September 2008 Archives

Today the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) elected Gopal Khanna, CIO for the state of Minnesota, president of the organization for its 2008-2009 year. Khanna will replace Iowa COO John Gillespie, who was president for the 2007-2008 program year. 

Recently Montgomery County, MD was awarded the National Association of Counties' Best of Category Achievement Award in the County Administration and Management category because an innovative budget saving partnership between two county departments. It seems that the Department of Permitting Services' (DPS) efforts to digitize its construction documents resulted in running over budgets due to a large temporary staff it utilized for the activity. Instead of slowing production it was decided that collaborating with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation might be a better option--and it was. In return for imaging documents, Montgomery County Corrections Facility inmates get job training on modern computers while the county provides fast, valuable service to the community. Here is a list of some of the benefits:

• up-to-date job skills for the inmate population
• improved likelihood for their success upon departure from the Montgomery County Corrections Facility
  
• provided income for inmates
• heightened personal esteem for participants
• improved service to DPS customers and staff
• faster response to customer requests for information & documents
• reduced DPS operating costs & storage needs
• secure access to documents by users
• easy document reproduction by all DPS staff  

Montgomery County addressed several objectives at once--improve customer service, lower recidivism, reduce paper waste and lower program costs. As the need to do more with less grows stronger, programs such as this will be more appealing to local and state governments alike.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has released a draft document of their Strategic IT plan. Uniquely enough, this draft document was developed through the mass collaboration of Commonwealth's IT leaders. The draft document outlines key initiatives and an IT vision for the Commonwealth through FY 2011.

The commonwealth is looking to modernize their IT to meet the business needs of the government allowing them to "pave the way for future innovation".  The strategic plan outlines Massachusetts IT vision is as follows:

•     Efficient and easily accessible services for all constituents

•     Open and transparent engagement with citizens of the Commonwealth

•     Accurate and timely data for policy making, service deliver and results evaluation.

In addition, here are Massachusetts 7 key IT initiatives:

•     Secretariat consolidation

•     Shared Service Orientated Architecture (SOA)

•     Network Architecture

•     Enterprise security plan

•     Civic Engagement plan

•     Identify Management

•     Enhanced Security Processes

The New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has stated that the statewide wireless network will not proceed until the contract terms are met. He has issued a  report that is very critical the incumbent.  The report came out earlier last week stating that the state should not move forward on the $2 billion contract until the requirements were met. The two audits cited major deficiencies , problems and delays. In addition,  within the second audit it is stated that Erie county could save $30 million if they scaled back participation in the network.

On Friday, the state Office of Technology issued a letter of default to the incumbent. This gives the vendor 45 days to fix the remaining problems with the network and certify that it is ready for use. The state can decide at that point if they want to proceed with the network or recoup their costs and move forward. According to the state, the incumbent failed to deliver:

• Vehicular Repeaters/ VTACs (In building coverage)
• Gateways to use old legacy systems
• Unreliable radio equipment
• Emergency Call/ Priority Status Calls Falling Off
• Network Performance and Coverage

To date, the state has spent $51.5 million on the contract. The state still envisions that a statewide wireless network is possible and that the administration is committed to interoperability for the first responders. The project office is working on a contingency plan if the incumbent cannot fix the problems.

Why is this interesting?
Well, the during this process the state can look at other options and technologies to see if other systems can be leveraged.