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GETS attracts interest at Digital States Performance Institute
Georgia had the opportunity last month to co-host the Digital States Performance Institute, a meeting planned by the Center for Digital Government to bring together state CIOs to share the most effective uses of IT by state governments across the country. It is designed to encourage collaboration among states and raise national standards for the use of IT in government. Debbie Dlugolenski Alford, state CFO and director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, opened the meeting, which was attended by 24 states.
Participants were eager to exchange ideas, and many were interested in the progress of Georgia's IT transformation. It probably won't surprise you to hear that the issues on the minds of our colleagues across the nation are the same ones we face: performance metrics, shared services and expectations for IT.
Before the institute began, Cathilea Robinett, the Center for Digital Government's executive director, made time to address GTA's GETS team. She noted that consolidation is going well in Georgia compared to the rest of the nation, adding that we are headed into the most innovative time in government IT, and the "heavy lifting" Georgia has done puts the state in a prime position for the future. Mobility, operational efficiency and smarter government will continue to be important themes as governments search for better ways to work with citizens and each other.
It was an honor for Georgia to be asked to co-host this year's institute, which brought together a record number of states to share ideas. I am often asked at events like this one what makes our state's consolidation initiative successful when efforts in other places have faltered. Certainly there are myriad reasons, but chief among them is the strong partnership among state agencies, our service providers and GTA. Without your commitment - and perseverance - we wouldn't have a program that continues to attract the interest and admiration of so many other states.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Calvin Rhodes
State Chief Information Officer
GTA Executive Director
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GETS reaches milestone with EUC refresh | |
GETS marked an important achievement recently with the end-user computing (EUC) refresh program. All 4,900 laptops and tablets in GETS full-service customer agencies have been refreshed, bringing greater reliability and security to the state's IT enterprise.
Regular equipment updates weren't possible before the GETS program. The well-planned replacement schedule for desktops and laptops keeps agency equipment up to date and reduces the risk of disruptions caused by old, troublesome machines. The plan calls for laptops and tablets to be replaced every three years and desktops to be replaced every five years.
Meeting this milestone required planning and coordination from agency and GTA staff, along with the IBM and Dell teams.
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Upgrade improves capacity and performance of TeamWorks | |
The State Accounting Office (SAO) and the GETS team recently completed a successful upgrade of the hardware that supports TeamWorks, the state's accounting and human resources system previously called PeopleSoft. Prior to the upgrade, the first of two phases, the system was nearing capacity and having a difficult time keeping pace with demand.
The need for an upgrade was clear: TeamWorks was operating at 95 percent of its capacity. Working with SAO, the team upgraded hardware, enabling the system to operate at 10 percent of its expanded capacity. The improvement in performance came just in time to support the increase in activity accompanying the close-out of the fiscal year.
SAO, IBM, AT&T and GTA worked closely to plan and complete the upgrade. "The partnership we are continuing to build with all parties involved is very important to us at SAO and I believe to the state as a whole," said Alan Skelton, state accounting officer.
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Focus on success of complex IT projects | |
Large, complex IT projects present a range of challenges. The RFS (Request for Solution) and RFP (Request for Proposal) processes have their own intricacies, and projects that involve both become even more complicated. Engaging the GETS service providers at the appropriate time and managing third-party providers effectively can be tricky as well.
Much work has been done over the past 18 months to smooth the transition from RFP to RFS, streamline processes and better ensure success for these large projects. Going a step farther, both GTA and IBM are committing additional resources and expertise. IBM is assigning a technical focal to complex projects, and the architect and technical implementation team will stay involved longer to make certain projects are ready for steady state. GTA has hired an RFS and portfolio manager who will be responsible for continuous improvement of the RFS process.
Unfortunately, some measure of difficulty is unavoidable with large projects. Those inherent issues aside, the GETS team is dedicated to working closely with agencies and making improvements aimed at keeping projects on time and on budget.
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Work on Project ICEE heats up | |
After GTA's finance team launched an effort in May to make GETS invoices more useful to customers, agencies are stepping up to move it forward. The initiative, called the Invoice Communication, Education and Enhancement (ICEE) Project, also aims to provide additional training to agencies and further improve the billing system.
As a follow-up to focus groups held with agency finance personnel, senior financial leadership from seven GETS full-service agencies gathered last month to begin setting priorities for the project. Participants identified two main focus areas:
- Improving reporting to give agencies the tools necessary to validate and reconcile invoices: Although the data is available from the system, it could be presented in more useful report formats.
- Streamlining the dispute process: Delays in resolution of disputes cause difficulties for agencies.
Agencies agreed to commit resources to the project and serve on workgroups to address the issues they identified.
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Survey respondents remain pleased with Service Desk | |
For the sixth consecutive quarter, the Consolidated Service Desk earned high ratings for overall customer experience. Both AT&T and IBM scored between Satisfied and Very Satisfied on customer surveys during April, May and June, exceeding targets set for the service level agreement (SLA) for Service Desk satisfaction.
The survey asks respondents to choose from a range of answers:
- Very Satisfied
- Satisfied
- Somewhat Satisfied
- Somewhat Dissatisfied
- Dissatisfied
- Very Dissatisfied
Numbers 6 (Very Satisfied) through 1 (Very Dissatisfied) are assigned to each response and used to calculate the score.
GTA used data collected in 2011 to set the 2012 targets for the SLA for Service Desk satisfaction. For both IBM and AT&T, the expected value is 5.0 (Satisfied), and the minimum value is 4.5 (between Somewhat Satisfied and Satisfied).
The response rate for the quarter was almost 27% with 1,069 surveys returned.
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We welcome your comments about service delivery, the state's IT transformation and related topics.You can submit comments online or call our toll-free number to leave a recorded message.
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