We are excited to announce that we have two new IT Directors joining the DTS team.

Wes Miles has accepted the position of IT Director for the Governor’s Office and will transition to his new role immediately. Wes has worked with the State of Utah for nine years now in many different capacities, most recently as DTS IT Manager for the Department of Workforce Services. During his time with Workforce Services, he managed IT support and internal application development for the Unemployment Insurance Division, Workforce Development Division, Housing and Community Development Division, Refugee Services Organization, Federal Contracts Group and the DWS Database and Data Warehouse groups.

Collin Peterson has accepted the position of IT Director for the Dept. of Workforce Services and will start in his new role on September 20, 2021. In his 13 years with the Department of Workforce Services, Collin has served in a variety of leadership and technical positions, most recently as the Director of the Workforce Research and Analysis Division. Previous to this role, some of the other positions he has held include DWS Management Information Systems Manager, Program Systems Manager, and Senior Business Analyst.

Note: Click on the image to access the included links.

Apple recently announced that Utah is among the first states to adopt driver’s licenses and state IDs in Apple Wallet. DTS has been working closely with the Department of Public Safety to roll this out effectively. See the Apple press release here. 

In support of Governor Cox’s remote work initiative, A New Workplace, state agencies have been given the opportunity to work from anywhere within the state. During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly accelerated efforts for government agencies to work remotely. The state went from just a few agencies participating in a pilot remote work effort, to the majority of state agencies working remotely in a matter of days. The Division of Technology Services (DTS) has worked to provide guidance and meet the technology needs of state agencies to enable them to work remotely. DTS, in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, spent $6 million in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 on information technology to meet the needs of state agencies’ remote work efforts. See the full DTS Remote Work Success Report here. 

The 2021 DTS DR/COOP report is now available here. The obligation of DTS is to provide seamless services, especially those involving public safety and health, in spite of any event. The public expects the same good customer service from state government as it does from business. With these issues in mind, DTS agency management is committed to the development and maintenance of an effective disaster recovery/continuity of operations plan (DR/COOP).

Gov. Spencer J. Cox recently appointed Christopher Bramwell as the new Department of Government Operations Privacy Officer. The position was created by the Utah Legislature during the most recent legislative session (see HB 243) and requires Senate approval.

“Protecting the personal privacy of all Utahns has become even more important as technology has advanced,” Gov. Cox said. “I’m pleased to see this new emphasis on privacy and look forward to developing policies that will hold the state accountable for the use of Utahns’ personal data and information.”

The Privacy Officer will survey and compile information about privacy practices of state agencies. The Officer will also identify, prioritize, and review agency privacy practices that pose the greatest risk to individual privacy and provide recommendations for reform if needed. The Government Operations Privacy Officer will work with the new Personal Privacy Oversight Commission and the new State Privacy Officer, providing specific government privacy practices reports and recommendations.

Since 2014, Bramwell has been Director of Information Privacy and Security for the Utah Department of Human Services where he led the creation and management of information privacy, security and compliance programs. He set the foundation for the DHS-wide system modernization strategy to migrate to cloud services which has enabled implementation of enhanced privacy and security tools while also building user-focused platforms and technology services for the public that will enable all Utahn’s to access and use Human Services technology whenever and wherever they need. In addition to working for DHS, Bramwell has worked for the Utah Department of Technology Services and the United States Department of Homeland Security. 

“I am honored and humbled by this opportunity to be part of the team Gov. Cox has created to lead Utah into a new era of user-focused platforms for the public and high-level technology services for our valued state employees. I look forward to serving the citizens of Utah and helping create the programs that will hold the state accountable for the use of Utahns’ personal data and information with which we have been entrusted,” said Bramwell. 

The Department of Government Operations recently held a rate information meeting for state agencies. You can see the DTS presentation here. DTS discussed the following:

• Rate Sheet Revamp
• Enterprise System Rate
• Data Center Exit
• Mobile Phone Support
• Simpler Rates
• Low Code/No Code Applications

The Government Operations Rate Committee will be meeting on September 16. DTS will present the proposed FY2023 rates during this meeting. If you have any feedback on DTS rates, please contact your IT Director or Dan Frei. 

