Exploring the Technology Solutions 2008-2012

Streamlined Citizen Transaction and Self-Service

This area of technology solutions will focus on making government services more accessible to citizens and businesses. It is expected that Michigan citizens will continue to demand that their government provide them with convenient, cost-effective and secure service around the clock. Looking forward, Michigan will emphasize single-points of access to government services through multiple channels and continue the commitment to making existing e-government services faster and easier to use.

Today this technology takes the form of ATM-style kiosks at Secretary of State offices, online licensing and certifications, as well as access to services from mobile devices to purchase fishing licenses. In the future, technology will take the shape of things such as a new one-stop business transaction portal; the expansion of text alerts to citizens on topics like product recalls, traffic congestion and lottery information; the creation of a single point-of-sale for hunting and fishing licenses and online examinations and credential authentication for individuals in various fields, such as pesticide applicators or weights and measures service personnel.

Citizen Engagement Tools

Over the next five years, Michigan will be identifying and implementing the latest technologies to further engage citizens in government operations and decision-making. Citizen engagement tools include using technology to seek public input or to foster discussions among citizens, businesses and government. The ability to provide meaningful citizen involvement opportunities is partly technical in nature, but also requires an understanding of cultural and organizational characteristics of our stakeholders.

Action being taken today includes the expansion of MITEC Citizen Self-Service Committee to include citizen engagement technologies and recommendations, and working within the new Innovation Advisory Board (Goal 6) to evaluate and report on Web 2.0/3.0 opportunities for citizen/government engagement.

Looking ahead, Michigan will be utilizing mashups, wikis and other Web tools to engage citizens in government and rolling-out activities such as virtual town meetings.

Shared Technology Infrastructure

Sharing and integrating infrastructure resources between public and private partners is a top priority in 2008-2012. Over the years, Michigan has worked aggressively to build a unified technology infrastructure across agencies that is well-coordinated, interoperable and universally available. For state government, a shared technology infrastructure is steadily evolving as the primary structural foundation that links and empowers all operations.

This foundation creates the promise of seamless information accessibility, improved return on investment, reduced operations risk, lower cost of ownership and maximized technology resources. It also creates new opportunities for sharing infrastructure across and beyond government borders with local governments and private industries. Looking ahead, Michigan is working to make WiFi available across state locations. In the future, the State will also be completing Michigan/1 Adopt standardized desktop package roll out; converting 75% of all State offices to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and managing all cellular contracts centrally.

Information Collaboration and e-Discovery

Facilitating the sharing and integration of data among departments to leverage information and enable quicker and more effective decisions is the focus in this area of technology. The breaking down of old barriers between government agencies-along with new federal court rules for managing electronically-stored information-have greatly increased the need for common methods of communicating, sharing and bringing information to decision-makers. Through information collaboration and e-discovery, Michigan will fulfill federal requirements and foster more efficient and timely use of information across agencies.

Today, Michigan is focused on a multi-agency Child Support Enforcement System and the Teradata warehouse. Tomorrow, the state will be developing the Agencies Sharing Knowledge (ASK) statewide, data-sharing strategy project; unifying human services/case management systems; enabling multiple agencies to share grant application information and allow for better budgeting; standardizing and automating human resources and clarifying e-discovery governance issues, relationships and responsibilities.

Enterprise Mobility

Utilizing technology to connect state employees to their work anywhere at anytime from anyplace is Michigan's focus in this technology area. Enterprise mobility brings benefits to state government, state employees and to citizens as a whole. For state government, greater mobility can increase productivity, reduce overhead and occupancy costs, help recruit and retain good employees. For employees, mobility can promote job satisfaction, reduce commuting time and transportation expenses and improve quality of life. For citizens as a whole, mobility decreases traffic and highway congestion, lessens parking problems, decreases air pollution, reduces energy consumption and increases time for civic involvement.

In 2008, Michigan's Bureau of Construction Codes inspectors use rugged laptops onsite, Michigan State Police officers have access to criminal justice computer systems from wireless laptops in their vehicles and Unemployment Agency investigators document investigations in the field, uploading changes to the main system remotely. Looking forward, the State will be better integrating mobile solutions into pandemic and emergency planning; to increase safety of caseworkers, Michigan will be incorporating global positioning system (GPS) features into a mobile Department of Community Health case management system; the State will be improving the MDOT vehicle fleet management system which uses GPS to better manage planning and scheduling of vehicles and will be further developing the mobile worker program.

Greening of IT

This area of technology focuses on increased environmental awareness and adoption of green principles in enterprise IT facilities, equipment purchases and disposal of equipment. Michigan embraces its obligation to reduce threats to our air, land and water and to fight global climate change. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions, properly disposing of outdated equipment and cutting overall energy consumption are all important ways to fulfill these responsibilities and can also bring new cost savings. By engaging in green IT, Michigan will lead by example and promote green consciousness among our state's residents and businesses.

Today, this means increasing the use of power saver printers that reduce the amount of energy the devices consume when not in use (and according to executive directives) turning off all networked desktop and notebook computing devices at the end of the work day whenever possible. In the future, Michigan will continue data center consolidation efforts, make use of unified communications, incorporate green criteria into IT systems procurement and increase efforts aimed at boosting product lifecycles and recycling.