FROM THE DIRECTOR

Brenda Decker

Chief Information Officer

This is the last time you will see a newsletter entitled "Lines of Communication". Over the years this newsletter has been included with your telecommunications billing to alert our partners of changes in the industry and within the Division of Communications. With our expanded role and the merging of policy and operations of IT within State Government, it is our intent to continue communicating with you via this vehicle in the future via a combined newsletter. Therefore in May you will receive a newsletter that will contain information about ALL of the IT services we will be providing under our new structure. This final issue will introduce the teams that have been established to provide service to you through the new organization. If we can assist you in any way, please contact any of us. I can continue to be reached at 402-471-3717 or via email at bdecker@notes.state.ne.us

Steve Henderson—Planning and Project Management

Steve Henderson leads the Planning & Project Management area. This area includes strategic planning, NITC councils, project management, NIDCAC, enterprise solutions planning, business continuity, disaster recovery, security policy and GIS. When asked how Planning & Project Management will interact with the other functional areas Steve commented that it’s already taking place. For example he is working with Network Services and Jayne Scofield to look at ways to incorporate project management concepts into their work processes and also include them in the disaster recovery efforts being coordinated by Dave Berkland. He is working with Steve Schafer to understand current cost allocation results to ensure necessary money is available before pushing forward on initiatives. Looking to the future he is planning to work with Technology Support Services and Beverlee Bornemeier to design a new web site that reflects the new organizational structure.

In the area of policy Steve is monitoring legislation on a statewide GIS Land Records Modernization initiative (LB565). Larry Zink is following the process and looking for ways to assist. Another area of legislative interest deals with video networks and distance learning, Tom Rolfes is following the progress of the initiative (LB689).

Looking ahead how does Steve see the organizational change impacting products and services? He believes there will be an increased focus on developing enterprise-wide products and services. Enterprise solutions fall within Steve’s realm of responsibilities of planning and project management. Steve anticipates looking for ways to utilize and involve the NITC Councils, the GIS Steering Committee and NIDCAC in developing direction and strategies for enterprise initiatives.

What excites Steve about the future? Bringing the groups together is an opportunity to more effectively integrate the roles of operations and policy. The groups have known and worked together in the past as separate entities now they have the chance to move forward as one cohesive organization. From a human resources perspective he is interested in the continual development of the organization and its people. Steve can be reached at 402-471-4861 or via e-mail at shenders@notes.state.ne.us.

Beverlee Bornemeier—Technology Support Services

The Technology Support Services functional area consists of several server service groups and is led by Beverlee Bornemeir who can be reached at 1-0718. The following paragraphs describe the major services and a contact individual for each of the groups within Technology Support Services.

The Internet Development Team builds applications using Java, an Object Oriented programming language that enables the Team to develop code on their workstations and deploy to production environments running on various platforms. The applications are deployed to an application server and are then accessed/executed via a web browser. This "build once, run anywhere" approach is one of Java's greatest strengths as no code has to be deployed to the client's workstation - all that's needed is a browser. This team also builds static web page sites utilizing HTML. Contact person is LaVern Goens at 1-8064.

The Lotus Notes e-mail group supports both Business Class e-mail and the lower cost Basic e-mail. The implementation of the Unified e-mail system for Nebraska state government agencies provides for secure transmission of e-mail between all users in the system; regular backup of e-mail; gateway-based blocking of viruses and spam; and provides a unified e-mail directory. Contact person is Dale Hermsen at 1-0462.

The Directory Services team supports Nebraska Directory Services (NDS) which is a framework for agencies to make use of pre-built role-based authentication technology so that identity management doesn't have to be built by each individual agency. NDS leverages existing state employee information contained in NIS to identify internal users of state computer resources but also provides processes and procedures to include external users (providers and the public) that may need to make use of state web services to access information and applications. It provides the portal framework to give our workforce and citizens easy access to state government any time, anywhere. Contact person is Jerry Hielen at 1-4993.

The Domino/Lotus Development Team works with clients to utilize the extensive functionality of Lotus Notes, Domino, Quick Place, Same Time, and Domino.doc products to make our clients' job easier. The functions in Lotus Notes allow for the automation of office processes through workflow management, document management, information broadcasting, process monitoring and team collaboration tolls. Notes also provides a common and familiar platform for collaborative efforts among state agencies seeking to create efficiency in state government. Contact person is Marcia Stewart at 1-8226.

The Distributed Computing Support team provides remote support for 6,000 workstations and 154 servers deployed throughout the State primarily in support of the NFOCUS project for the Health and Human Services System. This included configuration and imaging of workstations, software upgrades, software deployment, as well as 24 x 7 server support and problem resolution. Contact is Deanna Poe at 1-0675.

The Midrange Systems Support group manages the AS/400 computers installed in the courthouses of all counties across the State. The Midrange staff maintains the operating system, on-line program delivery and database environments for each of the AS/400's. The Midrange Systems Support staff monitor all counties on a daily basis, responding to trouble calls and transmitting corrective measures when and where needed. Contact person is John Dolsky at 1-0685.

The Help Desk provides a central point of contact for clients with problems, questions and concerns related to information technology. The Help Desk staff offers effective support by receiving and analyzing calls, logging them in a tracking system and resolving issues at the Help Desk when possible. For those calls that cannot be resolved at the Help Desk level, the call will be escalated to systems support staff who will follow-up until a satisfactory resolution is obtained. The Help Desk is available from 7:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. (Central time), Monday through Friday with the exception of State Holidays. During off hours, callers will be transferred to another service area that is on duty at all times. Contact person is Pat Cruz at 1-0714.