Starting Monday, July 19 through Thursday, July 29, DTS will be transitioning Bitlocker management (computer encryption) from Workspace One/Airwatch to SCCM on Windows computers. Mac computers will not be included in this change. 

If you have a Windows computer, you may see the notification below. There will be no downtime and you can simply close the pop-up notification. If you have any questions, please contact the DTS help desk at dts.utah.gov.

Gov. Spencer J. Cox, State Attorney General Sean D. Reyes, and State Auditor John Dougall recently announced their respective appointments to the newly created Personal Privacy Oversight Commission (Commission). The Commission was created by the Legislature during the most recent legislative session.  

The purpose of the 12-member Commission is to develop guiding standards and best practices with respect to government privacy. The Commission will also recommend minimum privacy standards for governmental entities for the Legislature to consider codifying into statute. Commission members will work with the new Government Operations Privacy Officer and the new State Privacy Officer, reviewing specific government privacy practices recommended by these privacy officers. 

DTS will be hiring the new Government Operations Privacy Officer in the coming weeks. 

Governor’s Appointments:

• Quinn Fowers: Director of information technologies & digital services, Weber County — member who, at the time of appointment provides internet technology services for a county or a municipality;

• Aliahu “Alli” Bey: President, Haight Bey & Associates, CEO, Totem Tech —  member with experience in cybersecurity;

• Nayana Penmetsa: Engineering manager, Plaid — member representing private industry in technology;

• Keith Squires: Interim chief safety officer, University of Utah — member representing law enforcement; and

• Chris Koopman: Executive director, The Center for Growth and Opportunity, Utah State University — member with experience in data privacy law.

State Auditor’s Appointments:

• Matthew Weller:  President, All West Communications; Board Member, Executive Education Advisory Board, University of Utah – David Eccles School of Business; Board Member, National Cable Television Cooperative — member with experience in internet technology services;

• Amy Knapp: Former VP-Information Security and Compliance, O.C. Tanner — member with experience in cybersecurity;

• Brandon Greenwood: CISO, VP Security & IT, Overstock; Board Member, SL|CISO — member representing private industry in technology;

• Phillip J. Windley, Ph.D.: Principal Engineer, Office of IT, Brigham Young University; Founder and Organizer of Internet Identity Workshop and author of Digital Identity — member with experience in data privacy law

• Marina Lowe:  Legislative Counsel, ACLU of Utah  — member with experience in civil liberties law or policy and with specific experience in identifying the disparate impacts of the use of a technology or a policy on different populations.

Attorney General’s Appointments:

• Jeff Gray, Utah Office of the Attorney General — member with experience as a prosecutor or appellate attorney and with experience in civil liberties law; and

• Mike Smith, Utah County Sheriff — member representing law enforcement

At the Utah Digital Government Summit in June, the CIO named the 2021 Best of Utah Award winners. Watch the presentation here. Congratulations!

Overall Award / Visionary Award

Best Use of Social Media

Best Emerging Technology

Best Partnership

Best Use of GIS

Best Use of Data

The Division of Technology Services (DTS) has recently appointed Mark Schultz as the new Director of Agency Services. Mark will oversee the IT Directors to enhance the services DTS provides to our partner agencies by focusing on:

• Creating strong agency partnerships by strategically aligning technical objectives with agency business goals
• Becoming a trusted technology partner
• Adding value to state agencies by applying a disciplined approach to services delivery

Mark is a self-motivated and progress-driven technology professional with an extensive background in the industry. He has been with the State of Utah for 18 years and has been an IT Director for over 9 years. He has a long-standing record of initiative and innovation, and he has developed and executed strategies that have brought value to the State of Utah. 

The IT Directors, along with Mark, will take the opportunity to improve partnerships and seek out better methods to achieve more reliable and faster results for your organizations. Our goal is to improve communication and IT services for state agencies. 

Thank you for your continued support.

The Information Technology Plan is an overview of the agency IT project detail for the current year. DTS utilizes the IT Plan data to identify potential multi-agency use, necessary IT services needed for successful completion of the projects, and a cost breakdown for each project. See it here.

