Information Technology (IT) enables the delivery of critical services to constituents in a better, faster and more efficient manner than would otherwise be possible. During the prolonged economic downturn, our nation and state have experienced an increased constituent demand for government services even while budgets have been cut. As a result, agencies have increasingly sought to take advantage of technology to meet constituent needs.
Between October 2008 and September 2012, over 3,134 full-time agency employees were eliminated across executive branch agencies, yet efficiencies gained through the use of technology enabled agencies to maintain program integrity and service delivery - in some cases at pre-recession levels - despite loss of staff. At the same time, business reforms are being implemented to help enable state government to operate in as lean a fashion as possible, while continuously improving service delivery to constituents. The positive impact technology has had - and will increasingly have - on delivering vital services to constituents cannot be overstated.
In today's environment, IT underlies almost everything we do. Over the years, the Commonwealth has come to rely more and more on IT for the operation of state government, and we have seen that IT can have a profoundly positive impact on making government more efficient, more accessible and more responsive to the public. Bringing our IT environment up to date will pave the way for future innovation.
The following graph reflects the Administration's estimated capital investment in information technology services capital projects and programs over the next five years, as compared to fiscal years 2007 and 2012 information technology related spending. FY12 and FY13 include the completion and outfitting of the Springfield Data Center.
Support achievement of the Administration's priorities of getting people back to work, reducing health care costs, improving education and strengthening public safety.
Provide essential services and government information to citizens and businesses in a responsive, secure and transparent manner through whatever means - computers, mobile apps - are most convenient and amenable to their needs and communication styles.
Invest in health information technology. Investments will advance the Commonwealth's leadership in affordable health care while leveraging available federal funding to stretch scarce state dollars.
Modernize, streamline and transform how government manages and does its work. The Commonwealth must replace aged mission critical systems that have become too rigid and fragmented to support the Commonwealth's evolving needs and too inefficient and labor intensive to maintain.
Identify and drive administrative efficiencies and cost savings. The Commonwealth will provide up-front investments to projects that will drive significant recurring operating efficiencies and cost savings.
Implemented in 2011, the Juvenile Justice Enterprise Management System (JJEMS) enabled the Division of Youth Services (DYS) to implement an agency-wide, web-based enterprise system that allows DYS to effectively manage their resources and, most importantly, committed youths across the agency in real-time. Implementing JJEMS allowed DYS to claim a one-time Federal reimbursement of $7.3M and on-going annual reimbursements of $1.3M.
Implemented in 2011, I-CORI is a component of a broader joint effort between the Governor and the Legislature to reform Massachusetts's criminal offender system by improving the accuracy and readability of records, ensuring proper and timely access to information by law enforcement, employers, housing authorities and the general public, and reducing recidivism by increasing employment opportunities for rehabilitated offenders.
Open Checkbook, launched in 2011, is a user-friendly, public facing tool containing comprehensive information on state government expenditures, down to “checkbook level”, for vendor spending on a near real-time basis. Interested parties can monitor spending quickly and easily, as well as compare expenditures over time.
The All Systems Integrated System Tracker (ASIST) integrates the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and provides critical functionality such as availability of beds/units among all Emergency Assistance (EA) Shelter providers and the ability to search vacancies based on selected criteria such as shelter exit reporting, shelter placements and the length of the EA episode. The system has over 1,200 users and currently aids over 380,000 clients.
The capital investment plan will 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.
The Commonwealth will invest $8.9 million to continue re-building the Commonwealth's public safety information systems network, the public safety data center and provisioning public safety 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.
$14.6 million will be invested to continue IT projects that will implement health care cost containment and child welfare information initiatives including converting to the federally mandated ICD-10 diagnostic coding system, implementing a new eligibility determination system, completing the federally mandated analysis for the Medicaid Information Architecture and replacing the existing FamilyNet child welfare system.
The capital investment plan provides $3.7 million in FY13 to support the implementation of an enterprise system to manage licensing and permitting activities for many state agencies and ultimately, municipalities. The Division of Professional Licensure (DPL) and the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) are collaborating on the initial deployment. This new system will help DPL provide high quality, low-cost services to its 330,000 license-holders in nearly 50 trades and professions. ABCC will use the system to manage the approval and issuance of over 13,000 retail licenses per year and 10,000 state licenses per year.
The Commonwealth will begin the overhaul of the Commonwealth's procurement processes by implementing a single, transparent statewide system to provide vendor registration, procurement, purchasing, invoicing, payment and spend management that will be accessible to all state agencies, municipalities and other eligible public purchasing entities within the borders of Massachusetts.
Investments in information technology have substantial impacts across all corners of state government. State agencies are able to provide increasingly higher levels of service in even the most challenging fiscal climates; municipalities are able to invest more local aid in programmatic needs instead of support systems; and health care cost containment is in part made possible by the investments made in the Commonwealth's IT infrastructure. In addition to improving service, IT investments can produce a return on investment to the Commonwealth through new revenue or cost savings due to operational efficiencies.
To ensure that the Commonwealth realizes this return on investment, the Administration is procuring a private IT investment consultant that will produce a methodology for creating, maintaining and monitoring the long term benefits and costs of IT capital projects. This methodology will then be used to verify new and existing projects' long term impact and drive investment decisions. In cases where all or part of the project cost will be paid back through operational savings or new revenue, the Commonwealth will use those funding streams to pay back the associated debt service.