YCOE - Information & Technology Services Notification
Data Services FIS Staffing Changes - Sep 20, 2020
This communication is an announcement for key fiscal personnel at districts and other agencies and businesses that coordinate with members of the Data Services Division of IT at the Yolo County Office of Education. Many of you have worked closely with YCOE’s Senior Computer Systems Specialist, Robb Walters, for all IT Financial Information System matters (particularly around the QSS FIS system central to all accounting, budgeting, and payroll functions for both internal and external business functions at YCOE and Yolo County School Districts). After 20 years of service and support to the programs and individuals who have worked closely with Mr. Walters around this system and each agency's specialized business processes, Robb has officially moved on to pursue new adventures and career opportunities for he and his family and has since transitioned key responsibilities to others in the department while his position is vacant.
For those who have known and worked with Robb, you will understand this was a difficult decision because of the strong personal and professional relationships he has enjoyed with so many of you over the past two decades. The wonderful news is that, although Robb has moved on from YCOE, he continues to support YCOE and his colleagues in IT Data Services remotely through a consulting services agreement and will be providing training and support for his replacement during this transition. In the meantime, we’ll be using this transition to implement support procedures around industry-standard ITIL support practices that are more modular, scalable, transparent, and responsive to system and personnel fluctuations. This is also an opportunity to document business processes for faster cross-training and handoff during system changes. To that end, to ensure all communications and support requests are visible, distributed, and assigned to IT staff who can assist, we are asking that communications be sent to the new ITS Support Desk system for Data Services at support.dsrv@ycoe.org. Although support@ycoe.org and dataservices@ycoe.org will continue to forward support requests for FIS related matters to the ticketing system and available data services personnel, we will be standardizing on the new convention in the months ahead. This information will always be available on the YCOE ITS web page on the Yolo County Office of Education website <ycoe.org>.
To track the status and progress of your open tickets and maintain open and ongoing communication around requests and issues, all users will be able to create a personal support portal account through the YCOE ITS Support Portal at https://support.ycoe.org/support (select the option for “forgot password” if you have trouble logging in the first time). As always, all FIS related issues will continue to be addressed as high-priority matters and emergency support can be phoned in at the ITS Administrative Assistant Desk where it will be routed to the appropriate, available staff (Phone: 530-668-3739).
Although I didn’t personally have the same opportunity to work with and come to know Robb at the level each of you has, it is clear everyone is going to miss his expertise, support, and most importantly the kindness and friendship that he has extended to all over the years. Robb will maintain his YCOE email during this transition and in his part-time consulting support role if you wish to send him a personal message, but don’t forget to submit your official requests to the support address listed above so that staff can respond and track accordingly.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 530-668-3739 or by email at carl.fahle@ycoe.org. Thank you in advance for your partnership and patience as we move to fill this position and get Robb’s replacement up-to-speed as quickly as possible.
Thank you.
Carl Fahle
Director, Information & Technology Services
Yolo County Office of Education
Communication • Respect • Transparency • Celebration