Customer / Services
Internal Customers
20 County Departments
Services
Maintenance for 80 vehicles
Winter maintenance for entire county complex
Building and winter maintenance construction services for solid waste operations.
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Municipal Customers
NYS Department of Transportation
City of Oneida Department of Public Works
County organizations: schools, fire and police agencies and emergency centers.
Services
Summer construction for City of Oneida (for exchange of services)
Winter maintenance agreements with town highway departments
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Public Customers
County residents
County businesses
County organizations: schools, fire and police agencies and emergency centers.
Services
Road maintenance and safety measures
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Stakeholders in Strategic Planning
Approach to Strategic Planning
Madison County's Highway Department has a adopted a four pronged philosophy to marry the IT Strategy of the company to it's business strategy and vice versa. the prime goal is to be able to create a balance and alignment between the two entities and this is incorporated in the dialectical approach stated below.
The following approach has been defined by Dr. Robert Heckman in his model for "Strategy and Planning for Information Resources”. An effective process for developing strategy and plans for information resources must be:
1) Simultaneously end-means and means-end: The best strategies are able to combine the end-means approach and the means end approach to achieve a balance between realism and optimism Thus there is congruency in planning. The Highway department is definitely constrained by the resources in terms of capital, both intellectual and financial. However it is able to clearly articulate the value of IT to it's operations. Thus they are able to create rational, motivating goals and objectives without losing the realism injected by a capabilities based perspective.
2) Simultaneously top-down and bottom-up: There needs to be a synthesis of the bottom up requirements and the perceived requirements provided by a top down approach. The highway department has developed its strategy by involving the end user in the strategy formulation process. Thus they have attained maximum effectiveness by reconciling both perspectives.
3) Simultaneously strategic and tactical: There needs to be fit between the strategic level and the tactical levels of an organization. The question of IT ownership has loomed for a long while. We recommended that the highway department acquire greater ownership of their IT needs by implementing a charge-back system as well as absorb some of the responsibilities of the IT department.
4) Simultaneously Internal and External: Business Strategy must fit the external environments of customers, competition and technology and also fit the internal environments of organizational resources and pyschology. Similarly IR Strategy must simultaneously look outward at users, alternative marketplace solutions and IT trends while looking inward at technical and financial resources and organizational psychology.
This approach ensures that the business goals and IT goals are aligned with each other. The highway department has thus adopted a very powerful and workable approach to Strategic Planning.
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