The Systems & Applications Division of IST is responsible for the design, development and support of large application systems. Managed by Rwena Holaday , seventy+ analysts and programmers create and maintain systems on platforms ranging from mainframes to the Internet. Current languages in use include Visual Basic, VB.Net, C#, ASP.Net, XML, AJAX, ABAP, Java, Micro Focus COBOL, on the Internet and LAN plus COBOL and IDEAL on the IBM mainframe. The mainframe applications use DATACOM/DB. All other database work is MS SQL-Server.
One of the division’s primary initiatives is to retire the mainframe. This effort has started with the recent migration of PISMO/TAPIS, the County’s integrated Property Assessment & Tax application from COBOL/DATACOM to a .Net environment using Micro Focus Cobol and SQL Server 2005.
The division is organized into teams oriented to specific application areas, application support, and the County ERP software, SAP.
Application areas:
Justice
Supporting the needs of the Sheriff, the Marin Superior Court, the District Attorney, Probation, and Public Defender is critical for the protection of Marin County citizens. Currently three separate teams are involved in this area. A mainframe based CJIS system, which serves as the heart of our integrated Criminal Justice service is supported by a team led by Lynn Say. Her team also supports our client server District Attorney Case Management system.
The Public Defender Case Management system, Gideon, is a .Net application supported by a team led by Nathan LaForce. The Gideon team was rewarded the County’s “Team of the Quarter” award for this project. This team also supports a client server Probation Case Management System and the Marin Superior Court Civil System, written in PowerBuilder.
The third team, led by Jack Pribble, supports EJUS, Electronic Justice Search, a secure internet based application that provides the Marin Justice community an integrated view to all current and historical adult criminal justice information. Written in VB.Net, EJUS is based on the Government Justice Exchange standard, GJXDM (Global Justice XML Data Model). EJUS received an award for Most Innovative Use of Technology from CCISDA (California County Information Services Directors Association).
Jack Pribble and Lynn Say are the project leads for the Justice teams currently modernizing the mainframe based Traffic Court application to VB.Net.3.5 running on Windows server 2008. It is due for release in 2009.
Property
Marin is blessed with some of the most valuable real estate in the world. The property system manages over fifty five billion dollars in property values and generates over seven hundred million dollars in tax bills. Led by Ron Matteson, the Property Systems Team designs and supports Marin County's Property Tax infrastructure.
The TAPIS (Tax Assessment & Property Information System) application integrates the efforts of the County Assessor/Recorder, Auditor and Tax Collector. The recent modernization of this system converted over thirteen hundred custom IDEAL and COBOL programs running on the mainframe to Micro Focus COBOL. DATACOM tables were ported to SQL Server 2005. Property also maintains data warehouses that allow analysis via a Visual Basic client server interface. On the County website the team also supports access to the Recorder's Index, parcel maps, online property tax payment, and property tax inquiry.
The Property team also supports other client server applications. They provide a complete work flow and appraisal support system for the County Assessor. This allows the entry and tracking all activity through the Assessor's Department. For personal property end, the team supports a Business Property assessment system. Also in support of taxes is an application to track and assess Transient Occupancy tax. A web & client server application, FBN (Fictitious Business Name) is supported for the County Clerk’s office.
GIS - Geographic Information System
GIS applications are developed by a matrix team staffed by members of Community Development and Information Services. This group develops GIS based applications for county departments for internal use and for the public and is one of the few cross-departmental teams in the county. The GIS team is led by Ray VanCleave. http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/is/main/gis/ .
Application Support:
Database and Middleware Support
The Database Administration Team, led by Ray VanCleave, has primary responsibility for ongoing administration of all development and production databases, both client/server and mainframe based, within county government. The team currently supports several dozen databases on multiple servers running Microsoft SQL Server, and CA Datacom/DB running on an IBM 2066 Mainframe. The team supports SQL Server versions 2000, 2005, and preparing for 2008. In addition to administrative duties, the team provides SQL programming support and database design consultation to the IST application development division and supports the implementation of SQL databases for third party applications. The transfer of data to data warehouses or to other local and state agencies is also supported.
The County of Marin supports the use of a middleware product called Viaserve to facilitate the data sharing and updating between the mainframe and client/server and web based applications.
Quality Assurance
The Quality Assurance team, led by Deter Guglielmo, assures that all in-house applications meet standards, function as designed and satisfy customer requirements. The Quality Assurance analysts work closely with the application developers and clients to gain an understanding of the application and to develop a test plan. They use the test plan to assure that the product functions correctly before it is implemented.
Application Integration
Linda Jamieson leads the application integration team. The County uses Microsoft Biztalk server as its middleware product and implemented the first project in 2005. Integration between the Sheriffs 3rd party software and County Justice applications uses Biztalk. The Biztalk interface design is consistent with the County’s efforts towards Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for applications. This team also supports other application integration needs such as ADAM/AD LDS (Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services), WCF (Windows Communication Foundation), etc. This team is beginning its efforts towards the IST strategic plan for single sign-on (SSO).
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
MERIT
The Marin Enterprise Resource Integration Team (MERIT) supports the County’s SAP ERP system. The County’s ramp-up implementation of SAP went live in July 2006, and includes modules in the core transactional system (ECC 6.0), BI (Business Intelligence), and the SAP Portal.
MERIT consists of four teams under the leadership of the MERIT ERP Business Systems Manager, Hans Metz.
The Financial Integration team led by Maxx Gold supports the financial modules which include: FI/GL (Financials/General Ledger, Cash), CO/FM/GM (Controlling, Funds Management, Grants Management), AP (Accounts Payable), AR (Accounts Receivable), and FI-AA (Fixed Assets).
The HCM (Human Capital Management) team is led by Brenda Grayson. Her team supports the following SAP modules: Organizational Management, Personnel Administration, Time Entry, and Payroll.
Hans Metz also leads the Logistics team that supports modules: Plant Maintenance, Project Systems, Materials Management, and Sales and Distribution.
The STS (SAP Technical Support) team is led by Angie Hisanaga. The team includes support for: Management of systems (BASIS), SAP’s proprietary programming language ABAP, BI (Business Intelligence), the Employee Self Services (ESS) Portal, workflow and security.
The Implementation Team led by Cathy Boffi supports the communications, implementation, and training functions, including Learning Solutions, for SAP. This team also coordinates roll-outs paired with timely training of new functionality to the County departments.
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