Summer 2004 A Publication of the Georgia Technology Authority MPLS upgrade set to begin this fall The Georgia Technology Authority (GTA) has awarded a contract to BellSouth Business Systems, Inc. to upgrade the state's wide area network from frame relay to multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology. More than 1,800 existing circuits throughout Georgia will be converted to MPLS over 12 months beginning this fall, and all new circuits will be based on MPLS. BellSouth will also manage major network components. "The contract marks a major milestone in providing state agencies with a faster, more reliable network," said Tom Wade, GTA executive director and Georgia's chief information officer. "It also means we will be able to take advantage of the New agency council Linking business needs and technology A new interagency council has taken on the task of improving the management of state government. The governance council will help design policies and strategies that lead to more effective and efficient delivery of services. It will oversee the development of an enterprise architecture (EA) for the state. EA ensures that the state's IT infrastructure supports the business needs of agencies. The council will identify opportunities to collaborate and share resources. Composed of senior staff from 10 agencies, the council complements the work of the Commission for a New Georgia. The council's work is central to the Governor's goal of making Georgia one of the best managed states by 2007. The council will set priorities for online services and contribute to guidelines for business continuity. "Each member brings a unique business perspective to the table," said GTA's Cigdem Delano, Georgia Technology Authority See Governance Council, page 6 latest advances in telecom services and obtain better value for our telecom expenditures." The contract with BellSouth replaces the state's frame relay and DSL contracts. It sets high performance standards that BellSouth is contractually obligated to meet. MPLS offers many advantages besides greater reliability and speed. The upgrade is an important step in being able to transmit voice, data and video together over a single network. Data transmissions can be assigned a different priority on a case-by-case basis. Certain transmissions--such as video conferencing or those related to law enforcement--could take precedence over other transmissions. MPLS will make it easier to meet demands for better security, and it will provide greater technical support for teleworking and wireless services. As the state's demand for network capacity grows, MPLS promises to limit future growth in the cost of services because it can be expanded more easily and has more options than frame relay. See MPLS, page 5 Volume 3, No. 3 Inside this issue Revised statewide telecom policy . . . . . . . Page 2 GTA offers dial-up Internet access. . . . . . . . Page 2 GTA and agencies provide support for G8 Summit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3 Project management symposium draws hundreds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 Security pros train at boot camp. . . . . . . . . Page 4 Statewide contracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5 Portal searches powered by Google . . . . . . Page 6 Bringing the benefits of technology to Georgia government Revised policy sets statewide requirements for monitoring, controlling telecom costs A revised policy on the use of telecom services would provide additional protection in potentially and equipment, including cell phones and other hazardous working conditions. wireless devices, took effect August 1, 2004. The It calls for agencies to maintain wireless and policy establishes minimum requirements for other mobile devices in a pool for shared use monitoring and controlling telecom costs, and it among employees whenever possible. applies to all state departments, Employees who qualify for cell institutions, boards, bureaus, agencies, authorities, colleges and universities. GTA and the Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) jointly GTA and OPB jointly developed the policy, which is available on www.gta.georgia.gov phones and other wireless devices must use state-issued equipment. These employees should not use their personal wireless equipment, then apply developed the policy, which is under Policies & for reimbursement for business- available on GTA's Web site, Standards. related use. www.gta.georgia.gov, under However, employees who Policies & Standards. don't qualify for state-issued cell phones may be Among the requirements are reimbursed for occasional business-related calls maintaining inventories of wireless devices, placed from their personal cell phones under including cell phones and personal digital certain circumstances. The policy authorizes such assistants (PDAs), reimbursements only when the calls exceed the assigning wireless devices to employees minutes included with the employee's service plan. based on their job responsibilities, Employees must provide a copy of their cell phone limiting long-distance and