Jenny Cosper is an IT systems analyst with the city of Coconut Creek. She studied at the University of Florida and earned her master’s degree in management information systems from Nova Southeastern University. She has worked at the city for more than 10 years, starting with the human resources department before transitioning to a career in information technology.
Gone are the days of floppy disks, typewriters and Rolodexes. The advancement of technology will continue to have a major impact on businesses, both big and small. For the city of Coconut Creek, this is no different. As a forward-thinking and innovative municipality, Coconut Creek continually anticipates the changes and challenges that technology brings. The efforts of the city’s information technology staff ensure smooth operations for each department, allowing continued, excellent service and improvements for our residents.
One component of the IT department is the applications team. Our responsibilities are far-reaching, supporting almost every aspect of the city’s operations. A key task is the management of the city’s mission-critical operations, including the enterprise resource planning system, which comprises our financial, human resources, public works and utilities services. We also work extensively with our own employees to understand software development lifecycles in an effort to improve processes. A lot of the work also is done in translating the needs of each department into solutions that meet both technical and business suitability. We maintain and support the many digital services provided by the city, including electronic permitting, online water bill payments, lobbyist registration, and registration for recreation programs.
A day in the life of an applications team member includes juggling various projects while troubleshooting a range of common and complex errors that can occur in our software systems. We speak many programming languages, including SQL, Javascript, C Sharp and Visual Basic, to name a few. We love our jobs—each day brings new challenges and puzzles to solve. The best part is helping make others’ lives easier through technology.
