Enterprise IT: Raising the Bar in Massachusetts

Information Technology (IT) has become a powerful tool for almost everything we want to accomplish in government. IT’s utility, and how we manage it, can dramatically impact the efficiency, effectiveness, and citizen-centric focus of government services and programs.  Getting IT right is becoming more critical than ever for governments in meeting the demands of citizens, businesses, and employees who are expecting the same high level of service they are receiving in the private sector.   IT impacts directly on the future economic competitiveness of the Commonwealth.    

With the current budget crisis facing state governments, fewer funds are available and new accountability standards demand a clear economic payoff from any IT investment.   Financial uncertainty is coupled with a rapidly changing technology environment, requiring new thinking and innovative approaches.   An effective enterprise IT strategy requires the cooperation and collaboration of government business and IT leaders across government boundaries.

For Massachusetts to “raise the bar” in the delivery of government services, it must aggressively pursue reforming the way it governs, manages, and leverages the IT enterprise throughout the Commonwealth.  Citizens view the Commonwealth as “one government,” not a collection of agencies, departments, and authorities.  Creating that “single view of government,” with a seamless service interface, will come about only when IT-based reforms are implemented and can impact how government conducts it business.

Information Technology Commission:  Meeting the Enterprise Challenge

The IT Commission was established in response to Section 6 of IT Bond III,[1] which directed, “…a special commission to recommend an enterprise-wide strategy, including all 3 branches of government and the constitutional offices, for the commonwealth’s information technology infrastructure, system development and governance.”

 IT Commission members were appointed from among positions of leadership in both the public and private sectors.[2]  They viewed this legislation as a “Call to Action,” and experienced a sense of urgency in completing this report, which members regard as the beginning of a journey for the Commonwealth, rather than the completion of a task.  After the election of Governor Romney in November 2002, IT Commission co-chairs met with the transition team to discuss the Commission’s charter and membership.  The transition team endorsed both, and welcomed the Commission’s findings and recommendations as inputs to the transition team’s work.     

Commission members understand the high degree to which state government depends on technology for meeting its operational needs and achieving its policy objectives. The Commission recognizes that one of the Commonwealth’s primary challenges is to employ technology not only to deliver existing services faster and cheaper, but also to create new enterprise services and new roles for government that enhance social progress and foster prosperity.  This task is especially challenging, given the continuing escalation in the development of technology and the fact that government operates in an environment of constant economic, political, and social change.  Without an understanding of the changing political environment, and an insight into the direction technology is moving, wrong and wasteful investment decisions will be made.  Improving the effectiveness of IT investment is at the heart of what the Commission is seeking to address through enterprise IT reform in the Commonwealth. 

At the same time, it is important to note that IT is only the “enabler to change.”   Commission members were vocal about the need to avoid automating inefficient business processes.  Members knew instinctively that, “The two most common complaints in and about the public sector IT community are…the charge that money and technology are being thrown at fundamentally broken processes, and the complaint about the imposition on public organizations of foreign processes that have been automated around the structure and operational needs of private sector corporations.”[3]  Responsive, innovative, cost efficient, and customer-centric government will result only when agencies examine existing business processes, and re-engineer these processes, as necessary, to create value for the end-user. 

Massachusetts is at the forefront of state efforts nationally to develop an enterprise IT framework that spans all branches and levels of government.  The present day context for implementing this enterprise approach is as compelling as it is challenging.   This report addresses a number of opportunities to reshape and improve IT resources, practices, and potential in the Commonwealth, and discusses several of the key change drivers and challenges affecting its current business environment, specifically:

a)      the increased challenges and expectations by constituents for e-government services,

b)      the heightened emphasis surrounding homeland security post-September 11^th,

c)      the current economic crisis, and

d)      the transition in political leadership.

Today, these change drivers are converging, offering unparalleled opportunity to strategically position the Commonwealth to address the overall management and delivery of IT services.

