The city also relies on outside vendors to build the software and supply the hardware for crucial city functions. Rather than off-the-shelf software that’s easier to maintain, 40 percent of the city’s software is custom. Ten percent is the industry average.
Underscoring these legacy problems is a concern that the city department responsible for all IT matters struggles to keep the laptops, printers and phones working for the city’s 3,400 full-time employees.
All of these assertions were made in a report the consulting firm Deloitte completed for the city in late 2016. At the time, Deloitte found that documentation for software and IT procedures was lacking or nonexistent and that the Department of Innovation & Performance [I&P] struggled to keep up with internal service complaints about malfunctioning software or hardware. Deloitte charged $200,000 for their two months of work on the report.
Now, more than a year and a half since the report was finished, I&P is beginning to make progress on fixing the problems. Under director Lee Haller, who started his job just as Deloitte was finishing its report, the department now has a strategic plan. Haller is not releasing that plan to the public, according to city spokesman Timothy McNulty — at least not until it is finalized.
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https://www.publicsource.org/city-of-pittsburgh-it-is-too-scattered-too-custom-and-scantily-documented-an-audit-showed-what-is-the-city-doing-about-it/
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