The /mnit/about-mnit/strategic-plan/index.jspMinnesota IT Services (MNIT) Strategic Plan is the agency’s guiding light for the way forward to translate initiatives into measurable successes. In 2023, MNIT updated its plan to align with Governor Tim Walz’s One Minnesota Plan and enhance MNIT’s capacity to serve Minnesotans. The update was based on broad internal and external input to make MNIT more nimble and agile.

The plan enhances MNIT’s value-driven approach to using data for effective decision-making and promoting seamless and secure interactions with residents and business partners. The State of Minnesota’s historic investment of more than $500 million in information technology will help MNIT’s Strategic Plan lay the foundation for a future-ready government, navigate the complexities and unknowns of technology, and foster collaboration and customer-centric solutions.

Key Elements of MNIT’s 2023 Strategic Plan

Each theme has three strategic objectives, with specific goals, initiatives to drive change, and measurement frameworks to monitor progress.

Customer Experience

When we center our work around the individual and their experiences, MNIT connects Minnesotans to the services that will improve their lives. Our initiatives will reduce the burden of interacting with state government and maximize the value of the data we help elevate.

• Embrace a people-centric product model: MNIT will make it easier to rapidly innovate and iterate with a product framework that will elevate the customer experience and their evolving requirements . Our work will make it faster and easier to deliver value to Minnesotans.
• Create modern digital experiences: MNIT will help state agencies create digital capabilities to improve our interactions with Minnesotan. We can provide access to services at any time, from any place, and in an equitable manner by delivering an increasing number of cloud-based services online and efficiently.
• Maximize the value of data: MNIT will develop a data architecture to maximize the value, insight, and opportunities that data and analytics can drive to measurably improve the outcomes of government services.

Cybersecurity and Operational Excellence

Cybersecurity and operational excellence lie at the heart of providing digital services to MNIT’s partners and Minnesotans. By integrating this work, we can keep Minnesota’s systems available, responsive, and fiscally sound to meet the needs of the statewide communities we serve.

• Evolve process, application, and service lifecycles: MNIT will create the governance mechanisms to manage risk and focus IT resources on the most important issues and power state government operations. 
• Mature operations to measure and deliver consistently and efficiently: MNIT will ensure each IT function focuses investments in the areas with the greatest strategic value and mature IT teams based for our hybrid operating model.
• Bolster whole-of-state cybersecurity and service continuity: MNIT will continue to modernize and expand collaborative initiatives to safeguard data and systems, manage risk, and improve organizational effectiveness and customer relationships.

Connected Culture

Our Connected Culture enables us to build and strengthen relationships with colleagues and business partners while keeping the people we serve at the center of our work and adapting to change and innovation. MNIT supports a digital government that works for everyone, and we are part of the solution to reduce racial, economic, and other disparities.

• Embrace change, innovation, and agility: MNIT will develop a culture that embraces change, innovation, and agility and maximizes the potential use of technology (both existing and emerging) to help agency partners adapt to serve Minnesotans’ evolving needs and expectations.
• Nurture a culture of equity, inclusion, and engagement: MNIT will advance equity through our technology and our work, including through intersectional  sustainability efforts, to ensure fair treatment and opportunity for all.
• Develop and support high performing teams: MNIT will support a people-first workplace to attract, develop, and retain talent and help high performing teams that deliver value.

How We Got Here

The updated plan builds on the 2020 Strategic Plan to modernize and deliver services and products with increased agility and an unflinching customer focus. MNIT fine-tuned the plan with input from multiple sources, including executive branch agency leadership, IT employees and management, and external thought leaders.

Building on Our Success

Since 2020, MNIT has focused on building value into every technology solution it delivers to our customers, partners, and Minnesotans, including successful efforts like:

• Modernization Playbook: A new way to meet the needs of Minnesotans is gaining momentum; trained over 600 people in the product approach in 2023 after a successful start with the Modernization Playbook in 2021.
• CloudRAMP (Cloud Readiness and Modernization Project): Moved hundreds of servers from on-premise to cloud-based infrastructure as part of Minnesota’s journey to the cloud
• COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Supported all technology aspects of the state’s response, including sharing critical information on dynamic, interactive dashboards, websites, and maps.
• First Equity and Inclusion Plan: Launched in 2021 and was followed by an agency equity statement in 2022. to become rooted in diversity and inclusion, attract and recruit talent to serve society and promote sustainability. 
• Improved Security: Expanded services and advanced tools revolutionized Minnesota’s statewide cybersecurity program, raising maturity levels and capabilities for counties, cities, and tribal nations and decreasing cyber-attacks.
• Frontline Worker Pay Program: Inter-agency collaboration and focus on the user experience ensured Minnesota could process over 1.2M applications to distribute $500M to frontline workers in less than six months.
• DVS Language Access Project: Used new AI technology to develop a driver and vehicle services virtual assistant that is available in English, Hmong, Somali, and Spanish and provides eServices to 67% of Minnesota’s non-English speaking population.
• Medicaid Direct Certification: Expanded availability of free meals to over 50,000 new students.

Input from Stakeholders

MNIT’s approach to strategic planning was built on the foundation of the State’s strategic priorities, including the One Minnesota Plan and recommendations from the Technology Advisory Council. The discussion among MNIT leadership about the need to build capacity, promote digital solutions, and serve Minnesotans drew upon input from industry thought leaders and within the agency.

A strategy mapping exercise helped identify the three themes: Customer Experience, Cybersecurity and Operational Excellence, and Connected Culture. The leaders agreed to an iterative approach that allowed them to solicit input into the objectives from not only those who will benefit from the plan but also those who will serve to deliver the results.

Results from the 2022 Digital States Survey and an employee survey showed remarkable alignment with the identified strategic objectives. MNIT employees ranked the three themes and related nine strategic objectives to determine what they felt were the most important strategic objectives for MNIT’s goal of supporting the One Minnesota Plan.

How the updated plan will help Minnesota

The plan will help make digital solutions a critical component of the way state government delivers services. It will help address the expectations of Minnesotans for seamless and secure interactions with the government, like their experiences with banks, businesses, and healthcare institutions. By building our capacity to adapt, MNIT’s Strategic Plan enables us to navigate the complexities and unknowns of technology and drive fiscal accountability and measurable results in all our investments in projects and processes. 

The plan’s objectives lay the foundation for a future-ready government, foster collaboration, transform the mindset in the executive branch from project-based thinking to product-based thinking, and help remove structural inequities. We will work together with our business partners and the State of Minnesota to improve the lives of all residents, help build thriving and healthy communities, and protect Minnesota’s fragile environment through sustainable measures.