2005 State Strategic Plan for Information Resources Management

Section 2Defining Shared Success

The mission of Texas state government is “to ensure that state government is limited, efficient, and completely accountable.”¹ A well-structured vision for the use of technology is an essential ingredient for meeting these principles. The 79th Texas Legislature enacted legislation that directs an enterprise approach to managing the state’s investment in information and communications technology.

Texas will maximize value from this investment by incorporating the needs and interests of state agencies into its enterprise operations. The Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) will support the shared vision for technology by working across organizational boundaries to promote common interests, support business and technological innovation, and support the core missions of state agencies.

Commitments DIR made in its 2004 Biennial Performance Report and the Foundation for Change report are consistent with recent legislation. These commitments align with statewide goals for limited, efficient, and accountable government and provide the focus needed for the state to advance services to citizens, support the core missions of individual agencies, simplify technology management, and maximize the value of the state’s investment in hardware, software, services, data, and personnel.

Strategic Goals

The commitments articulated in the 2004 Biennial Performance Report have been refined into strategic goals that will govern the state’s technology investment. These goals are:

• Reduce government costs
• Drive effective technology contracting
• Leverage shared technology operations
• Promote innovative use of technology that adds value
• Protect technology and information assets

Statewide Objectives

The strategic goals drive the key objectives and strategies in this plan and together they fulfill the shared vision. Specifically, this plan seeks to:

1. Reduce cost, eliminate duplication, and improve performance of data center services
2. Safeguard information and communications technology assets
3. Leverage shared network operations and resources
4. Solve common business problems through shared applications
5. Maximize buying power on commodity technologies and services
6. Ensure maximum results from state projects
7. Encourage business and technology architectures that drive improved planning and coordination
8. Enhance the value of state reviews
9. Increase the value of electronic data and information
10. Deploy innovative, value-added technology solutions to meet agency core missions

By unifying Texas government through coordinated commitments and shared responsibilities, the state can strategically align its significant investment in information and communications technology with the business needs of state agencies. Together, every agency will share in the success of the enterprise by delivering superior services to Texans.

A Model for Shared Success

The statewide goals for information resources management will require substantial coordination among all levels of government. In its 2004 report, Foundation for Change, DIR introduced its model for sharing and managing the state’s technology investment. The Texas Model of the Enterprise is a refinement of this model, reflecting new legislation and the vision of greater cost efficiencies, improved services, and a shared technology infrastructure that is flexible, innovative, and supports agencies in meeting their missions.

The base of the Texas Model—the statewide infrastructure layer—delivers shared functions that, similar to utility services, are needed by all agencies, but are not unique or specific to an individual agency.

Building on the statewide infrastructure layer is the collaboration layer . This layer supports the shared development of guidelines and practices that contribute to effective enterprise management of information and communications technology. One practice includes guiding the development of integrated architectures that advance data and information sharing among agencies. Another practice employed in this layer is establishing a collaborative approach for evaluating opportunities to standardize agency business processes where common needs exist. Additionally, this layer supports the adoption of statewide technology rules and standards.

Leveraging each of the preceding layers, the most important is the agency layer , which supports the unique functionality that an agency must deliver to successfully support its mission. Together, the layers of the Texas Model of the Enterprise comprise the vision for effective technology planning and service delivery in the state.

Key Factors Impacting the Strategic Plan

The successful implementation of the statewide objectives in this plan are driven by, and are dependent on, several key planning factors:

• New statutory requirements drive a new vison
  The 79th Texas Legislature enacted a series of technology bills that support the continued implementation of a shared technology infrastructure. The scope, impact, and timelines required by this legislation have been incorporated in this plan. Specific DIR commitments and agency responsibilities resulting from recent and previous legislation are described in Appendix A. High-level descriptions of these technology bills are presented in Appendix C.
• Agency focus on core missions remains paramount
  Agencies have been given critical missions to fulfill in addition to new responsibilities resulting from House Bill 1516 (HB1516). Through collaboration and strong project planning, all of these missions and responsibilities will be met. The result will be new infrastructure and collaboration practices that will allow agencies to spend more of their time fulfilling their core missions.
• Financial constraints are a fact of life
  Like other states, Texas is faced with accelerating budget demands, such as those caused by population growth and spiraling health care costs. Texas will face additional budget challenges in the coming biennium due to new priorities, such as homeland security and response to natural disasters.
  
  Managing information and communications technology as an enterprise is fundamental to meeting statewide business goals. While the absence of funding may be viewed as a limitation, in Texas it translates to an opportunity. Several innovative approaches have been successful in overcoming funding constraints and others are under development. These approaches eliminate the state’s up-front investment. Examples range from the state’s electronic portal, TexasOnline, to utility-based, fee-for-service pricing models, such as the consolidation of the state’s data centers and the statewide messaging initiative. The state must continually seek new opportunities, no matter the financial climate.
• The makeup of the technology workforce is changing
  As Texas begins to unify its information and communications technology operations, skills in project management, systems integration, and business processes will become key to the success and alignment of technology with agency core missions. DIR is committed to the training and retention of the best technology workforce in state government through the development and delivery of information resources management training and education programs for state technology professionals. When objectives in this plan have a potential negative impact on workforce, DIR is committed to looking for ways to mitigate impacts to state personnel. DIR is committed to frequent and honest communications to positively address these issues.
• New innovations will emerge
  Technology innovation is fast-paced and pervasive. The state must continually evaluate emerging technology to determine its application and value to state government. Within the infrastructure layer, DIR will continually assess the benefit and impact of implementing new technologies. Assessment of new technologies includes a business-driven analysis focused on factors, such as cost, savings, and performance, among others. Similarly, within the agency layer, state agencies must be flexible and innovative in addressing the changing requirements of their constituencies. To provide responsive solutions, agencies must evaluate opportunities to utilize new technologies to provide additional services and value to citizens.
• New challenges will arise
  The impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita underscores the fact that unforeseen challenges may impact the state during this plan period. The infrastructure established through this plan should be flexible and adaptable to enable an effective response to new challenges and to provide increased security and disaster recovery capabilities.
• Competition benefits Texans
  Taxpayer dollars are maximized when Texas government has a vibrant technology vendor community. This community is supported by providing easily understood channels to compete for business, a focus on open standards where appropriate, and strategies to provide opportunity for the state's small and historically underutilized businesses. By encouraging competition and by enabling equitable market forces on all public sector technology initiatives, Texas will benefit through highly attractive pricing, improved service levels, and strong partnerships with private sector partners, both large and small.

Applying the Texas Model

This plan outlines the statewide objectives and strategies that support each of the layers of the Texas Model and establishes the foundation from which agencies will develop their information resources strategic plans.

Each of the objectives described in Section 3 is linked to one of the layers of the Texas Model. The strategies that support these objectives are described in Appendix A. Through implementation of these objectives and strategies the state will realize its vision for shared responsibilities and shared success.