Following the successful migration of the DMV system at the Tax Commission to the AWS cloud in October of 2020 we began the process of moving GenTax, the agency’s primary tax application to the AWS GovCloud in January of 2021.  This process was tied to a quarterly release of the GenTax application and involved creating each environment just in time for its use in the development and testing phases. This was done to minimize the need for dual environments and to make sure development and testing occurred in the new environment.  The new production environment was created in May to allow for testing of all connections and interfaces.  Over the weekend of June 11th 2021 production data was moved to AWS and verified along with a testing of system functionality.  On the morning of June 14 all users were live in the new production environment with only minor glitches.  

Benefits

One of the primary benefits of being in the cloud is redundancy.  Production GenTax runs with database and application servers spread across multiple AWS data centers with automated failover built in.  Data is replicated in real time so the loss of a server or even a data center would be a minimal disruption. The freedom to quickly and easily scale is another major benefit.  Resources can be added or removed as needed with costing adjusting to match.  This allows us to respond easily to the seasonal nature of tax administration and right-size the environments for any conditions.  Enhanced security is also a benefit.  Isolating the application in its own virtual private cloud means that access can be even more limited and secure than what was done on premise and locating it in GovCloud means that it was built to meet stringent requirements from the ground up.

Cost

The goal was to move to the cloud without increasing cost for the agency.  Server by server costs are between flat and a 20% savings for the agency.  After we have stabilized and run for a few months we can implement additional savings opportunities available from AWS and by shutting down servers overnight when they are not being used.  

Many State of Utah employees have been asked to work remotely if possible. Check out the DTS Telework Guide for a few simple tips to help you succeed at working from home. 

Each of the  tips focuses on security. Your state-issued devices should already have these security measures installed. Be sure to follow these tips to protect your personal devices and home network as you work remotely.

We have recently published the on-call support information for agencies that utilize the shared pool for hosting support. You can see it here. The Enterprise Hosting product page has a link to the document as well. 

April 2021 Utah GIS News

• GIS as a Tool for Addressing Intergenerational Poverty
• Taking a Closer Look at Election Results – Using GIS to Paint the Political Landscape
• AGRC Name Change to Utah Geospatial Resource Center (UGRC)
• UGRC Next-Generation 911 Update
• Quick Reads and Mentions
• SGID Data Updates

Check out the latest DTS Procurement News.

April 2021 Newsletter

Commodity Cost trends 

Voting is now open for the 2021 StateScoop 50 Awards! A couple of our own DTS employees have been nominated for awards: Bill Boudreau and Matt Peters. Go here to vote. 

According to the StateScoop site, “The annual StateScoop 50 Awards honor the best and the brightest who make state government more efficient and effective. These awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of our peers and acknowledge their tireless efforts to make a positive impact in the government IT community and in public service.”

Utah Virtual Digital Government Summit
May 20, 2021 | Registration Now Open

“We all need some innovative ideas to solve the challenges we have faced over the past year. At our virtual event you’ll be able to connect with your peers, all while participating in enlightening discussions and hearing from industry experts and insiders. The Utah Digital Government Summit is a wonderful chance to speak with others who share the same interests and challenges as you. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope we’ll see you there!” – Alan Fuller, CIO, State of Utah

We invite you and your team to join us for a complimentary day of professional development and networking that will provide an exclusive opportunity to learn and share best practices, spur innovation, and hear current trends that are shaping state and local government today and in the months and years ahead.

Submit your nominations for the 2021 Best of Utah Awards here. 

The Best of Utah awards honor emerging leaders and innovative projects in government IT that enable Utah to better meet constituent expectations for services and information, improve operating efficiency, and conserve tax dollars. The deadline for Best of Utah Awards submissions is April 20. 

DTS had the opportunity to present to the Infrastructure and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee on January 28. John Angus, Dan Frei, and Phil Bates presented department goals, performance measures, projects, and funding requests. You can view the presentation here. 

The internal auditors at the Division of Technology Services were asked to examine the department’s cost savings in FY2019 and FY2020. DTS has been able to achieve $5.9 million in costs savings to the state during the past two years. Details are highlighted in the report here. 

