Surry County Government

Functions of Management Information Services

There are many different functions involved in a successful Management Information Systems (MIS) department. There has to be people skilled in both software and hardware installations. All employees must also maintain good people skills. The Surry County MIS Department deals with every department in the County in some form or another. The MIS department is responsible for all computers that are on the Surry County Network. At the present time the number of PCs that are supported by MIS Department is around 300 and is growing everyday. Not only does the MIS department support PCs we also maintain County servers. These servers control the Tax, Finance, E911, Sheriff, EMS, Fire Marshal, and many other departments' daily activities. Without these servers in proper working order things in Surry County would be a lot different than you know them to be.

Breakdown Of Departmental Functions

There are 10 basic functions of an Management Information Systems department. These functions consist of the following: help desk, support teams, service and support, training, networking, purchasing, installations, research and development, operations, planning, budget.

Explaining Each Of The Functions

Help Desk: Service support calls and help solve problems. All calls entered into helpdesk database for quick update and retrieval.

Support Teams: Teams assigned to different department and projects to better offer ongoing knowledge and expertise in any single area.

Service and Support: Repair hardware, software support, warranty service. Provide onsite service to all County sites. Provide phone support. Act as liaison between the department head and the vendor support team.

Training: Train employees on computer basics, office productivity software and specialized software individual to each department. Provide training facility for vendor use.

Networking: LAN / WAN design, implementation and support. File, print, e-mail, www server support. Backup and anti-virus server support. Ethernet, and fiber optic support.

Purchasing: Specifying purchasing specs. Maintaining standards for purchases. Provide quote, assist in maintaining fixed assets, assist in grant proposals. Installations: New hardware and software.

Research and Development: Review of current trends in the industry, attend training in new technology, and evaluating new systems.

Operations: Daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance such as backups, server auditing, and system usage checks. Light data entry and modifications.

Planning and Budget: Maintaining relationships with departments and their priority areas. Planning for long and short-term projects and budget review for future years.

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