Enterprise Vision:   The Time is Now

The Commission’s enterprise vision for the Commonwealth is about more than just technology; it encompasses strategic direction, organization/people, technology, and processes.   Leadership is crucial in this complex environment.  The IT Commission adopted the following statement as representative of members’ views on the appropriate scope of the enterprise, and the necessity to work to transcend existing governmental barriers:

“Opportunities for taxpayer savings, expanded public services, and improved efficiency in the public sector, through IT reform, require us to go beyond traditional boundaries.   Enterprise IT reform in Massachusetts, to the extent appropriate, should encompass all three branches of state government, state agencies, state authorities, cities and towns, and the Commonwealth’s university and research community.”[4]

While no single individual has the ultimate authority for enterprise performance, the opportunity to hold the enterprise accountable for results rests most squarely with the Governor, who should lead the outreach efforts to the Legislature, the Judiciary, constitutional offices, the higher education community, and local governments in Massachusetts.

In the first meeting of the IT Commission, Peter Quinn, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, described the timing of this legislatively mandated Enterprise IT Strategy initiative as “the perfect storm” for addressing IT governance and management issues in Massachusetts.   As Mr. Quinn pointed out, the pending economic/budget crisis, the election of a new Administration, the need to expand e-government services, and the demand to address security concerns after September 11, 2001 are all converging, offering unparalleled opportunity to strategically position the Commonwealth to address the overall management and delivery of IT services.

The stage is set to build the business case for the Commonwealth to make bold and significant recommendations regarding an Enterprise IT Strategy for the Commonwealth.   The work of the IT Commission is not an end, but a beginning.

B.     Approach

The IT Commission engaged IBM Business Consulting Services (IBM) to provide a “high-level assessment of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ information technology infrastructure, systems development, and governance.”[5]  From these “as is” observations, the IBM team assisted the IT Commission in developing a high-level, strategic framework of recommendations, and a roadmap for implementing these recommendations.   In conducting the “As Is” Assessment, the IBM team interviewed more than 50 individuals representing all three branches of government,[6] including many representatives from Commonwealth agencies.

Additionally, the IBM team researched public and private sector best practices, utilizing information from leading market research firms (e.g., Gartner, Meta, IBM Endowment for the Business of Government), and industry organizations and periodicals (e.g., Center for Digital Government, IBM Institute for Business Value, National Association of State CIOs, IT Governance Institute, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Governing, Government Technology).   Members of the IT Commission, representing industry leaders such as AMS, Cisco Systems, DSD Labs, EDS, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Sun Microsystems, and Verizon, participated actively by providing valuable insight into market trends, competitive landscape, and best practices in information technology governance and strategy.   As part of this engagement, the IBM team Web-enabled the Commonwealth’s existing application database, which was developed originally as a Y2K initiative, so agencies can update this information directly over the Internet.   

The IT Commission met six times from November 2002 through February 2003.[7]  IT Commission members’ recommendations were informed by IBM’s “as is” observations, by facilitated visioning sessions, and by volumes of best practice research.  The non-profit Center for Excellence in Government sponsored a daylong roundtable discussion with former government CIOs, to provide an opportunity for Commission members to dialogue directly with practitioners about governance structures and management practices that have worked successfully in state government environments, and about lessons learned.   These practitioners were unanimous in their praise of Massachusetts for the inclusive, enterprise IT framework being pursued by the Commonwealth, and for the active involvement of Commission members from all branches of government, as well as the private sector.  The Commission was diligent in looking beyond the performance of peer states, to leading industry practices in the private sector.   The Commission was mindful that all private sector best practices cannot be translated exactly into the public sector, largely because of dissimilarities in public sector organizational governance models.

The IT Commission adopted a set of values as guiding principles for developing its recommendations.   These values represent the Commission’s ideals for the future enterprise IT environment in Massachusetts.  As the Commonwealth moves forward in the development and deployment of an enterprise IT environment, the Commission recommends the continued adoption of these guiding principles as a framework within which to consider critical decisions affecting the Commonwealth’s future IT environment:

o       Single Face of Government;

o       Strategic Direction with a Common Vision;

o       Business Value;

o       Collaboration;

o       Pragmatism;

o       Discipline;

o       Agility;

o       Accountability;

o       Integrity;

o       Equity in Access;

o       Leveraging of What Works.

C.     Key Observations and Recommendations

The IBM team’s observations about the “as is” environment, and the IT Commission’s recommendations, are categorized into six areas:

o       Governance

o       IT Strategy

o       Architecture and Standards

o       IT Infrastructure

o       Partnerships

o       Security.

