Nominations Showcase Use of Information Technology to Create Better Government Services
10/16/2020 4:42:57 PM
Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) is proud to announce that four of our projects were selected as finalists for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) State IT Recognition Awards.
NASCIO selected 30 finalists across 10 categories for the projects and initiatives from NASCIO member states and territories. Over 60 NASCIO members served as volunteer judges to review the over 90 submissions, narrowing the nominees down to three finalists in each category.
The award nominations showcase the use of information technology to address critical business problems, more easily connect citizens to their government, improve business processes, and create new opportunities that improve the lives of citizens.
Congratulations to these four finalists in the 2020 State IT Recognition Awards!
Aging data center equipment, technical debt, escalating operations cost, and fast-moving demands for IT service changes prompted the Minnesota IT Services team partnering with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to pursue a bold cloud migration initiative. Over 20 months, the team migrated MDH’s 150 application portfolio to an Amazon Web Services (AWS)-based infrastructure. This DevOps (Development-Operations) model features cross-functional team integration and process automation. The team expanded its service portfolio into Artificial Intelligence-Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Data Lake technologies.
This effort has catapulted MDH into a highly secure, adaptive infrastructure environment that delivers scalable and responsive business solutions. Our focus on information security as a core value provides confidence that risk of information loss is effectively mitigated.
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis demonstrated the value of this initiative. System administrators rapidly scaled up business systems in response to unplanned demand, and Data Lake technologies proved essential to Minnesota’s COVID-19 response.
In 2019, the statewide Maps Community of Practice (MCOP), a group of state staff across 15 agencies, implemented a first-of-its-kind in the world set of online resources, guidance documents, tip cards, and web content for making digital maps accessible. It is vital that our maps are clear and accessible for everyone. The tools and solutions span multiple disciplines in cartographic and geospatial communities ranging from cartographic map design, static web maps, and interactive web maps.
The tools and resource guides created by MCOP are available /mnit/about-mnit/accessibility/maps/index.jspon the Minnesota IT Services website, and are leveraged internationally by cartographic, geospatial, and accessibility communities in the public and private sectors, and at geospatial, cartographic, and accessibility conferences nationwide. Since its implementation in October 2019, the map accessibility resources have been accessed by 5,700 unique visitors across 46 states, 3 provinces of Canada, 37 countries, and has seen over 4,000 downloads of the resources.
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Public Water Access Sites Tool (PWA) was developed by MNIT in 2019. The PWA data collection application allows DNR staff to manage Minnesota’s public water access site maintenance with mobile devices and office desktop software. DNR staff can identify locations, type of work and materials needed and prioritize work. Staff collect data on location that is automatically aggregated into a centralized database. PWA meets the state’s digital accessibility standard, and is operable by touch and voice control.
The mobile app allows staff to submit statewide reports in a matter of minutes. In the first three months of use, more than 4,000 work records were submitted and 2,062 completed. Benefits include effective staff deployment, time savings, increased accuracy, real-time reporting, and equipment and materials management. The ultimate benefit is better maintained and safer public water access sites for Minnesotans and visitors.
The Minnesota Veterans Application Tracking System (VATS), is a joint project between the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA) and MNIT. VATS has transformed the process of providing educational benefits through the Minnesota GI Bill to veterans, service-members, and eligible spouses and children. Since July 2019, 2,600 veterans have successfully used VATS.
In a modernization initiative, now veterans can submit applications online and have them processed in a single day, instead of weeks. VATS manages modifications to benefit types, policies, processes, and legislative compliance. Dynamic reporting provides granular reports and audits.
“The VATS-Education module is an amazing example of how technology can be utilized to create better outcomes for Minnesotans, especially for our Veterans,” said Minnesota IT Services Commissioner Tarek Tomes. “Veterans are not only entitled to these education benefits; they are entitled to be able to access those benefits in the most efficient way possible.”