Tom Conroy—Enterprise Computing Service

Enterprise Computing Services supports the large-scale development and processing requirements of state agencies. We build information systems, operate mainframe computers and maintain the massive data stores required to conduct State business. There are six groups within Enterprise Computing Services. Each has people on-call twenty-four hours per day to support State business operations.

Processing Operations provides on site service twenty-four hours per day, three hundred sixty-five days per year. Operations actively monitors key State computer systems as well as their network connections, solves problems that arise, dispatches specialists when they are required, mounts forty-two thousand tapes per month and serves as the enterprise help desk for 118 hours each week. Operations Supervisors Beck Cain and Toni Laudauer can be reached at 471-0474.

The scheduling and automation unit sets up processing schedules for over forty thousand batch jobs each month and the associated report production for agency systems. They oversee the introduction of changes to all the services we support to insure that services are available to our customers as scheduled. The group also provides automation routines so that complex operations can be preformed with greater consistency and reliability. Unit Supervisor Roger Freese can be reached at 471-0640.

Ed Hively is responsible for the CICS and DB2 units. CICS is our high volume online interactive transaction processing system. It supports both terminal and internet web applications and delivers sub-second response times for over 1 1/2 million transactions each business day. Many of these transactions access and update data that is stored in our thousands of DB2 tables. DB2 is the State's large-scale relational databases technology for important business data. Ed can be reached at 471-0469.

Fred Lupher, 471-0489, manages the state's Z/OS group. This unit is responsible for the reliable operation of the state's Z/OS mainframes. We own two large-scale mainframes that are linked together to provide high service availability to our customers. These computers support the State's production computing and storage requirements. In addition to hosting the batch job, CICS and DB2 services, the group supports a full range of system tools and utilities.

The VM group support the State's centralized ad-hoc processing environment. VM has the State's solution for document processing, ad-hoc data analysis and electronic mail before the personal computer was invented. Over the years much of this work has migrated to PC-based systems. With fewer users to share the expense, the VM system is no longer a cost effective service so last year we announced a sunset date for the system. We are working with state agencies to migrate their remaining work to more cost-effective platforms. Mike Berggren is leading that work. He can be reached at 471-0627.

Steve Schafer—IT Financial Services

The purpose of the IT financial solutions section is to align fiscal resources to achieve the strategies of the new division. Functions range from traditional budgetary activities like coordinating cost allocation issues and rate setting to participating on cross-functional teams. One example of the latter is working to improve data sharing among agencies involved in child abuse and neglect cases. The IT financial solutions section will also be responsible for asset management, contracts, enterprise licensing and procurement reviews of agency IT purchases. Assisting with customer service and business development is another vital function. For more information, please contact Steve Schafer at 402-471-4385 or e-mail at slschafe@notes.state.ne.us. As a 27-year veteran of state government, I have been a long time customer of the Division of Communications and IMServices. I am excited to be part of the team that will set the future course for the management of information technology in state government. Becoming the premier information technology agency will require continued attention to the quality and cost of everything we do. We must know and respond to the expectations of our many and varied customers. Being part of an innovative team and helping to measure our progress will make this a fun and rewarding experience.

Dale Fangmeier—Intergovernmental Data Services

Dale leads the Intergovernmental Data Services area. There are several names and acronyms synonymous with Intergovernmental Data Services Program functional area. It goes by the names of County Automation, Program 170, 814 Project, and IDSP.

The purpose of the Intergovernmental Data Services group is to improve the service and efficiency of government by making it possible for state and local agencies to exchange data. This is facilitated via the Intergovernmental Data Services Program system. The IDSP system is the installation and use of applications on a computer network that allows for the intergovernmental transfer of data, automation of multi-jurisdictional functions, and integration of governmental entities that involve multiple locations separated by long distances. IDSP system is the infrastructure for applications such as Vehicle Titling and Registration for DMV and the JUSTICE systems for Courts to operate on.

IDSP purchases services from the other functional groups. IDSP purchases services from Network Services functional group for desktop support and network connectivity to all of the counties in Nebraska, and from Technology Support Services for AS/400 support and Help Desk services.

My office is currently located on the north side of the 3rd floor of the Executive Building at 521 S. 14th Street. I can be reached by phone at 402-471-0629 if you would like to contact me.

Jayne Scofield—Network Services

The Network Service Team is led by Jayne Scofield (471-3454) and offers the following services. Also indicated is the team lead for each area:

Voice – Lana Brox (471-7890) and Bob Howard (471-3720)

Wide Area Network (WAN) – Heath Hollenbeck (471-1015)

Computer Based Training (CBT) – Jim Pritchard (471-4997)

Wireless Data – Mike Jeffres (471-3719) and Jeff Dean (471-8340)

Radio – Mike Jeffres (471-3719)

Video – Jayne Scofield (471-3454) and Heath Hollenbeck (471-1015)

Desktop Support – Jeff Dean (471-8340)

Server Support – Jeff Dean (471-8340)

Wiring – Dave Keele (471-3851)

Network Security – Brad Weakly (471-3677)

The newly named “Network Services Team” was previously known as the “Division of Communications” and we will continue to provide you with the same quality services as you have always received from our office. We will also be partnering with the other teams you are reading about in this newsletter to provide you with new services. If you have questions, please contact Jayne either by phone or via email at jscofiel@notes.state.ne.us.