Georgia Enterprise Technology Services (GETS) Update Volume 5, Issue No. 1 January 7, 2013 Halfway home, state's IT transformation has momentum If you attended the Georgia Digital Government Summit last month, you probably heard the phrase, "Ride the wave or be overtaken by it," more than once. The image of a giant ocean wave has become a common - and fairly accurate - analogy for technology today, and it came up often in presentations and discussions about mobility, big data, cloud computing and social media. We can all attest to the speed at which major IT changes are occurring. And, certainly, citizens' expectations of their government are changing just as dramatically. Technology makes government more agile and able to meet the state's changing needs, but keeping pace remains a challenge. The GETS program has its own parallels to the wave analogy. While transformation continues to move forward - we passed the halfway mark this year - the waters have been plenty rough at times. Along with new infrastructure and software, greater security, and improved reliability, transformation can also bring disruptions and frustrations as we migrate to new systems. Earlier this year, we worked together to adopt an end-to-end plan that retooled our approach to transformation and reset our course for success. As a result, most projects are in "green" status, meaning they are on schedule with no major issues. So far, 56 projects have been completed, 51 are in progress, and another 27 have not begun yet. Projects in "red" status - file services, server currency, and hosted contact center - all have corrective action plans in place. We are on track to complete transformation by the end of the third quarter of 2014. You'll find more details about the progress of the state's transformation initiative in this issue of GETS Update. Government agencies at every level are striving to ride the technology wave, and many are successfully using technology to improve operating efficiency and offer innovative services to the public. At the Digital Government Summit, we presented awards to several state agencies and local governments whose transformative IT projects were featured in the GTA Technology Innovation Showcase: Georgia Emergency Management Agency - Ready Georgia Preparedness Application Department of Human Resources - Document Imaging System Department of Insurance - Document Management Application Department of Juvenile Justice - Mental Health Management System Department of Natural Resources - Georgia Beach Water Quality Project State Accounting Office - Travel Project State Road and Tollway Authority - I-85 Express Lanes Department of Transportation - Transportation Project Information University System of Georgia - Intra-Georgia Registration Sharing System DeKalb County - Tax Billing and Collection System Fulton County - GIS Innovations Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport - Maynard Jackson International Terminal We launched the showcase last year as a forum for sharing ideas, experiences and lessons learned and to recognize outstanding efforts. We will begin soliciting projects for the 2013 Showcase early this spring, and we will welcome your nominations. I look forward to what we will achieve together in 2013. Much success - and work - lies ahead for us. Thank you for your ongoing support. Calvin Rhodes State Chief Information Officer GTA Executive Director In This Issue Transformation progress takes many forms in 2012 Staying current with disaster recovery planning Boosting NADC bandwidth for growth Billing process improvements continue Quick Links Previous Newsletters GTA Website GETS Customer Resource Center GETS Financial and Billing Resource Center GETS FAQs Transformation progress takes many forms in 2012 AT&T, IBM, GTA and GETS agencies proved anew in 2012 that IT transformation leads to tangible gains when efforts are coordinated. The program experienced real movement, passing the 50 percent completion mark - better than halfway there. The 2012 successes were hard won. Careful planning, commitment, collaboration and execution - all were essential to the progress made: Active directory and e-mail migration teams finished work at the Governor's Office, DOR, GBI and DCH in 2012. The ambitious upgrade from GroupWise to Outlook email began at DNR, and preparations got under way at GDC. The end user computing anti-virus project and server malware project gained ground at GTA, DJJ, DNR, DOAS and GDC. Laptop encryption wrapped up at OPB, DDS and DOR and set a path at other agencies. Nine agencies are engaged in server consolidation. The initial round of refreshing all GETS laptops is complete - a milestone. More than 21,000 desktop and laptop PCs combined have been refreshed to date. Through the voice refresh effort, the number of refreshed Centrex phone sets climbed to the 25,000 range, with key systems and PBX systems also being updated. IP readdressing and IP address management projects wrapped up. Work continued on LAN/WAN refresh and remote access upgrades. Fifty percent completion of course means 50 percent of transformation work remains. The pace and intensity will carry on in 2013. This is the hard work of establishing a more secure, reliable and recoverable IT environment for the state. Back to Top Staying current with disaster recovery planning Business priorities at GETS agencies change, and the IT tools that support those priorities change, too. Disaster recovery (DR) plans have to be updated accordingly. When it comes to DR, if you're not current, you're not ready. Being ready to recover today's priority systems will be a focus of the annual disaster recovery plan review cycle that begins this month. The work will involve identifying GETS agencies' current business priorities and the related IT applications. Recovery plans and testing plans for the year will then be created. Thanks to strong teamwork, DR planning, testing processes and results have improved each year. Those successes haven't made this pillar of the GETS program any more glamorous, but DR planning is as important as ever. All of us want to keep the positive momentum going. Back to Top Boosting NADC bandwidth for growth In early December, bandwidth capacity at the state's North Atlanta Data Center was doubled, preparing for projected growth in demand for network access to centralized NADC resources. This readies the state to more smoothly accommodate changing IT needs as agencies' business needs evolve and as the GETS transformation proceeds. Back to Top Billing process improvements continue To help agency team members who handle GETS monthly invoices, the GTA finance team has provided with recent bills a plain statement of the GETS billing dispute process. Information included with November, December and January invoices spells out the kinds of issues properly addressed through the dispute process and details approximate timelines for handling disputes and related invoice adjustments. This portion of the Invoice Communication, Education and Enhancement (ICEE) project, along with related efforts to improve the clarity of the bill, better equip GETS agencies to connect IT services they consume to resulting charges. IT service consumption data, more readily available thanks to the GETS program, supports agencies in making informed business decisions. Back to Top We welcome your comments about service delivery, the state's IT transformation and related topics. You can submit comments online or call our tollfree number to leave a recorded message.