other calls with invoice to document charges, including those for charges based on usage, and roaming and long distance. obtaining itemized invoices for telecom See Revised policy, page 4 services with charges based on usage. Criteria for determining who gets a cell phone Agencies must establish written criteria for determining which jobs may be assigned wireless and other mobile devices, including cell phones. The policy provides examples, such as employees who work in public safety and homeland security, travel more than 25 percent of their work time, work at multiple buildings or sites, such as desktop support technicians or delivery personnel, must be on call more than two weekends each month, must conduct business while commuting or traveling from one appointment to another, depend on two-way, real-time communication where stationary telephones are not readily available, including construction sites, highways and college or university campuses. The policy also permits the use of wireless devices by employees when responding to environmental emergencies or when such devices GTA offers dial-up Internet access GTA now offers a convenient new service for agency employees whose jobs involve travel within the state. Dial-up access to the Internet is available through a toll-free number for a flat fee of $11.25 per month per user. GTA chose LecStar Telecom, Inc. of Atlanta to provide the service after conducting a competitive bid. The company has been in business for more than 30 years, and its customers include wellknown U.S. corporations. The service uses a "point-to-point protocol" to ensure a fast and reliable Internet connection. LecStar guarantees a minimum data-transmission rate of 56K. Problems can be reported directly to LecStar's customer service through a toll-free number 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week. To order the service, simply contact your GTA regional telecom office. The charges will appear on the monthly bill your agency receives from GTA. Fast Forward Georgia Page 2 "A unique perspective" GTA and state agencies provide support for G8 summit Security, telecommunications and multimedia According to Mr. Hall, the number of entities staff from GTA were on hand to assist with the G8 involved meant that the possibility of radio Summit on Sea Island in June. GTA provided interference was high. "We were able to identify support for essential services and communication and clear channels that could be used by G8 as the state played host to leaders from the world's participants and obtain approval from the Federal major industrial Communications democracies. Commission for Long before the temporary use of world leaders arrived, additional channels," GTA Information he said. "As a Security Manager result, we actually Walter Tong and staff experienced very from the Georgia little interference." Bureau of In addition to Investigation (GBI) distributing were involved in approximately 500 security planning. pagers, GTA staff "The GBI played a also made sure that critical role," Mr. Tong the area had said. "We couldn't have done it without them." Beginning in November 2003, the GTA media producer, Steve Carey (second from left) led a production crew composed of Wayne Petty, Amy Cooper, Kevin Williams, all from GTA, and Roger McLeod from the Georgia Public Safety Training Center. necessary coverage. A new paging transmitter was installed on a leased tower nearby. team worked closely with local, state and federal "It was remarkable to see so many state, local agencies, local law enforcement and private sector and federal law enforcement officers coming partners to ensure that plans for restoring essential together to perform public safety functions in such services (in the event of an inadvertent or deliberate an efficient manner," Mr. Hall said. disruption) were developed and submitted ahead At the request of the GBI, GTA media producer of schedule. During the summit, they coordinated security-related responses and maintenance activities. "Cooperation among representatives of the Steve Carey led a production crew of three GTA staff and another employee on loan from the Georgia Public Safety Training Center to document public and private sectors was outstanding," Mr. Tong said. "Everyone pitched in to make sure the summit ran smoothly." See G8 Summit, page 6 Planning also began several months in advance for Jim Mollohan, Wray Hall and Naomi Richardson from GTA's telecom division. They supplied pagers to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and coordinated radio frequency use to ensure communication across participating local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. Workers from GTA's regional telecom office in Savannah provided logistical support. GTA assisted the Georgia State Patrol and Homeland Security in assembling and configuring about 1,000 portable radios to be issued to law enforcement officers who would make up the Mobile Task Force for the summit. Jim Mollohan, Wray Hall, Naomi Richardson, (seated) all from GTA; Jerry "Jay" Sexton, Georgia Tech Research Institute; and Yowanda