Status of the Plan for the
State Government Telecommunications Network
Telecommunications Planning and Oversight Council
October 1, 2006
Executive Summary
The Telecommunications
Planning and Oversight Council presented a broad, visionary strategic plan in
2005 that called for the development and deployment of a statewide enterprise
network solution. TPOC’s vision of the enterprise network solution provides
agencies with the ability to focus on their core business functions, while
enhancing the role of the Department of Information Resources (DIR) to provide
and manage telecommunications services for the state.
During fiscal 2006, TPOC and DIR achieved the goal and strategies set forth in the
2005 Strategic Plan. [5]
Goals from the 2005 Strategic Plan for Telecommunications
To achieve the enterprise
network solution, TPOC identified a primary goal of network optimization
and two supporting strategies of network consolidation and network convergence.
The Strategic Plan for State Government Telecommunications Services 2005–2009 (2005 Strategic Plan) envisioned an enterprise
network solution that can reduce statewide expenses for voice, video, and data
communications while providing required technologies augmented with exceptional
customer support. This vision allows state agencies to recapture internal
resources currently used for telecommunications management and implementation.
As agencies are relieved of the responsibility for managing telecommunications
networks, they are able to focus their resources on advancing their core
functions and adding value to Texans. As the agency with telecommunications as
a core function, DIR is committed to providing and implementing an enterprise
network solution for state telecommunications.
The 2005 Strategic Plan
identified areas that need legislative action to achieve the vision of an
enterprise network solution. Because these recommendations were not addressed
in the last legislative session, the "Legislative Issues" section of this
report outlines the actions necessary to resolve these issues.
A summary of the legislative issues with key
recommendations for each issue is below:
Statewide Network ISSUES
The state needs to optimize its
telecommunications network. By integrating individual agency networks into a
statewide enterprise network solution, the state will maximize network
efficiencies and achieve significant cost savings in the provision of voice,
video, and data communications services to state government.
To achieve this optimization, TPOC recommends the state:
- Authorize TEX-AN to include local services provided
through converged technologies, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
- Authorize DIR to develop a statewide business
continuity/disaster recovery plan for telecommunications services.
TPOC Legislation Issues
TPOC is legislatively tasked with oversight of the state’s telecommunications
networks. To ensure that it continues to represent the needs of state
government, TPOC recommends the state:
- Eliminate the designation of the Telecommunications
Infrastructure Fund Board (TIFB) Executive Director, since the TIFB is no
longer in existence.
- Amend TPOC legislation to include minimum attendance
requirements for TPOC members.
- Modify the requirements of the TPOC Annual Report to
include only trends that DIR can measure.
- Change the due date for the TPOC Status of the Plan
from October 1 to November 1. This will allow TPOC to include the status report
with its Annual Report in even-numbered years.
