A strategic plan the county could actually act on.
Pittsylvania County is the largest county in Virginia by land area. Its executive team recognized that technology demands were outgrowing an IT function with no strategic direction and no formal security posture.
Most technology plans are a list of purchases. This one started with what the county could not defend.
Formed in 1767 and covering 978 square miles, Pittsylvania County sits in the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area with a population of roughly 60,500.
The county had no formal cybersecurity plan — meaning no defined response if an attack exposed county and citizen data. Its IT department had no strategic direction and no leadership structure. And it was paying for Laserfiche, an enterprise content management system, that went largely unused because nobody had closed the gap between the vendor and county end users.
Avèro's plan addressed those in the order that risk demanded, not the order that was easiest to buy.
The deliverables.
A cybersecurity plan
Policies and procedures for risk mitigation, security maintenance, and training, so the county has a defined response rather than an improvised one. This came first because the absence of it was the county's largest unmanaged exposure.
An IT staffing plan
Defined roles for IT leadership, system administration, and network administration, so the department has the people to run its own infrastructure rather than depending on whoever is available.
Email consolidation
The county was running both on-premise and cloud Microsoft products, paying twice in hardware, cost, and labor to keep them in step. The plan moved email to a single cloud platform with reliable integration and mobility.
Redeploying what was already paid for
Laserfiche was licensed and underused. Rather than recommend a new purchase, Avèro recommended full redeployment into key business processes across departments, with the policies and training that were missing the first time.
Status and outlook.
Where it stands
The strategic plan was delivered with prioritized recommendations the county's executive team could sequence and fund.
Why it matters
Two of the four recommendations cost nothing new — they were about using what the county already owned properly. That is what an advisor with nothing to sell is able to recommend.
In their words
“Avèro is a knowledgeable, agile, and energetic partner. They gave the county a very clear understanding of our strengths and weaknesses through an IT Strategic Plan.” — Nicholas Morris, Project Director
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