Meeting Budget Challenges with Innovation
by Tom Murray
 
The state is approaching a period of significant revenue decline due to the softening national economy; to meet this challenge state government must embrace innovation.
 
DII has been working to build platforms like the Web Portal and Sharepoint that will support innovation by allowing programs to push services through the Internet. Dozens of state departments and agencies are moving their web sites into the web portal environment, which provides free hosting services and a robust tool set to publish information to the internet.
 
DII is also working with several agencies to consolidate the management of servers at our new data center in the National Life building. Through the use of virtual technology, agencies can manage their applications on these servers, while DII manages the generic server hardware.
 
The recently launched iLinc service, which provides conference bridge and Webinar services http://dii.vermont.gov/DII_Divisions/Customer/Wireless_Web/webconferencing , is another innovative way to hold effective meetings without driving around the state.
 
Vermont Interactive Television (http://www.vitlink.org/) is a resource for innovation that can provide video conferencing around the state or the world if need be.
 
All of these innovative technologies can improve your agencies' ability to meet your mission at lower cost and with greater efficiency than today. We encourage agencies to reach out to DII to learn how these tools can help your organization - just email Thomas.Murray@state.vt.us.

FairPoint Order Blackout Periods Announced!
by Ruthann Sullivan
 
FairPoint purchased Verizon's land line telephone business in Northern New England on April 1 of this year.   The sale covered a transition period where FairPoint would utilize Verizon systems and resources.  We have used the transition time to build our new operating and billing systems.  We have scheduled the cutover to our new systems on January 31, 2009; however, it does ultimately hinge on the approval of the utility commissions in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.  There will be a “blackout period” for order activity for approximately one week after the 31st.   This means you will not be able to request any new phone lines, move phone lines from one building to another or add or change any features such as voice mail, caller id, etc.
 
If anyone has some anticipated work activity that they may have delayed submitting to FairPoint, we encourage them to submit them by January 5th, 2009.  There could be a backlog of orders after the conversion which could cause some delay in the normal work intervals.  We appreciate your patience and understanding during this transition. The cutover is necessary to better serve our customers and offer next generation products. 

Notes from Network Engineering
by Erik Amaliksen
 
Cisco SmartNet Clean-up:
 
Over the years the State has unofficially standardized on Cisco for all core and infrastructure switching and routing. Cisco’s warranty and maintenance program is called SmartNet and is normally used for critical areas where a replacement must be delivered within four hours or next business day. Cisco is not unlike most of the Information Technology industry in their complexity of licensing for support and maintenance, but adding to this complexity was a procurement vendor that added several factors of mismanagement. So, it is no surprise that across the State, agencies and departments were in varying levels of disarray with this program.
 
To understand the significance of this and how it was costing the State money I will explain the structure of SmartNet. 
 
·         SmartNet is based on Service Level Agreement (SLA) contracts such as 7x24, 4 hour replacement. Each contract is assigned a Cisco contract. Previously there had been over 50 contracts for State use. 
·         Secondly there are defined sites that billing is derived from. Historically there was no structure to this and it created confusion to invoices where multiple agencies and departments have been included on one invoice to the site contact. The number of sites were vague and quantity unknown, leading to the stability of constant notification of support invoices. The sites are now named in the following fashion for clarity: State of VT: BGS rather than all sites being named State of Vermont.
·         Billing cycles were never defined and it was common to see a SmartNet bill every month for some portion of the department’s hardware support. DII has set July 15th as the default co-terminus date when all hardware support will be billed.   This simplifies billing with one bill at the beginning of the fiscal year rather than numerous monthly bills.
·         With regard to the previous procurement channel, support notifications were sent to Verizon. Verizon had internal changes due to the FairPoint acquisition which caused notifications of renewals not be sent to the departments and therefore network devices were unknowingly left off support. Working with Cisco and our current procurement channel, Network Engineering created an environment whereby these contracts have been consolidated from over fifty contract numbers to eight. The numerous obscure sites have now been redesigned to represent a department/agency billing structure with accuracy in hardware coverage and billing notifications.
·         Department/Agency IT Managers should contact the Network Engineering Manager (Erik Amaliksen) to ensure individual CCO accounts are associated with the correct SLA contract numbers.
 
