Information Technology Policy Council August 8, 2005 Meeting Minutes Chairman Patrick Tyrrell convened the meeting at 9:05 am and welcomed the meeting participants. The meeting was held in Room 223 of the Emerson Building. Meeting participants introduced themselves. Council Members Present: • Patrick Tyrrell, State Engineer and Council Chair • David Squires, CIO-United Medical Center and Council Vice Chair • Ron Arnold, Chief Fiscal Officer-Wyoming Game and Fish Department • Earl Atwood, Administrator-A&I Information Technology Division • Even Brande, Handel Information Technologies, Inc. • Rich Marble, Fiscal Advisor-Office of the Governor • Larry Biggio, Chief Information Officer Council Member Absent: • John Cox, Director-Wyoming Department of Transportation • Joe Moore, Director-Office of Homeland Security • Phil Noble, Director-Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources Others Present: • Bob Curtis, Department of Employment & ITCC Budget & Project Review Sub-Committee Chair • Sandy Ross, Office of the Chief Information Officer • Jeffie Wiggins-McMullen, Department of Corrections • Patrick Stata, Department of Corrections Review and Adopt Meeting Agenda: Council adopted proposed meeting agenda. Approval of Draft 7/19/05 Meeting Minutes: Mr. Atwood moved, seconded by Mr. Arnold, to approve the draft meeting minutes. Minutes approved. Chief Information Officer’s Report – Larry Biggio: 1) Mr. Biggio reported that the Liquor Division of the Department of Revenue has been having problems with its system. Every time they try to run jobs, the system crashes. Bruce Knudson believes the data is in good shape. The Department will be purchasing a replacement system. The Liquor Division’s busy season begins in October, when holiday orders are placed. Currently, an Access database is being used. They are looking at off-the-shelf solutions, which will require minimum modifications. They will be acquiring new hardware and software. With the Governor’s approval, they can use money from their reserve accounts. 2) The Governor’s Planning Office is sponsoring an agency head meeting to discuss a number of work force related issues. One of the future projects they will be discussing is data sharing.
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The discussion will include what does data sharing look like, what should be shared, and how to share the data. Mr. Biggio will provide a short overview regarding this subject. Mr. Atwood commented that the ability of agencies to share data is an old idea, which has been difficult to accomplish. Within the departments, different cultures and languages exist. Two different agencies may have two different ways of defining the same thing and defining the data. As the directors discuss and consider this, they will need to bring in some type of consulting that is about normalization of the information across agency lines. Many organizations, over the last decade, have worked very hard to implement data warehousing. There is a lot of expertise in the industry. The directors should consider: Can they use some help in this regard and from where would they get it. This is a critical part of the State of Wyoming adopting an enterprise architecture. The implications include the State moving into a formalized architecture. Chairman Tyrrell shared that the contractors for the State Engineer’s Office (SEO) and for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) have been instructed that part of their projects’ development time will be in communicating with the other. This is to ensure that what one agency develops is not in conflict with the other agency. Responding to Mr. Arnold, Chairman Tyrrell indicated that SEO and DEQ are not sharing costs. Within each of the budgets, there is a coordination task. Chairman Tyrrell revisited this issue subsequent to the August 8th ITPC meeting. He could not confirm that specific coordination tasks are included in each contractor’s budget, but rather each contractor will be made aware of work being done by the other agency in a more informal manner. Still, the goal is to communicate sufficiently that data access and sharing needs are contemplated in the design of both new systems. Mr. Biggio reminded the Council that it had approved the Criminal Justice project, which is a large data sharing project that has some formal guidelines for sharing data. That is the Global XML. 3) The OCIO has been tracking the IT budget requests. With the requests that have been received to date and those that are anticipated, the estimated amount of exception requests is $46 million. Last time, the exception request was $16.5 million. He anticipates that the numbers will be refined. There likely will be a change up or down. DEQ will not be on the table for this biennium. Business cases, which have not yet come in, include two from the Department of Revenue for approximately $10.2 million and one from the Department of Family Services for about $1.4 million. These are included in the $46 million estimate. Mr. Biggio requested input from the Council, regarding anticipated reaction from the Governor and the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) to the $46 million exception request. Mr. Arnold indicated that he believes that the agencies’ systems are antiquated, and the agencies are trying to implement new technology. Based on this, he does not believe the
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requests are out of line. Mr. Biggio agreed that the agencies are doing more proactive work in this area. Mr. Atwood indicated that part of the JAC’s reaction may be dependent upon some external factors. The IT exception requests may total $60 million. However, this amount may be a fraction of the total exception budget requests. The second issue may depend on whether or not the JAC sees these requests as making up for lost ground or overcoming some deferred maintenance versus growing government. Mr. Curtis added that there needs to be a differentiation in funding – general funds, federal funds, enterprise funds. Mr. Marble suggested that the CIO should prioritize the requests within the agencies and then across agencies. Mr. Biggio asked, if there were any areas that have priority for the Governor? The Governor’s focus now is healthcare. It was suggested that the Business Cases, which have been reviewed and approved, be organized into a matrix by agency groups. The CIO’s office has reviewed 216 purchase requests, and the ITCC/ITPC has reviewed 29 business cases. The $46 million includes the business cases and the purchase requests. The purchase requests include replacement equipment and upgrades of software – typically off-the-self items. At, this point none of the budget/purchase requests address the IT Healthcare Project or the WTC’s Broadband Initiative Project. The consultant’s recommendations, regarding the IT2 Project, are due shortly. Mr. Biggio is unsure what the consultant will recommend, regarding the Broadband project. Mr. Biggio commented that the agencies have done a good job of getting the purchase requests in. 4) Regarding the Open Meeting Act, Mr. Biggio stated that the Attorney General’s (AG’s) office would prefer that the Council do open meetings, although the Council is not cited by statute. Additionally, the AG’s office prefers that the Council not approve budgets by e-mail. They may be distributed by e-mail, but the preference is to have the Council vote as a group or by doing a teleconference, at an open meeting. Because the Council’s by-laws do not address this, Chairman Tyrrell suggested, that following the budget submission cycle, the Council review and/or amend the by-laws to provide for teleconferences. Business Case Review/Approval: a) Reporting regarding pending reviews • Health – Laboratory Software Replacement and Pharmacy Software Replacement These were approved at the previous Council meeting. However, the Council requested additional information as to why the current candidate was being excluded as a proposer. Response: Because of the potential for conflict, the current vendor is not being included.
