Item - 2018.AU13.14

The Audit Committee recommends that: 

1. City Council request the Chief Information Officer to:

a. Develop a process to ensure timely synchronization of IT asset purchases recorded in SAP with IT Asset Management (ITAM) System records.

b. Expedite reconciliation of network assets and update them in the ITAM System.

c. Develop secure communication mechanisms (or an alternate process) to allow for the update of segregated networks’ IT assets in the ITAM System.

d. Provide ITAM System access to other City divisions (where required) including adequate training to assist them in understanding the system.

2. City Council request the Chief Information Officer to:

a. Develop a process for monitoring and reporting of "in stock" assets and their respective costs. Reporting should be made available within the I&T Division and other City divisions to review the availability and age of IT assets for consideration of deployment before making new purchases.

b. Ensure that all high-volume purchases of IT assets are supported with an appropriate deployment plan.

c. Develop a process for performing a periodic review with City divisions that have IT assets which are not deployed or assigned to users to address any excess inventory.

3. City Council request the Chief Information Officer to develop a reporting mechanism and criteria for reporting to the Executive Modernization Committee and respective Executive Project Sponsors on project implementation delays and unused software licences with reports to include as a minimum:

a. Accumulated financial impact of delays.

b. Unused assets, licences and solutions.

c. Forgone benefits as a result of project implementation delays.

d. Plans in place to mitigate the impact of delays.

4. City Council request the Chief Financial Officer to coordinate with the Executive Director of Human Resources and the Chief Information Officer to:

a. Expedite the adoption of the SAP Employee Self-service solution throughout the City to maximize licence use and save costs incurred from printing and distribution of pay stubs.

b. Review the existing IT environment to evaluate options to allow staff that do not have a work computer to have access to Employee Self-service solution.

5. City Council request the Chief Information Officer to conduct an assessment of the City's existing physical servers for identification of opportunities for adoption of cloud services and/or virtualization.

6. City Council request the Chief Information Officer to implement ongoing monitoring of cloud consumption levels by divisions to ensure any necessary adjustments to the service delivery model are identified and implemented on a timely basis to avoid incurring excessive costs.

7. City Council request the Chief Information Officer to formalize criteria to identify critical network assets to be covered by the corporate support and maintenance contract and communicate to the responsible divisions the advantages of inclusion in the City contract.

8. City Council request the City Manager to forward the report (June 28, 2018) from the Auditor General to the major agencies and corporations for their review and consideration of the relevance of the recommendations to their respective organizations.

The Auditor General initiated the audit of the City's Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and asset management in 2017. The results of the Phase 1 of this review were presented to the Audit Committee on February 7, 2018.

This current report provides results of our Phase 2 audit of the City’s IT infrastructure and asset management. In this Phase 2 report, we have identified the following opportunities for improvement related to various IT projects and initiatives:

-  Improving the accuracy of inventory information: The Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) System was not reliable due to incomplete and inaccurate information. Improvements are needed here.
 

-  Better planning: Computers valuing $1.9 million were purchased in bulk but not deployed for a significant amount of time.  Better planning is necessary.
 

-  Reducing delays in implementation: We saw delays in IT project implementation resulting in the City incurring costs but not receiving the intended benefits.
 

This report highlights a number of key issues that need to be addressed by the I&T Division in collaboration with other City divisions. The Auditor General has made eight recommendations in this Phase 2 report. Overall, the Auditor General has made 22 recommendations during the Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the IT infrastructure and asset management audit.