In summary, the result of all this clean-up has identified liabilities that state entities had with hardware that was dropped off support. Secondly, it identified hardware that had been retired but never removed from a maintenance contract. Third, it has allowed the correct SLA contract to be chosen at an appropriate level, in many situations saving tens of thousands of dollars. We can now have clarity and accessibility to Cisco support channels by the IT staff that need access to it. Lastly the SmartNet structure can now provide reporting at the department, agency, and State level for better management.
 
Data Center Design: Posture for the future
 
Over the last two years DII has been designing new data centers and cleaning up the old. The agency vision to consolidate disparate department servers into a fully redundant and efficient data center is now a reality. The design of the data center is currently based on collapsing redundant 10Gig connections to the core switching hardware. This 10Gig architecture is also tertiary redundantly connected through 1Gig connections. Redundancy is paramount in designing a data center that will achieve 99.999% uptime. Already, hardware failures have tested the design with successful results.
 
 
 
This last month has seen significant steps take place where new fiber connections between the Montpelier data center at 133 State St and the new National Life data center are in use and we now have 20Gig redundant connections. DII has also successfully implemented several enterprise and departmental systems into this new environment. This currently includes the new Exchange 2007 system/SPAM gateway, ACCD public and private systems, the new AOT: VT Drives public facing system, Tax public and private systems, and we are currently in the design phase for HR/Finance systems.
 
DII is also working to extend 10Gig connectivity to our secondary data center to facilitate services like Virtual Machine (VM) V-motion support for business continuity (BC) functionality. We hope to have this functionality in the near future to support several enterprise systems’ redundancy requirements.
 
DII has created an enterprise class environment and looks forward to assisting all agencies and departments in taking advantage of this State resource.

Holiday Security Tips
by Kris Rowley
 
The Holiday Season is just around the corner, as can be noted by the fact that Christmas music is playing in just about every mall and the halls are well decked, even though we have not yet celebrated Thanksgiving. While this is a festive time of year for most, it is also the time of year that hackers, spoofers, phishers, and other cyber criminals are dusting off their latest exploits.
 
In our never ending quest for the perfect gift, thousands of people head for the Internet, rather than the mall, to shop the world over, myself included. According to some estimates, holiday e-commerce spending totaled $29 Billion in 2007, an increase from $24 billion in 2006.
In light of all the masses heading into cyber space to shop, I thought this would be a good time to give some pointers on ways to stay as safe as possible when Internet shopping. Notice I wrote, “safe as possible.” Do not fool yourself into thinking that safety is guaranteed, no matter how secure you try to be. But, you can head off most troubles if you read on….
 
Below are some tips to follow for a safe online shopping experience.
 
Update your software. Before you shop online, ensure you have the most current security software updates available for your operating system, applications and browser. Set your default settings to “auto update.” If you don’t know how to do this and you have an IT department where you work, bring them goodies and I bet you will be able to find someone to walk you through the process, or call your 13 year old niece or nephew.
 
Know with whom you are doing business. You are safest when doing business with a reputable company. If you are not familiar with the company, use a search engine to investigate customer reviews of the seller. Consider website rating software or toolbars, or consider using web site rating services or product locator services on the Internet. Be wary of unrealistic low prices that seem too good to be true. They may be an attempt to trick you into clicking on a malicious link. The old adage, “if it seems to good to be true, it probably is,” holds in this case. The bottom line is, stick with web sites that you know or know that others have used successfully.
 
Ensure “pay online” transactions are secure.
* Be sure “https” or “shttp” appears in the web site’s address bar when you are ready to provide payment information. There is also an icon of a lock in the lower right hand corner of the screen that when in the “locked” position indicates that the site is secure. If the lock is in the “open” position, the site is not a secure site.
* Look for logos from organizations that feature trusted or credential websites like BBBOnline, TRUSTe, or Verisign.
* Use credit cards to pay for online purchases, because they usually offer theft, fraud, and vendor non-performance protection. Debit cards have less protection as the money is deducted immediately from your account, and you must pursue refunds or recovery of funds individually.
* Do not provide bank account or Social Security numbers to complete an online transaction. Be wary of anyone who requests this type of information online. Valid retail companies will not ask you for this type of information!
* Do not perform online transactions from a public computer or kiosk.
* Do not use your browser to store password or credit card information.
* Do not enter personal information in a pop-up screen. Legitimate companies, agencies and organizations don’t ask for personal information via pop-up screens.
* Look for misspelled words, the use of exclamation points, or other items in text that “just don’t look right.”
 
