Responsibilities and Activities of the Management Information Services (MIS) Division

Tax Billing & Collections - To provide computerized support for this main revenue source of the City. Maintain an on-line interactive system for Assessing, Billing, and Collecting of the following:

42,000 Real Estate Parcels
49,000 Motor Vehicles
5,000 Tangible Business Personal Properties

Ten years of open receivable records are maintained on each unpaid bill. The current year's bills and payment history as well as the previous three fiscal years payment histories are maintained on-line.

PANINI OCR (Optical Character Reader) Management & Maintenance – Assist the Tax Collector’s Office in the management, maintenance and operation of the City’s Panini OCR which is used to receive and record quarterly tax bill payments.

Tax Collector’s Bankruptcy Database – The Tax Collector’s bankruptcy database, containing the City’s bankruptcy information, is an in-house developed database written in MicroSoft Access which is currently managed and maintained by MIS.

Financial Management - To provide and support the following on-line integrated systems:

General Ledger Accounting for all Funds
Weekly Payroll for 1000+ employees
Personnel Management
Retirement deductions and savings records
Budgetary Control Forecasting & Reporting
Purchase Order Encumbrances
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Financial Report Writer

Water/Sewer Billing & Collections - Maintain an on-line interactive system for billing and collecting the following:

26,328 Water Usage metered accounts
13,000 Sewer Usage accounts
9,588 Sewer Assessment accounts
650 Commercial Pretreatment accounts

Municipal Court System - Maintain and support the City of Warwick Municipal Court Administration system which tracks moving violations, parking tickets, animal control violations, minimum housing violations, alarm violations, tobacco sales violations, and harbor violations.

Probate Court System - Maintain and support a Microsoft Access relational database system running on a PC local area network which allows data entry and maintenance of Probated Estates and all the current RI state-licensed attorneys as well as the ability to produce RI state-required reports and forms.

Police Historical Record Keeping System - Provide support for the Police Compaq(DEC) Alpha computer system located at the Police Department which provides automated records management of historical information for the City of Warwick Police Department.

Computer Dispatch & Records Management Systems –
1. Police: MIS will continue to support the Police Department in managing and maintaining the Police Department’s IMC dispatching and records management system.

2. Fire: With the implementation of the ACK Inc. automated dispatching and records management system, the Fire Department has made the quantum leap from an antiquated manual system to a fully computerized mobile recording and response system. MIS will assist the Fire Department in its continuing implementation and in managing their relatively new dispatching and records management hardware, software, and digital networked system.

Police Scheduling and Detail billing Systems – Provide both hardware and software maintenance support for the Police Department’s personnel scheduling and special detail billing Form
systems which reside on an NT PC-server supporting 85 PC workstations on a local area network of six (6) servers.

Police Mug-shot System – Provide both hardware and software maintenance support for the Police Department’s mug-shot recording system which resides on an NT PC-server supporting three PC workstations on a local area network. In addition, MIS
will provide the interface support between the Mug-shot system and the new IMC software system.

Police Mobile Data System – Assist in the installation and implementation of 49 new laptop PC’s in 44 patrol cars and 5 air cards communicating data via CDPD cellular modems. Also MIS will provide both hardware and software support for the 49 laptop PC’s and associated modems and mounts. This system will provide the mobile data communications between the patrol car and the police’s IMC dispatching and records management system. In addition, MIS will support and manage the DataMaxx interface between the City of Warwick IMC system and the State of Rhode Island’s RILETS system which links to the RI State Police and National Crime Information center databases.

Police Eyretel Digital Voice Recording System – Provide both hardware and software support for the remote access PC workstation which monitors all voice recording via radio and telephone in the police dispatch center.

Police Dictaphone Digital Voice Recording System – Provide both hardware and software maintenance support for the PC that houses and runs the Dictaphone software system. The Dictaphone voice recording system essentially records via telephone all voice reports from police officers in the field for later transcription.

Police Alarm Ordinance System – Provide both hardware and software support for the alarm ordinance billing and record management system which runs on a PC workstation.

Police Portable Radio Software – Provide software support for Police radios which requires programming Warwick specific parameters into each new portable radio using PC software.

Police LiveScan Finger Print System – MIS will manage and support the IMC interface to the Digital Biometrics Inc. (DBI) Livescan Finger print recording system.

Police Cell Block Telephone System – MIS will manage and support the Tipps Telephone System, which provides controlled collect call telephone access to prisoners held in the City of Warwick jail via the Cell Block Telephone Tracker software.

Police Licensing System - MIS will continue to support and maintain the Police Licensing system, which currently runs on the City's ES2044 central computer system.