Having the flexibility to work outside of the office has never been more important. In today’s climate, the ability to telework is crucial to maintaining a balanced home and work life. Technology allows us to achieve that balance without compromising on having access to the tools previously only found in the office. The Division of Technology Services now offers our State employees some extremely productive tools to continue their hard work, wherever they are.

Check out the new Essential Teleworking Tools Spark Page. This page will be updated periodically with upcoming training opportunities that employees can attend to learn more about the software that they have access to, as well as ways to inquire about software they might find useful.

eSign for the State of Utah recently turned a year old, and we are excited to share that over the past year we have seen amazing adoption from our agencies across the state. This has resulted in over 100,000 documents processed among thousands of active users. What’s just as impressive is that employees have seen an average turnaround time of less than a day for documents to be completed.

…And we are just getting started. Click on the link below to read a couple of updates regarding our eSign service from our February Newsletter.

As part of the DTS Strategic Plan, we have identified several performance measures to identify success in meeting our goals. You can see the latest information on the dashboard here. 

The 2021 Security Awareness Training will be available soon for employees. All executive branch state employees must complete the Security Awareness training annually. One of the most important elements of our defense and protection of the state’s information assets is user awareness and training. As an authorized user of the state’s information resources, you have an obligation to help protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the state’s data. Part of that obligation is completing the required annual security awareness training. When the training is available, you will be able to access it here. If you need assistance, please go to dts.utah.gov and click the ‘Get Help’ icon for support.

Governor Cox recently released the FY2022 budget recommendations. See it here. A few things that impact DTS:

The 2021 Legislative Session started on Tuesday, January 19. DTS is watching a few bills closely. You can see all the bills here.

DTS will be presenting to the Infrastructure and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee during the first two weeks of the session. We will have the opportunity to present our proposed rates and budget.

• HB0006 IGG Base Budget
• HB0008 State Agency and Higher Education Compensation Appropriations
• SB0008 State Agency Fees and ISF Rate Authorization and Appropriations

In addition, Representative Brooks currently has a bill file opened to rename the Automated Geographic Reference Center. The new name, Utah Geospatial Resource Center, brings the name up to date with modern terms and ideas.

– More people are understanding the importance of data, and can appreciate Geospatial data as location based data.

– The division is a Resource center that provides raw data, web services, contract work, and also advises others on implementing GIS.

– The new name is much more descriptive of what the division does, and is more recognizable by people not familiar with GIS to recognize the division offers another type of data (geospatial).

We have a new page on the DTS site that will help with ordering of IT products. Agencies can now quickly and easily order IT products. You can see it here. 

DTS has recently updated the Enterprise User Authentication Standards policy to include more information about multi factor authentication. See it here.

Enterprise User Authentication Standards Policy

Save the date for the Utah Digital Government Summit on May 20. The event will be virtual again this year, and is free for all government employees. More information will be coming soon. 

NASCIO recently honored Utah CISO Phil Bates as the recipient of the 2020 Thomas M. Jarrett State Cybersecurity Leadership Award. The award honors a state CISO for exceptional accomplishments in their field. 

During his tenure Phil has implemented many programs and initiatives aimed at improving Utah’s cybersecurity posture. Most notably, in 2016, Phil pushed to create the Utah Cyber Center which consolidated state, federal and local resources into a single location, significantly improving coordination between all of these groups. The Utah Cyber Center has played an important role in helping Utah cities and counties respond to several recent ransomware attacks. Phil also oversees a robust state cybersecurity awareness program and is currently working on incorporating additional artificial intelligence into Utah’s cybersecurity activities.

See the full announcement here. Congratulations Phil!

View the October DTS Procurement News here . 