Understand the website’s “privacy policy.” Read the website’s privacy policy: how will the company use your personal information? Be suspicious if no website privacy policy exists. Research and understand what the seller does with your private information. If you can’t find this information, shop at another website.
 
Use strong passwords. When creating passwords for online accounts, use at least eight characters, with numbers, special characters, as well as upper and lower case letters. Don’t use the same password for online shopping websites that you use for non-shopping web sites or for computer programs on your local computer. Never use obvious passwords, such as a child’s name, pets name. Never, ever share logins and passwords.
 
Check your credit card and bank statements regularly. Check or reconcile your credit card and bank statements regularly. Immediately report any anomalies or transactions you didn’t make to your credit card company or bank.
 
Use temporary account authorizations when available. Some credit card companies may offer virtual or temporary credit card authorization numbers. This kind of service gives you use of a secure and unique account number for each online transaction. These numbers are often issued for a short period of time and cannot be used after that period. This is great for Holiday shopping! Contact your credit card company to see if they offer this service.
 
Share your online shopping knowledge with family and friends. Take the knowledge you gain from this newsletter and talk about it with others. The more you share these tips, the safer and more secure we all can be.
 
For more online shopping information visit:
 
Federal Trade Commission: www.ftc.gov/onlineshopping/
OnGuard Online: www.onguardonline.gov/shopping.html
Stay Safe Online: www.staysafeonline.info/basics/shoppingTips.html
Safeshopping.org: www.safeshopping.org/tips.shtml
 
General Shopping Tips
 
Understand the “terms” of the transaction. When shopping online, understand the terms of the transaction, including incentives, shipping and/or handling costs, return or exchange policies and timelines, restocking or return costs, product quality claims, minimum purchase limits, etc. 
 
Keep a good paper trail. Keep copies of all transactions including the product description, price, the online receipt, any emails you exchanged leading up to and including the transaction.
 
Enjoy your holidays and your shopping experience!

Enterprise SharePoint (MOSS) Infrastructure Project Update
by Tom Jenny
 
Earlier this year DII engaged i3solutions of Sterling VA to help us design and build an enterprise SharePoint infrastructure. SharePoint is an enterprise portal that will provide a central place for departments and agencies across the state to access, manage, share, and interact with relevant information, documents, applications, and people. It enables faster, more informed decision making, more effective sharing across work teams, and more streamlined business processes. We are enthusiastic about the opportunities and advantages an enterprise SharePoint portal will bring to state government and ultimately the citizens of Vermont.
 
The project is broken down into four primary components or phases as follows:
 
 
MOSS Infrastructure Design
During this phase of the project we looked at a variety of potential business uses for SharePoint in different agencies across state government. Taking the information we gathered and i3solution’s considerable experience in developing and deploying best practice SharePoint solutions, we are designing an enterprise-class solution that will best serve Vermont now and into the future.
 
Implementation Plan
During this phase of the project we will again draw upon the experience of i3solutions to help us develop an implementation plan for building and testing the SharePoint infrastructure.
 
Build the SharePoint Infrastructure
During this project phase we will work with i3solutions to build and test all the components of the SharePoint system in our data center.
 
Governance Plan
The SharePoint Governance Plan is a guidebook outlining the administration, maintenance, and support of the SharePoint environment. It identifies lines of ownership for both business and technical teams, and defines who is responsible for what areas of the system. Furthermore, it establishes rules for appropriate usage of the SharePoint environments. Part of the governance process includes setting up a Governance Board. This board will be comprised of current and future SharePoint stakeholders from across state government that will work with DII to build policies and procedures to guide the use of the system. We will work collaboratively to manage the growth and development of the SharePoint infrastructure.
 
Currently the project team and i3solutions are fine-tuning the detail design documentation with an expectation to complete the design in the next few weeks. From there we will develop the implementation plan which we will complete before the end of the year. In January we will commence the construction of the SharePoint system which we expect to complete in early 2009.
 
We have been working on the Governance plan since the beginning of the project and hope to soon establish the SharePoint Governance Board to help us move through the process of completing the plan.
 
Stay tuned for our next newsletter where we’ll talk more about the governance process and highlight how one agency or department plans to utilize the new SharePoint environment!
 