Kendricks, Department of Corrections, assisted with telecommunications during the G8 Summit. Fast Forward Georgia Page 3 Project management symposium draws hundreds More than 350 aligning projects people gathered to with strategic expand their project objectives, management skills at gettingteam a recent GTA-sponsored members to symposium. Most of contribute, and the participants overcoming represented agencies particular in state government. challenges in The theme of the government and day-long program was higher "Improving Execution through Project Management in Participants applaud during GTA's project management symposium on June 25, 2004. education. This year's symposium Government and Higher Education." Other offered a more extensive curriculum and attracted sponsors included the University System of twice as many participants as the program held Georgia, Georgia State University, the City of last year. Atlanta and the Atlanta Chapter of the Project "Response has been extremely positive," said Management Institute. Chalanda Tucker of GTA's project management Project management experts from the public office. "We're already planning a symposium for and private sectors talked to participants about 2005." Revised policy, from page 2 The policy encourages the issuance of calling cards to employees who are frequently away from their office but often need to make long distance calls. Budgeting for "usage sensitive" telecom services Expenditures for wireless devices and telecom services with charges based on usage must be reported separately from other telecom services in each agency's annual budget request to OPB. The budget request must include an inventory of the agency's wireless devices, and the agency is required to list all wireless devices it plans to acquire in the next fiscal year. The agency must also include total expenditures for each category of wireless devices in previous fiscal years and a budget for current and future fiscal years. Mandatory use of statewide telecom contracts The policy requires all state entities to use statewide contracts for telecom services and equipment whenever such contracts exist. GTA recently awarded new statewide contracts for telecom equipment. In addition, a statewide contract for wireless services and devices is scheduled to be awarded this fall. Security pros train at boot camps GTA and the Department of Technical and Adult Education are teaming up again this summer to sponsor boot camps for IT professionals responsible for operating and securing agency computer networks. A boot camp in July covered intrusion detection and virtual private network configuration. Another session scheduled for early August is focusing on the fundamentals of wireless networking, including deploying and troubleshooting wireless networks. The weeklong sessions offer participants valuable hands-on training. "We've been sponsoring boot camps for the past couple of years, and response has been great," said Walter Tong, GTA information security manager. "Participants tell us that they like getting concentrated information they can take back to their agencies and use immediately." For more information about boot camps, contact Mr. Tong at 404-463-2182 or wtong@gta.ga.gov. Fast Forward Georgia Page 4 MPLS, from page 1 MPLS lays a solid foundation for eventually offering telecom services not previously government's purchasing power, GTA obtains more competitive pricing and enhanced services. This available to state agencies, such as Voice over IP (VoIP), a potentially more economical alternative to traditional telephone service. year, GTA assisted state agencies in identifying unused circuits as they prepared for the MPLS upgrade, thereby reducing annual The contract is valued at about $10 million annually for six years. A schedule for the initial circuit migrations is being developed. Consolidated purchasing power saves agencies money The contract marks a major milestone in providing state agencies with a faster, more reliable network. telecom expenses by $1.2 million. GTA saved another $2.7 million in state and federal funds by renegotiating telecom contracts, reconciling billing errors and disconnecting unnecessary telephone lines. In 2003, GTA identified savings of more than $5.5 million by dismantling the state- GTA negotiates technology contracts on behalf operated long distance network and renegotiating of all state agencies. By consolidating state long distance rates. Update on statewide contracts New two-way radio contract offers more choice Enterprise contracts now easier to find online GTA has issued a new two-way radio equipment contract that gives agencies a wider selection of two-way radio products for the VHF and UHF frequency bands. Previously, the contract was awarded to the lowest compliant bidder in each category of equipment. The new contract includes all the vendors that met the mandatory specifications within each category. This allows agencies to compare features and pricing among several vendors and choose the one that best meets their needs. The contract also includes digital models for each