When we interview potential candidates for employment with the City of Newton I.T. Department we always tell the applicant that they will never be bored and that no two days are similar. Truly, these are honest statements. 

The I.T. Department supports every department in the City; even those departments that have their own internal technical support still occasionally rely on the municipal I.T. department for infrastructure needs, IP addressing assistance, and oversight for concerns varying from security, email, citywide fiber, our financial systems, web-based information, and hybrid Zoom meeting support.

Our network administrators are always busy whether they are offering desktop support, building and repairing PCs, account access administration, even running sound equipment for events. The network admins can frequently be found taking hands on training from our senior level administrators on specific, specialized tasks such as storage area network administration, Active Directory management, switch management, router administration, oversight of our phishing campaigns, remote support and troubleshooting network issues. The majority of our staff have been on site daily since fall of 2021.

Our 2022 projects include oversight and assistance in continuing to polish our current version of Munis for our consolidated financial system while preparing for the October 2022 upgrade to the next version.

With that upgrade we look forward to implementing portals for employee access, new hire applications and vendor management. We expect these opportunities will enhance efficiencies in nearly all departments. We are coordinating with Tyler Technologies and various departments to facilitate and optimize the solutions the Munis software supports as we continue to remove our dependence on paper, ink signatures and paper shuffling.

With the major changes at Newton Police, we have heavily invested our time by working hand in hand with Police staff negotiating the procurement and replacement of 100 PCs and phones as well as rewiring all three Police buildings, replacing all municipal switches, and offering day to day desktop support as needed. We are preparing to assist in the development of the south side substation located on Elliot St.

The replacement of our storage area network has been completed having been financed by previous CIP funds. This system comes nearly 10 years after our original SAN solution that was procured in 2013. While some solutions and their servers have been migrated to the cloud (a web-based secure storage solution) we continue to host tremendous amounts of data for our municipal departments.

We look forward to and are preparing for the Senior Center move to the Brigham House this fall and expect business as usual when it comes to enabling interim solutions. We look forward to participating with the design review team when it comes to the technology presence during the design team meetings for NewCAL.

We continue to work with various private, state and federal security agencies while working with staff to raise awareness of phishing scams to protect ourselves from predators.

We continue to support and assist the Clerk’s office evolution into an efficient machine by offering software development, automation opportunities and technical resources.

The new permitting system, NewGov, went live with phase one in the fall of 2021 with the release of Mechanical Permits. In May of 2022, phase two saw Building Permits move from Community Plus into NewGov. Over the course of the summer and fall, a soft, staged release of the many Fire Permits were, and continue to be rolled out in a controlled fashion. In addition to the NewGov software, we have rolled out BlueBeam software to allow PDF markups by staff charged with reviewing these permit submissions.

In 2022 we were approved to partner with CISA to constantly monitor our outward facing network devices. We receive reports anytime a situation arises and are advised as to best steps to take. We receive frequent notices from the DHS as well with up to date information regarding hacking and phishing that assist us in adding entries into our firewall filters to protect us. We continue to work with all staff to make them phishing aware, savvy to impersonations via email, and to understand the typical traits of ransomware attempts.

Newton’s GIS system touches so many diverse systems; from waste collection to defining districts and tracking fire hydrant status, nearly every department benefits directly from the many layers in our GIS system.

During the past several years, technology has become more local, social and mobile. Transparency and access to data is expected by employees and the public alike. Mobility and working from home are the most requested resource by all departments. The desire for an improved “user experience” will drive the creation of more layered approaches in application design with the emphasis on increasing citizen services and untethering desktop workers by providing wireless devices, thus increasing mobility and improving efficiency for employees and citizens alike. 

Positioning the City of Newton for the future requires continuous evaluation of current infrastructure, applications, security, and interfaces, an understanding of the future of technology, and the development of a blueprint for investments in and modernization of the City’s technology.

The Information Technology Department conducts regular department needs analysis. These needs are vetted and initiatives, procurements, network enhancements, and modifications to workflow are developed. The IT Department meets monthly with the technology representatives from Police, Fire, Library and the School Department.  We all share needs, challenges, and pride in our accomplishments. These interactions are informative and provide great opportunities for the sharing of resources and experience.