Menchini's New York City career has bridged some major changes, from the aftermath of 9/11 to the Giuliani-Bloomberg transition.
Bloomberg, said Menchini, is not only a mayor who understands technology, he was a billionaire CEO who was used to getting what he wanted and getting it now. That point of view became very apparent during planning for the now-famous New York City 311 system.
"We recommended 311 to consolidate call centers," said Menchini. "He thought it was a great idea, and at his first major speech, he was at the podium. I'd read his State of the City and he said he was going to implement 311. There would be 911 for emergencies and 311 for everything else. And he looked at me and said 'It's going to be up in one year.' I didn't remember that in the script."
Menchini said he figured the procurement alone would take a year, and now he had to have a full implementation in that period. As the project got going, 80 percent was dealing with agency operations and 20 percent the technology. "Organizational impact was the real challenge," said Menchini, "to get agencies to change the way they operate."
Someone in the audience asked Menchini how he managed to speed up the procurement. "We looked at contracts we already had, and where we could use those." Enterprise contracts allowed all city agencies to use the same contracts, and Menchini beefed up the procurement staff and got them busy developing the RFP. That was one thing they could speed up, they could control. Having an already busy staff find time to do RFPs is not effective, he said. Menchini's solution was to get dedicated procurement staff and "lock them in a room, don't let them come out until you have an RFP." Evaluation committees -- another source of slow procurements -- can be speeded up by bringing people into the area, outsourcing the contract negotiations to qualified attorneys, and holding them to a tight time frame.
The project took 13 months, said Menchini, requiring a one-month extension. And the changes were just beginning. The Mayor made Menchini's department responsible for the operational side of 311, so Menchini's staff grew from 400 to 1,200. "We had to adapt," he said, "fill the gaps and do what was necessary. That happened to me time and time again."
And Mayor Bloomberg had high expectations as a power technology user. He wanted to be able to record a voicemail every morning and send it out to a list of employees. He wanted to leave himself voicemails in the middle of the night if necessary as reminders, so the system had to work 24/7. "We had to change the way we operated, how we used our contractors and vendors." Changes included stockpiling equipment for a faster response.
New administrations arriving next year will be much better at technology, said Menchini, and will have their own ideas, so you need to be prepared and know where you want to go, so you can address the challenges.
"When a problem comes up address that challenge proactively," advised Menchini, saying the 311 system was built on an enterprise architecture approach rather than a multi-platform approach. "Have a team of people with you that are able to adapt rapidly and work together as a team." Menchini said his team worked very hard and met the many challenges.
The mayor met with district attorneys who wanted faster access to 911 calls, and wanted to see what could be done. Menchini met with the Police Department who had very clear ideas how it could be done. "I told the mayor what we wanted to do, and he said '90 days.'"
The city made 911 records fully digital. They are posted to a portal so the DAs could access them. "They could go to that portal for critical records, cut it to a CD and be in court the next day," said Menchini. Often times, battered spouses will not press charges, he said, but when the DA can play a CD of the 911 call, and say 'here's what was happening that night' there is often a very different outcome." While the mayor put a huge demand on the IT operation he also gave IT the authority and the mandate, and they were able to pull off these projects.
New York City's IT challenges were not confined to administrations. Two attacks on the Trade Center, a blackout in 2003, a mass transit strike, the Republican National Convention, one of the worst snowstorms in history, and a 911 outage, all required quick responses and IT resources.
During the blackout, the 311 system handled 170,000 calls. Something would come up such as how long can insulin last without refrigeration, said Menchini, so that data would be put into the mayor's press briefing the next day. The 311 system also helped gauge the mood of the public. As the power came back up, callers were irate because Yankee Stadium got priority over residential areas -- not knowing that there were hospitals in the area in desperate need of electricity. That was explained the next day by Con Ed.
A fatal Staten Island ferry accident, brought in thousands of calls from people worried about relatives. Forms were handed out to call agents who took information as to who was missing and who had called. The forms were data entered and a list of people who might be involved was compiled.
First-tier critical technologies have expanded, said Menchini. VoIP, Blackberries, even e-mail are now critical infrastructures as well as 911. In an emergency the cell call volume spikes and alternatives are needed.
Menchini's presentation seemed to turn the question of "how will IT survive gubernatorial transition" to "technology is indispensable to any administration, and with it there are untold opportunities to come."
The CIO Leadership Summit was held in conjunction with GTC East and sponsored by CA, IBM, Oracle and SAS. GTC East continues through the week in Albany.
