2011 Awards
IT Professional of the Year
Rob Petty, City of Novi CIO - IT Professional of the Year
| Rob Petty has over 25 years of information technology experience. He has been with the City of Novi for 9 years and currently holds the title of Chief Information Officer. Mr. Petty was nominated for the award by Ayane Grubbs of Novi, who says, “In our current economic environment Rob, like many I.T. Leaders, has been confronted with declining revenues. Rather than layoff staff Rob approached the problem from another direction. He looked at what he could do with his staff to better serve the City of Novi. This lead to the suggestion to route all internal facility calls for service to the existing I.T. Help Desk. This filled the void that existed operationally within the Facility Operations Department and saved I.T. staff from layoff. |
Eventually, Rob was given the leadership role over the Facility Operation Department. By combining I.T., GIS, and Facility Operations. Rob has been able to leverage the skills of his talented team and provide a benefit to the City of Novi both operationally and from a cost savings point.
IT Project of the Year
IT Project of the Year - Awarded to Waterford Township and White Lake Township
| Collaboration and sharing of resources is commonly acknowledged to be an essential element in the strategy to make Michigan's communities fiscally sustainable. The Mi-GMIS Award for Best Technology Project was awarded to Waterford Township and White Lake Township, for an agreement between the two communities, which specifies that Waterford Township will provide IT support and services to White Lake. |
White Lake does not have an in-house IT department; Waterford, on the other hand, has invested over the years in sophisticated networking and application infrastructure, and has its own IT department.
In exchange for an annual support fee, Waterford provides the IT support services that White Lake lacks internally. Waterford is able to provide Internet service to White Lake Township via an established point-to-point wireless networking infrastructure.