Miscellaneous Administrative Systems - Support the following Systems:
Vital Statistics: Births, Deaths, Marriages indexing

Business Names Recording/Management
Municipal Bargaining Unit Pension Management/Recording

Office Automation – The City is currently utilizing the MicroSoft Office Suite of Windows software on desktop PC’s.

City of Warwick Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) Software - Assist Cole, Layer, Trumble in their support and maintenance of the CAMA software currently being utilized by the Assessor's office for reappraisal and revaluation. The CLT CAMA software currently resides on the City’s Dell Windows 2000 advanced server applications server which is managed and maintained by MIS.

Personal Property Appraisal Software System – Assist RRC (Real Estate Research Consultants, Inc.) in their support and maintenance of the Personal Property Appraisal software currently being utilized by the Assessor’s Office to assess tangible properties throughout the City of Warwick. The RRC software currently resides on the City’s Dell Windows 2000 advanced server applications server which is managed and maintained by MIS.

Personal Computers (PC) - Provide assistance to City Departments in selecting, maintaining and supporting personal computers. Currently, there are approximately 430 personal computers and laptops utilized throughout the various City departments.

City of Warwick Digital Wide Area Network (WAN) – MIS will support enhancements, refinements, monitoring, managing, and maintenance of the City’s new digital WAN.

City of Warwick AT&T Definity Telephone System - Continue to provide maintenance and support for the City's AT&T telephone system/switchboard located in City Hall which includes programming support, establishing new extensions, maintaining telephone user accounts, extensions, voice mail accounts, reporting, problem resolution, and also the interfaces with the Bell Atlantic local service.

Verizon Centrex telephone System – Provide programming support, establishing new extensions, maintaining telephone user accounts, extensions, voice mail accounts, reporting, and problem resolution, for the City’s Centrex telephone system currently being used by Police, Fire, and Sewer Authority.

Comdial Telephone System – Continue to provide Comdial telephone management and support at the City’s Senior Centers.

Permits/Improvement Management System – MIS will continue to assist the Building Department and Opal Data Technologies Inc whenever necessary in the management and maintenance of the Opal Data Technologies Inc permits and improvements management software system that was installed and implemented in the fourth quarter of 2001.

MUNIS COBOL to 4GL GUI Utility Billing Upgrade as a High Priority – There is considerable urgency for migrating to the new MUNIS 4GL GUI Utility Billing system as outlined in the following:

1. Although the old MUNIS COBOL Utility Billing software currently employed has served the City reasonably well over the last 10+ years, fundamentally it is regarded by all parties, including MUNIS, as obsolete, no longer enhanced, and not well maintained. Consequently, the City should not expect much support from MUNIS during a Quarterly Billing implementation under the old system.

2. The new MUNIS 4GL GUI Utility Billing Software, besides being fully supported and frequently enhanced, has many technical advantages over the old COBOL Utility Billing Software as follows:

a. Addresses and corrects all the major failings of the old COBOL Utility Billing System.
b. Data entry and navigation around the system is quick and intuitive using Windows point and click technology, drop down menus, context help screens, etc.
c. Resolves issues on open balance reporting and interest calculations.
d. Provides a much more flexible and easier to manage security function.
e. Provides powerful and flexible ad hoc reporting capability.
f. Provides better analytical tools to support the migration to Quarterly Billing with better troubleshooting.
g. Provides improved billing and payments for multiple property owners, allowing customers to pay their water and sewer bills with one check. Also allows a cashier to apply the one payment to several properties, thus, reducing bill payment processing time.
h. Supports the Water Division’s plan to upgrade to radio frequency meter reading.
i. The Sewer Assessment function is integrated as another feature of the MUNIS 4GL GUI Utility Billing software. Since the City’s 12 year old in-house developed Sewer Assessment software was not designed as a cash receipts system, it cannot perform to the expectations of the Tax Collector’s Office and the Treasury departments. Consequently, by implementing the new MUNIS 4GL GUI Utility Billing system, the City can effectively solve both the Utility Billing usage and Sewer Assessment problem with one major project. See Form 4 (Capital Expenditures), item 4 for more details.
j. Provides an incredible array of nice new features which really caught the attention of all those who attended the 3/25/03 MUNIS Utility Billing Webex demonstration. See Form 4 (Capital Expenditures), item 4 for more details.

Consequently, MIS supports an upgrade to the new MUNIS 4GL GUI Utility Billing software platform as soon as possible.

Quarterly Utility Billing – MIS will support the Water Division, Sewer Authority and the Collector’s Office in implementing the new quarterly utility billing initiative in the new fiscal year.