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environments cannot be combined, which means employees are logging in to programs <br />with two different log-ins. As EA moves towards their redesign, this set-up will impact <br />the work they do as there will be communication coming from multiple sources and <br />could cause confusion as to where to find the correct information. There is the potential <br />to separate the EA environment from the Cass County tenant completely, meaning they <br />would no longer receive Cass County Office 365 services (email, Teams, SharePoint, etc.) <br />and instead would utilize the State of North Dakota 's services as their primary method. In <br />order for County IT to maintain working with them, IT would set up a separate <br />environment for management specific to EA. It would be a duplicate effort on IT's part as <br />there would be a Cass County environment as well as a Human Service environment. IT <br />would be able to support day-to-day issues such as printer support, connection issues, <br />etc., but the State Service Desk would be responsible for all applications Human Service <br />employees would be using. This would be a drastic change as many employees depend <br />on the County IT for assistance and instead would need to rely on State Service Desk <br />instead . This will also lay the foundation should there be other areas of Human Services <br />that would want to transition using the State tenant solely. County IT would still maintain <br />the computers and the logins to access their computers, but State of North Dakota <br />would have a larger role in the applications they are using . <br />Commissioner Steen inquired how inter-building communication would be affected. Mr. <br />Henderson explained this would affect the way people communicate through Teams, as <br />staff outside of the County environment would enter users manually versus through the <br />generated list. Also, as EA moves towards a call center using the Teams program for their <br />phone system, they will be provided a non-Cass County phone number, which would <br />require dialing a full ten digit phone number versus just the last four digit extension. <br />Commissioner Breitling questioned how accessible and reliable State IT is for employees. <br />Mr. Henderson explained they assist to the best of their ability. There are times when <br />there are third party consultants that may assist as well. <br />It was asked who is responsible for the cost of the resources. Mr. Henderson stated the <br />State would be responsible for the direct costs. Indirect costs would be supported <br />through Cass County Government. As of right now, there is no concrete way of tracking <br />the cost of work between the Zone and County, but Mr. Henderson states there would <br />be duplication of all work on behalf of the County IT department. The shift to the State <br />tenant has been easier for those Zones who did not have their own IT to begin with. <br />Ms. Fry questioned if the Zone had the option to become State employees. Chair <br />Bollinger stated the ability to opt in is not being supported at this time. <br />Mr. Hagen inquired about creating interfaces for single and multi-user logins. Mr. <br />Henderson explained staff currently sign in using a County identification but then use a <br />State identification to connect to their programs. Mr. Henderson suggests that the <br />County do a complete split of the environments. He is presenting this information as it <br />will take his staff approximately 180 days to meet the EA redesign deadline of February <br />2023. His team would need to start their process in September. If other sections of the <br />Zone would want the same set-up, it will take more time. He explained the downside <br />with this is that they did just renew a contact with Microsoft for all Office 365 licenses, so