News Releases for September 2002
September 10, 2002
Contact: Curtis Wolfe, Director, ITD
(701) 328-3190
Information Technology Investments Paying Big Dividends
BISMARCK, N.D. - Governor John Hoeven today said North Dakota is on the cutting edge of using information technology to re-engineer government.
“In the last five years, North Dakota has invested heavily in technology, and these investments are starting to pay significant dividends to citizens statewide,” Hoeven said. “Today, information technology is driving the major functions of government and transforming the way we do business.”
The state’s information technology investments are outlined in the first Information Technology Department (ITD) annual report, released today by Hoeven and state Chief Information Officer Curtis Wolfe. It includes a summary of the state IT planning and oversight process, a status report on large technology projects, a description of major benefits the state is realizing from IT investments, and a review of ITD performance.
Hoeven applauded the efforts of state agencies to increase on-line government. The state completed 17 new web applications this year, bringing the total number of state online services to 37. These include online purchasing of birth, marriage and death certificates, reporting “new hires,” submitting bids for transportation projects, obtaining information about licensed contractors and registering to be a state vendor.
According to Wolfe, a 2001 study by the Center for Digital Government ranked North Dakota eighth in digital democracy, up from 38th the previous year and the most improved state. North Dakota was also among the top five states for the most citizen-friendly web portals in the nation in a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study.
One of the most significant new applications is for online motor vehicle registration renewals, which the Department of Transportation launched in May. The system accepts three major credit cards and has reduced turnaround time by up to three weeks. The first month the new service was offered DOT completed 1,648 online renewals.
Hoeven said this year’s most notable IT achievement was completion of the statewide network called STAGEnet. The network provides high-speed, broadband connections to 192 North Dakota communities and 202 schools for a total of 456 sites. STAGEnet provides video connections to 140 classrooms, with an additional 80 classrooms by mid-2003.
“The network provides a strong foundation to support North Dakota’s comprehensive effort to promote e-government, e-commerce, e-education and to connect citizens to each other and the rest of the world through information technology,” Hoeven said.
As a result of this investment, the Education Week Technology Counts 2002 survey placed North Dakota first in the percent of teachers using the Internet at 87 percent, and first among schools with Internet access from one or more classrooms at 97 percent.
Wolfe said STAGEnet is one part of North Dakota’s “holistic approach” to IT investments.
“North Dakota is forging new territory in the area of enterprise-wide solutions. In fact, we are attracting national attention for our “holistic approach, which includes the state network, as well as enterprise architecture and enterprise resource planning,” Wolfe said. “These are huge projects that are transforming the way state government provides services.”
Enterprise architecture is a process for establishing strategic IT policy and standards. Wolfe said this year marked the beginning of the state’s enterprise architecture process, which will be an ongoing part of IT planning. “Enterprise architecture connects IT investments to specific business purposes, and provides a way to control the growing complexities of technology by setting statewide standards for IT investments,” Wolfe said.
Enterprise Resource Planning is a software solution to integrate the university system and government into one seamless administrative computer network. Wolfe said North Dakota is the first state in the nation to connect all these entities into one system. The project is called ConnectND. When it is complete, ConnectND will offer real time information access to students, employees, faculty, administrators, and suppliers over the Internet.
The state has purchased PeopleSoft’s human resource management system, financials, and student administration solutions to replace outdated systems. Implementation of ConnectND began in April, and will take approximately 30 months with completion expected in fall 2004.
The Hoeven Administration has established six pillars for building a better future for North Dakota. Information technology is one of them.
“The state achieved many milestones in deploying information technology this year,” Hoeven said. “Whether through the completion of infrastructure like the statewide network or through better statewide planning processes like enterprise architecture, IT leaders throughout state government are creating more efficient, sensible and convenient programs and services.”
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