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Additionally, the Council recommended that the Health Department contact Mr. Squires at UMC. Mr. Squires has had e-mail communication with the Department. • For clarification, regarding the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Business Case, the Council requested information regarding the data elements that were not detailed. The agency has provided Mr. Curtis a list of the elements.
b)
New Reviews Corrections – Probation/Parole Agency Case Planning Software Mr. Stata of the Department of Corrections provided the Council with an overview of the system. This system allows the agents to keep track of scheduling, i.e., home visits, drug testing, etc., as well as the offender’s rehabilitation process. The system allows the agents to enter information in real-time to keep track of the offenders and manage them more effectively. Mr. Atwood moved, seconded by Mr. Arnold, to approve this business case. Business case was approved. Mr. Brande declared a possible conflict and did not vote. Corrections – Wyoming Corrections Offender Information System This is the Hub, which has all the data/information for all of the offenders. The old system was built in Focus. As the “old” Focus programmers retire, it will become difficult, if not impossible, to find support for the system. The Department is looking at having the A&I Information Technology Division (ITD) rewrite the system into a standard language, continue the shelf life of the system, and continue to provide support. Mr. Atwood commented that ITD is not building any new systems in Focus. ITD’s commitment is to continue to support applications, which have been built over a period of time. However, ITD is working in partnership with the agencies to develop a strategy for migration to newer, more current tool sets. Mr. Atwood moved, seconded by Mr. Squires, to approve the Business Case. Business Case approved. Mr. Brande declared a possible conflict and did not vote. Corrections – Torrington Correctional Facility A January 2008 opening date is planned for this new, medium custody facility. This building will house 600 inmates. It will employee about 500 individuals. This request is for computer equipment, software, etc. for the new facility. The facility will have one IT head person and 2 IT workers. This is a preliminary estimate. Mr. Arnold moved, seconded by Mr. Squires, to approve this business cases. Business Case approved.
c)
Future/Anticipated Business Case Reviews Department of Revenue -- $5 million request for Excise Tax Department Revenue – Mineral Tax request Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety Child Support
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Mr. Biggio indicated that the Excise Tax and Mineral Tax cases will need to be addressed, before they become problems, similar to the Liquor Division System. Within three to four years, the Child Support System will be at a crucial stage with much more visibility and impact than Liquor. Mr. Biggio agreed that these business cases can be addressed in September. These items can move ahead in their agencies’ budget requests. The ITPC recommendation will follow in September. Other Business: a) Mr. Atwood reported that, during the period a couple of weeks prior to this meeting, the State firewall was being overrun. It did not have the capacity to accept all the filtering, accept all the rules changes on a routine basis, and accept administrative functions. The CPU utilization on that platform was reaching 100% levels and sustaining. ITD shifted spending authority from an area that was authorized during the last session for upgrades to the video network. ITD went out on a sole source to acquire a new firewall platform, which is a combination of Cross Beam hardware technology and Check Point software. The hardware is installed in the annex. A project will begin next week to bring teams from Cross Beam and Check Point to help ITD configure the rules set and to work with the agencies. The weekend of August 20th & 21st the cutover will be done. Prior to the cutover, ITD will be working with the agencies to work up to that cutover. The total cost of the updated platform – hardware and software – was about $260,000. Mr. Atwood estimated that ITD has quadrupled the capability of that platform. They also made a shift in the physical architecture. The appliance is a blade server. He anticipates having this platform in place for the next six years. b) Mr. Biggio thanked the Council for being flexible in working through this budget process. He appreciates the Council’s support and all the work that Mr. Curtis and the ITCC Budget and Project Review Sub-Committee has done to get through the business cases. Later, Mr. Biggio will review and discuss the process with the Council and ITCC.
Next Meeting: a) The next ITPC meeting will be held on September 19, 2005, beginning at 1:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in Room 4135, Herschler Building-East Wing. b) Meeting was adjourned at 10:20 am.
ITPC amended and approved minutes on 9/19/05
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