Each year, DTS has $150,000 to give to agencies via an Innovation Fund. The Technology Advisory Board recently approved two projects to be recipients of the FY2021 funds:

Enforcement Waterlink Module – $50,000

Adding an Enforcement Module in the existing Waterlink database will enable the Division of Drinking Water (DDW) to track the lifecycle of enforcement for all public water systems throughout Utah. In the most recent audit by the legislative auditors, it was pointed out by the auditors that DDW’s enforcement program needs to be strengthened and is of priority.  The Enforcement Module will generate tracking of required actions by the regulated public water systems through the tracking of DDW’s informal enforcement actions, legal orders and failure to comply with legal orders. This module provides water system summaries, gives staff the ability to move a water system through formal and informal enforcement, and gives management the ability to see the full picture of water system compliance. This new feature will allow DDW and local health department staff to properly follow up and follow through on actions needed to minimize public health risks and provide an efficient throughput of safe drinking water regulatory requirements.

The innovations provided are in the unique combination of dynamically managing Utah’s Improvement Priority System (R309-400) and better correlating Utah’s enforcement with the federal Enforcement Tracking Tool. The Enforcement Module will represent the first time the state and federal enforcement regulations have been accessible in one application, and used by all who oversee safe drinking water and public health in Utah, including DDW, 13 local health departments, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Agencies Impacted: Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Drinking Water; Utah Department of Health; all Local Health Departments in Utah; US EPA; Utah’s water utilities that provide drinking water to the public

Benefits: The Enforcement Module in Waterlink is a vital tool that will significantly improve DDW’s performance, turnaround time of DDW enforcement actions, public water systems’ responses in addressing violations and deficiencies, and the coordination between local, state and federal levels, In addition, the DDW’s upcoming fee program relies on DDW’s ability to accurately and timely track violations, deficiencies, and associated corrections or resolutions. The Enforcement Module is an integral part of the successful implementation of the DDW fee program.

Proposed Measures:  There are many formal and informal metrics that can be utilized to show improvement:

1.     Formal Enforcement Measures – Time between failure to comply with a requirement activity and formal Attorney General enforcement, time spent on generating formal enforcement orders, and time spent on Director level decisions for enforcement.
2.     Informal Enforcement Measures – Time spent by water systems on fixing significant deficiencies after informal notification is a direct correlation between the effectiveness of this new module and the protection of public health.
3.     Cost – Reduction in staff time for researching EPA and Utah priority scores, and reduction in staff correlation meetings. Fees generated through enforcement tracking.
4.     DDW Existing Performance Measures – Percentage of population served by approved water systems. Percentage of approved public water systems among regulated public water systems.

Current Performance Measures as Baseline:

1.     Cost – Fees generated through enforcement tracking.
2.     DDW Existing Performance Measures – Percentage of population served by approved water systems. Percentage of approved public water systems among regulated public water systems.

Digital Birth Certificate – $100,000

Paper Birth Certificates cause a burden for many organizations including enrollment in public and private k-12 schools, requesting a driver license, signing up for competitive youth sports. If the state of Utah provided authenticatable PDF certificates using Public Private key encryption, the organizations requesting the document could validate that the documents came from the state and had not been altered. 

In 2018, 47,987 students enrolled in Kindergarten.  The enrollment process is time consuming for parents and the school. Parents for each of those students to drive the piece of paper to their future school where someone at the front desk either photocopied it or scanned it to go in their official school record that is required by state policy. Once a copy was made, the certificate was handed back to the parent. 

Travis Hamblin, the Director of Student Services at Jordan School District is responsible for enrollment. He stated that Moving to electronic birth certificates is “hallelujah”. State statute 53g-6-603 and school board rules require schools to keep a copy of the birth certificate. Neither stipulate how it is received and how it is stored, just that is stored for each student. If the state says a digital birth certificate is official, then the schools will listen. 

If electronic records were available, parents could upload certificates to school online tools and stored electronically. 

In 2017, 37% kids age 6-12 (approximately 80k youth) played team sports regularly. 

As an estimate, somewhere between 80,000 and 130,000 paper birth certificates are presented in person to schools and youth sports each year. These processes are not able to be moved online because a paper certificate is the only official document available. If the state provides a digitally signed certificate using public private key infrastructure, it would create opportunities for each of the organizations to improve their processes.

Agencies impacted: initially we would work with the Department of Health, counties, and the local school districts. Later, this could impact almost every agency. The processes developed can be applied to other digital credentials.

Innovation: we will explore the use of UMA (User Managed Access) in conjunction with UtahID. This would be the first use of UMA in Utah State Government.