Due to the sensitive nature of the observations and recommendations related to Commonwealth security, this information has been removed from this report and published under separate cover.  These materials are not available for public distribution.

The following tables summarize the key observations and recommendations within each category, and present the Commission’s prioritization for each recommendation.   Members prioritized Commission recommendations according to two criteria:   criticality and implementation feasibility.  Using these criteria, members reached consensus on placing recommendations into one of four categories:

o       Pursue:             High criticality, high feasibility

o       Plan:                High criticality, low feasibility

o       Permit:             Low criticality, high feasibility

o       Postpone:         Low criticality, low feasibility 

(The prioritization process is described below, under “Implementation.”)  The rationale for each observation and recommendation is discussed in the body of the final report.

1.      Governance

The topic of governance permeated all IT Commission discussions.  IBM noted that the Commonwealth’s IT governance structure is “weak,” and many Commission recommendations are designed to broaden and strengthen IT governance and oversight.   These recommendations received the Commission’s highest prioritization for implementation.  The Commission is advocating for a federated approach to governing the enterprise, in recognition of the unique challenges posed by public sector jurisdictional barriers, both among branches and across levels of government.   The Commission recognizes that the Massachusetts Constitution limits the extent to which any branch of government or agency may exert control over, or set IT policy for, another branch of government.   Nevertheless, members believe that, consistent with the Constitution, considerable latitude exists for cooperation and coordination of IT services, practices, standards, and policies affecting all branches and levels of government within the Commonwealth.   The recommendations in this report concerning “enterprise-wide” IT are all subject to, and should not be implemented except in accordance with, these constitutional requirements.  Commission members hope that, to the extent, if any, that the Constitution may prohibit centralization of authority over enterprise-wide IT as envisioned by these recommendations, all branches of government will recognize the benefits of adopting the same practices, standards, and policies as recommended in this report, and that they voluntarily will work with each other to realize the goals of a secure and integrated IT environment as envisioned by this report.

2.      IT Strategy

The Commonwealth would benefit greatly from an overall enterprise strategy for achieving the collective business objectives of its members.   An IT Strategy that is based on an overarching business strategy would help executive department agencies, constitutional offices, the Legislature and the judicial branch focus their energies and resources to improve value and cost-effective operations throughout government.   The Commission recognizes that the development of an enterprise business strategy appears to be outside the scope of an IT Commission or an IT Advisory Board.   However, such a strategy is essential to creating synergy and achieving alignment between the Commonwealth’s IT investments and its desired service outcomes for citizens and businesses.  The Commonwealth should devise a mechanism for agency leaders and IT leaders to partner together to develop an enterprise strategy that guides IT investments.  When successful, the resulting benefits to both communities will be mutual and exponential.

3.      Architecture and Standards

Development of enterprise architecture standards is a critical, first step in changing the way technology is selected and deployed in the Commonwealth. A properly applied architecture methodology rationalizes IT investments, reduces risk, finds best ways to extend IT, and promotes flexibility and interoperability.   An enterprise architecture simplifies decision-making and, when supported by a strong governance process, ensures that individual business goals, as well as the Commonwealth’s enterprise goals, are met.

4.      IT Infrastructure

Over time, as independent agencies have sought to meet their own infrastructure support needs, they have designed and built networks, data centers, and application suites.   This fragmentation and duplication has driven the cost of infrastructure support higher than it need be, and has increased the barriers to common operations among Commonwealth offices.  The Commonwealth should plan to consolidate its IT infrastructure to reduce costs, improve service levels, and increase operational flexibility across the enterprise.  The Commission recommends that the Commonwealth evaluate each aspect of its IT infrastructure carefully, to determine whether it is best delivered centrally or through individual business units.   An enterprise infrastructure approach need not be an “all or nothing” approach.   Properly implemented, shared infrastructure encourages collaboration, reuse of intellectual capital, and implementation of best practices across the enterprise.   These benefits, in turn, can help increase innovation, raise quality levels, and reduce cycle time.  Most importantly, shared infrastructure can help businesses control costs.  IT expenses – which were previously scattered and hidden in pockets throughout the organization – now become more visible and easier to manage, allowing the allocation of increasingly scarce resources to the highest priorities.