Focusing on Information Technology

These efforts will enable the state to leverage data as a strategic asset to make better decisions, target services, reduce spending and deliver innovative digital government services to all Delawareans.

The Problem

Information Technology Centralization (ITC) efforts thus far have made great strides towards a shared services model but the initiative is incomplete and is based on an unsustainable model. This is due, in part, to individually negotiated agency service agreements instead of a consistent standardized service delivery model based on total cost of service delivery.

The lack of standardization and governance adversely impacts the state by:

• Facilitating duplicative, over-built, or obsolete systems;
• Unnecessary or excessive spending on projects and contractors;
• Agency “haves and have nots” for technology, due to uneven staffing;
• Lack of an enterprise digital government strategy.

Opportunity

Evaluating and ensuring the State is capturing and categorizing IT spend across the State allows us all to target areas for innovative shared solutions. Specific concerns include:

• Legacy IT teams throughout the State have not scaled with the investments that have been made, either in numbers or skillsets. Staffing models don’t allow the flexibility required to accommodate the requirements of the future.
• Numerous State applications and infrastructure of varying sizes throughout the State require lifecycle planning to ensure security and scalability.
• Cyber security threats have evolved in severity and frequency. Centralization with a focus on governance enforces a consistent level of security across agencies, mitigating internal and external threats and better protecting State and citizen data security.
• Delaware’s Cloud First orientation, the continued growth of Internet of Things, and X-a-a-S developments require defining commodity-based services that can be scaled efficiently and economically to meet needs well into the future.

Scope

The Department of Technology and Information (DTI) is working with OMB and the Division of Accounting to establish additional account codes to better define IT expenditures, allowing a more granular understanding of opportunities for cost reduction and avoidance. This, along with an internal project to reset DTI’s service rates to reflect changes in both the State’s IT landscape and the evolution of DTI’s role from direct service provider to service broker, will ensure accurate, appropriate pricing and life-cycling of future State IT investment. This will position DTI to deliver innovative enterprise solutions priced consistently for all agency partners. Finally, by the end of 2017, DTI plans to engage an outside government IT Centralization expert to perform a detailed environmental scan, working with each agency to assess the current state of IT from which to develop a strategic plan outlining the best service delivery means to meet business needs.

Resources

• 2019-09-18 2019-09-18 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2019-07-16 2019-07-16 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2019-05-16 2019-05-16 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2019-03-19 2019-03-19 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2019-01-17 2019-01-17 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2018-11-09 2018-11-09 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2018-09-18 2018-09-18 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2018-07-11 2018-07-11 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2018-05-11 2018-05-11 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2018-03-12 2018-03-12 IT Efficiency Team Progress
• 2018-01-05 2018-01-05 IT Efficiency Team Progress

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