76th Atlantic Regional Council - Information Technology Services and Projects Committee
Information Technology Services and Projects Committee (ITSP)
Annual report to the 76th Atlantic Regional Council (ARC)
Submitted By: Jason Rioux
It was a pleasure to serve on the ITSP committee this past year. We provided a great deal of feedback on a number of topics. The main highlights from the year would include:
Gmail migration and use of G-suite of products and Services:
We offered a lot of feedback on the process, what we felt worked and what didn’t.
Our group created a number of walkthrough documents on how to utilize the new range of services offered within G-Suite.
Website changes that would be useful for our members:
Website layout, usability and search ability were topics of concern for our group. As well as the fact that the website is still essentially stuck between the old and new versions. There was a lot of discussion surrounding this and the current plan is a website revamp to change it more into a “community” site. It would be user group focused (things like forums, or blogs could be utilized for example). This is currently in the planning stages, but there is an acknowledgement that our current website needs some work.
Electronic grievance forms:
This would be not only an online source for grievance forms, but would also have the ability to notify ERO’s when one is filed. Allow for bargaining groups to gain statistics to utilize when discussing issues, etc. While this is currently in the planning stages and details can change, it is on the horizon.
Electronic meeting, expense and travel claims:
This service looks to be coming by summer of 2019. While, in the world of IT sometimes anything can happen, it currently appears that this timeline is on track.
PIPSC IT modernization:
It has been beneficial to have the Director of IT for PIPSC attend our meetings. He is very engaged and focused on ensuring the PIPSC IT infrastructure is modernized. To that end he has embarked on a concentrated effort of hiring with regard to filling any gaps he believes he has as well as an expanded training for his current staff. The ITSP committee has been able to offer suggestions and advice to help with this initiative.
I’m thankful for the term on ITSP committee and for the dedicated, hard-working, outspoken individuals who comprised it.
Jason Rioux