This Division is responsible for the delivery of Information Technology (IT) services to all City divisions. This includes desktop office automation resources, access to corporate applications on various technical platforms across both local and wide area networks, and links to various external resources. IT services are delivered by one City staff and Peterborough Technology Services (PTS) staff.

Highlights

The contractual expense of this division represents the City’s share of Peterborough Technology Services (PTS) operating expenditures, which includes corporate applications, servers, and technical staff that are shared by the City and Peterborough Utilities Services. The estimated staff allocation for 2024 is 4 full time equivalent employees (FTEs) for the Peterborough Utilities and 26 FTEs for the City.

In addition to the initial capital investment to add new corporate applications, there is also an ongoing operating cost of approximately 25% for annual maintenance and support. There continues to be a shift that has resulted in software companies offering their applications as a hosted solution or Software as a Service. This is resulting in a shift from purchasing licenses that are a capital cost to annual subscription fees which are an operating cost.

The increase in the draft 2024 budget for Information Services is driven by a shift in the allocation of PTS staff to the City and the increased software maintenance and support costs. The increased revenue in 2024 is a draw from the IT reserve. 

Budgeted gross expenditures are $6.9 million with approximately $4.4 million of this amount being the City’s portion of Peterborough Technology Services costs and $2.2 million is hardware and software support costs. Approximately $2.4 million of total costs incurred are charged out directly to City divisions where there is a sharing of costs either with the Province or the County or the activity receives a fee for the service.

Recommendation

That any unused Peterborough Technology Services Budget, at the end of 2024, be transferred to the Information Technology (IT) Reserve, subject to the overall year-end position and that if actual 2024 costs exceed the 2024 budget, funds may be drawn from the IT reserve.

2024 Overview

Information Technology
Description2024 recommended
Expenditures $4,463,295
Revenues $100,000
Net requirement $4,363,295

Capital Budget

The Capital Budget for Information Services includes various technology initiatives for which business units have requested IT assistance. These requests are either for implementation of new software that will improve efficiencies or for major upgrades to existing business systems.

Examples include implementation of Next Generation 911, a Records Management Application and replacing core IT equipment such as hardware, software, server replacements, Notebook computers, as well as Network redundancy.

The 2024 Budget Highlights book provides a detailed list of initiatives.