category, which allows agencies to improve both coverage and audio quality for their systems. The digital models are backward compatible to the current analog models, which means that agencies can move to the digital technology as funds become available. The procedure for purchasing radio equipment from the new contract remains the same as outlined in the Enterprise Standard ENT-09-0011STD. For more information on this contract, contact Wray Hall at whall@gta.ga.gov. Agencies looking for enterprise contracts now have an easier way to find them, thanks to an improved interface on the GTA Web site. From the Procurement page, users can now view contracts within three simple categories: hardware, software and services. Another link lists all contracts alphabetically. Information is also closer to the top level. Instead of having to download a PDF to receive general information, users can now see it instantly online. This information is only two clicks away from the Procurement main page, instead of three or sometimes four clicks on the old site. Accompanying information such as price lists can be downloaded from the contract's main page. To access the site, go to www.gta.georgia.gov and click on "Procurement" in the left-hand menu. Future improvements to the site will include a contract administration handbook, checklists and templates to help procurement officers with their daily activities. Fast Forward Georgia Page 5 Searches on www.georgia.gov powered by Google Visitors to www.georgia.gov can now quickly and accurately locate the information they need on the state portal using technology already familiar to many Web users. GTA recently launched the Google search appliance on the state portal. The index is updated daily, providing the most comprehensive search collection of State of Georgia documents of all types, including PDF, Word, Excel and even PowerPoint presentations. The index collection includes 225,000 documents, about 50 percent more than were previously available. The software used by Google's search technology conducts a series of simultaneous calculations in less than a second. "What that means for portal users is more relevant matches when they're searching for information," said Bill Overall, creative director for www.georgia.gov. "They'll find more information, and they'll find it much faster than before." Google also helps users get the information they want--sometimes even anticipating what they may want. For example, someone who enters "jobs" as a keyword in a search will receive links to sites for job openings across the state (through the Georgia Department of Labor) and careers in state government (through the Georgia Merit System). According to Mr. Overall, the Google search appliance is a good value for the state. "Because the technology is self-contained in the form of an appliance, it does not require a programmer or system reconfiguration," he said. "It costs less to operate than the previous search engine used on the state portal." Governance Council, from page 1 who chairs the council. "This approach will help ensure that we make the important connection between agencies' business needs and technology solutions." Governance Council Members Chris Ash, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Paul Burkhalter, Natural Resources Debbie Dlugolenski, Technical & Adult Education Robert Giacomini, Office of Planning & Budget Gina Simpson, Human Resources Mike Hall, Education Marty Horne, Motor Vehicle Safety Brad Hudson, Revenue Laura Meadows, Office of the Secretary of State Arnold Smith, Corrections Joy Hawkins, Office of the Governor Celeste Osborn, Office of the Governor Cigdem Delano, Chair, GTA G8 Summit, from page 3 on video the participation of federal, state and local agencies and law enforcement. They will produce an afteraction report as well as a documentary. Their days began at 7:30 a.m. and stretched toward midnight. Because they would be in the middle of the action, Mr. Carey and his crew were fitted for riot gear and trained to use gas masks. Fortunately, neither was necessary. "Our work gave us a unique perspective," Mr. Carey said. "We were interacting with everyone from the Coast Guard to the Secret Service. We videotaped Instant Response Teams and motorcades of dignitaries and worked amid protesters." He added that he was glad to be part of the extensive support GTA provided the summit. "This event had the world's attention, and it went extremely well. GTA really has something to be proud of." Fast Forward Georgia Published bi-monthly and available online at www.gta.georgia.gov 100 Peachtree Street, Suite 2300, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 404-463-2300, FAX 404-463-2370 Paula Calhoun and Michael Clark, Editors; Hettie Smith, Designer Tom Wade Cigdem Delano Steve Nichols Chris Tomlinson GTA Executive Director & State CIO , twade@gta.ga.gov Chief Operating Officer, cdelano@gta.ga.gov Deputy Director & Chief Technology Officer, snichols@gta.ga.gov General Counsel, ctomlinson@gta.ga.gov James D. Lester III, Chairman, GTA Board of Directors Fast Forward Georgia Page 6