of Power Users;
• Information Technology SWOT;
• Information Technology Risk Assessment.