Governor Deval Patrick's Five Year Capital Investment Plan FY2011 - FY2015

Governor's Capital Investment Plan FY2011

Information Technology


The Commonwealth’s Information Technology Division (ITD) is a central provider of information technology (IT) services for the executive branch agencies, and provides shared services and policy guidance for non-executive branch agencies at their choosing.  These services include internet access, enterprise applications, wide-area network, the official public-facing web portal (www.mass.gov), central e-mail system, and web and application hosting hardware, software and facilities.  ITD sets IT policies and standards for all executive branch agencies and supports the Information Technology Advisory Board, the Chief Information Officer Cabinet, and other interagency IT governance groups.  ITD also coordinates the development and annual update of the Commonwealth’s IT Strategic Plan.

The Commonwealth’s IT infrastructure consists of a wide array of information systems:  183 data centers, 100 phone systems, 24 e-mail systems and 15 data networks – many of which are aging and no longer meet all the modern-day business needs of state government.  These vast and decentralized systems are too complex and fragmented to manage efficiently and are very challenging to maintain securely.  In addition, these systems often cannot work and communicate effectively together, limiting the ability of agencies to collaborate and share resources to provide the kinds of information and services the public has come to expect in the internet age.

The FY11-15 capital plan makes investments to modernize major enterprise information systems, advance the strategic goal of consolidating statewide information technology to promote efficiency, effectiveness and security, and implement shared IT solutions to improve the operations of state government and provide better services to citizens, businesses and others.  The following chart shows the Administration’s total planned five-year capital investments in information technology, as compared to projected fiscal year 2010 spending.

This bar graph show the Information Technology: all sources of funds between the years of FY10 through FY15.

FY11 Highlights

  • $20 million to continue the development of MassTax2, which will be a secure, flexible, user-friendly system that will integrate all tax administration functions and allow for the proper accounting and collection of over $22 billion annually in tax revenues in support of the financial requirements of the Commonwealth.

  • $10 million for the Automated Licensing and Registration System (ALARS) modernization project for the Registry of Motor Vehicles, which is estimated to take five years to be fully completed.  ALARS will implement internet based services to reduce customer branch visits and wait times, improve inter-agency collaboration through appropriate data sharing and exchanges and reduce costs and time for implementing system changes.

  • $9.5 million to continue re-building the Commonwealth’s public safety information systems network, the public safety data center, and provisioning public safety applications and support services.  The program will modernize the Commonwealth’s criminal history system; procure a new fingerprint identification system to support the criminal history program and provide enhanced biometric identification services and forensics; and rebuild the Commonwealth’s public safety data network to support day-to-day law enforcement and public safety operations and information sharing.

  • $8 million to launch the human resources modernization project to enable the Commonwealth to efficiently deliver an expanded array of enhanced human resources services to employees, deploy employee self-service to help lower operational costs, improve how the Commonwealth manages its workforce, and effectively leverage investments in related technologies and applications.

  • $8 million to continue the deployment of the new Quest Unemployment Insurance (UI) system, which integrates all UI processes, including revenue, benefits, program integrity and economic research.  The new system will replace manual processes where appropriate with self-service interfaces and will facilitate attaining operational and financial measures such as timely employer status determination, on-time payments, and over payments fraud detection.

  • $2.5 million as a portion of the Commonwealth’s matching contribution that leveraged an award of $45.4 million in federal stimulus funding to expand broadband access in the western and northern central areas of Massachusetts, which is described in more detail in the Economic Development investment category above.


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