The Indiana Office of Technology continues to focus on providing services and value to all of our customers. We have identified our priorities for 2024 and we use our strategic direction bullseye to help visualize the priority areas IOT will focus on. The three components of that bullseye remain Inward (internal-focused), Outward (agency-focused) and Upward (enterprise-focused).
Inward
The Inward area will be revolutionary for how IOT operates. These items will be instrumental in helping continue to build the foundation of core business operations and increase trust with our agency consumers.
Operating Model Refinement:
Nationally, states are grappling with whether to continue maintaining IT operations strictly through a charge-back methodology or whether there should be an appropriation to support IT. There are big-picture items like security, which can no longer be considered optional, and other foundational items like our network, which we can't afford to be paid for through a charge-back.
To prepare for this, we must evolve our operating model to be a blend that prepares IOT for the future of charging based on consumption usage.
Workforce Preparedness:
We need to continue to prepare IOT and our employees for change. Technology is a drive toward continuous process improvement and can result in monumental shifts in how we operate. As such, we must prepare our teams and, especially, our managers to support those changes in industry and operations.
Process Capture:
The Operations of IOT are paramount to our core service delivery. As we prepare for new ITSM and Identity Lifecycle management systems, along with adding new departments like broadband and the continued growth of the GIO footprint, we need to identify, document and define our processes. This way, we can standardize and duplicate our work product to ensure customers receive the same quality consistently and effectively.
Outward
Identity Lifecycle Management:
IOT chose Okta as its new identity lifecycle management platform; now is the time to bring it to fruition. We know this will take longer than a year, but it is beyond time that IOT owns the identities of the individuals interacting with and across state government. This will likely impact how everybody within IOT operates, as well as with our partner agencies that have created their own identity stores.
Statewide Enterprise Strategy:
IOT has been working with agencies throughout 2023 to create individual IT roadmaps and strategies and thus far has completed around 60. The agencies were very open to IOT being involved and appreciated our input and direction. Once these are all completed, the goal is to roll those individual plans into an enterprise strategy.
Modernized Core Platforms:
A strong service management platform, ServiceNow, will help IOT better manage enterprise technologies, assets, and resources. There are a lot of advantages and capabilities that come with a modern ITSM system.
Upward
These items have mostly stayed the same because they are broad, far-reaching priorities. We have made progress on them over the past three years, but we continue to make incremental progress on these visionary items.
Whole-of-State Cybersecurity:
A whole-of-state approach looks at practice, policy and workforce. We are receiving a lot of engagement from local government, all branches of State government, higher education and our federal partners. We have also engaged the legislature this year, which helps further our goal of improving cybersecurity across the state - border-to-border.
Enterprise Visibility & Risk Mitigation:
The first line of defense is to know what you have in order to protect it, and only then can you work to reduce the risk associated with those assets. This strategic goal aims to drive towards full enterprise visibility of all physical and logical assets, on premise, in the cloud, OT and IoT, and with our local partners. IOT has already rolled out new end-point protection to 45,000 state areas and expanded the solution to 23,000 local government end-points - all through one threat-monitoring footprint. Our visibility also continues to grow through the GIS landscape with the continued growth of their datasets and data collection. Yet, another area that helps mitigate risks across the state.
Local Government Collaboration:
Local government continues to be very receptive to IOT's outreach. The IOT staff has put in the legwork to make ourselves a trusted partner for local governments to ask for guidance and to consume our services. This is helping them save money AND increase their cyber posture. The State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program is an opportunity to continue growing our work and footprint while improving security and digital government services. Additionally, the BEAD program for Broadband is increasing our engagement with local municipalities, the communities and with residents across the state.