 
 
 
 
STEER/Modernization Update: Fuel Office Call Center Goes Live
by Brenda Caforia-Weeber
Approximately 33,000 Vermont households applied to the Fuel Assistance Program between July 2007 and February 2008. On July 3, 2008 the Fuel Assistance Office mailed these households an application packet to apply for heating assistance for the 2008-2009 fuel season. The Fuel Office began accepting applications on Monday, July 7, 2008.
It was expected that volume of telephone calls to OHHFA would increase dramatically over last year. The old telephone system limited clients to general program information. Additionally, there were not enough staff members to handle the call volume and the capacity of the voice mail boxes of individual staff members was often exceeded.
A decision was made to extend telephone technology already owned by the Department of Information and Innovation using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to implement an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System for the Fuel Office.
A business analysis was performed which identified questions most commonly asked by fuel clients that could be answered automatically by properly configuring the IVR system.  This system automation is expected to reduce the number of calls to the fuel office staff, and the self-service options of the IVR system will extend business hours and improve customer service.  Every call into the designated telephone numbers will be routed to an automated Voice Response Unit (VRU) that operates 24 hours a day.  The VRU will:

• Permit clients to use an automated menu to retrieve case-specific information
• Redirect calls to their ultimate destinations
• Provide answering machine detection
• Perform call analyses
• Provide links to other resources and emergency service providers
• Allow callers to request applications and other forms

The system also has web chat capability and desktop faxing, and is a redundant disaster-recovery solution.  This system also provides necessary expandability to accommodate ESD modernization and DCF’s future Call Center needs.

Customer Service
by RAS, et al
 
Telecommunications Work Order System Upgrade Scheduled
Please be advised that the Telecommunications Work Order System (Compco) is targeted to be upgraded some time in mid-December. The process to logon and use Compco will not change initially. Once the system is upgraded, DII will be enhancing several features and processes based on internal and customer feedback. Perhaps the greatest goal is to provide a more stable, reliable and more user-friendly system for our customers. We will be reaching out to our customers for feedback as we continue to enhance and improve the current process.
 
Reminder about security patches and updates for your desktop computer! 
There have been several security warning emails from industry watchdogs as of late which recommend ensuring that available critical patches available from Windows have been applied to your computer. These patches are critical to resolve found security holes which may enable worms and viruses to inflict damage to your computing environment and could enable cyber crimes.
DII recommends always take advantage of the “Install Updates and Shutdown” option upon powering down your desktop or laptop computer at the end of the day. This is the first step to ensuring the health and well being of one of the most important tools you have to complete the work of the State of Vermont. 

PM Corner
By Christine Hetzel
               
                                                   Project Management Methodology
 
Have you been charged with managing a project, but don’t know where to begin?
Have you managed projects in the past, but know that you are skipping important steps?
 
Even “seasoned” Project Managers find it beneficial to follow a project management methodology. The Enterprise Project Management Office, licensed and adopted the TenStep© methodology in early 2007. The TenStep© Methodology provides a disciplined approach to project management, but also allows the flexibility that Project Managers need to manage project of various sizes and complexities.
 
The “ten steps” are:
1.      Define the work
2.      Build the schedule and budget
3.      Manage the schedule and budget
4.      Manage issues
5.      Manage change
6.      Manage communication
7.      Manage risk
8.      Manage HR
9.      Manage quality
10. Manage metrics
TenStep©, via their website, provides the information you need to be a successful Project Manager, including a step-by-step approach, starting with the basics and getting as sophisticated as you need for your particular project. It not only provides the recommended steps that you should take, it also provides you with a wide variety of templates to use.
So….why reinvent the wheel, when you can follow a clearly defined process?
If you are interested in obtaining a State of Vermont TenStep© user license (the cost is very minimal), please contact Darwin Thompson @ 828-1142.

Requirements Trawling – Part 5, Apprenticing
By Rick Daniell
 
In our last newsletter article, I continued the discussion on “Requirements Trawling”; specifically we covered a structured brainstorming technique called “mind-mapping”. As you may recall, “Trawling” makes the analogy of casting a net through an organization to “catch” as many requirements as possible. It also emphasizes the various types of requirements (conscious; unconscious; and undreamed) and how certain techniques work better for each type than others.
 
In this article I would like to introduce a new topic, “Apprenticing”. This technique adopts the idea of a master craftsmen and a young apprentice. The apprentice observes what the master does, and asks questions to learn the process. Apprenticing is a good technique when a stakeholder says they are too busy to become involved. In this case the Business Analyst becomes involved in the actual work, and learns first hand how things are done. This technique can also be very useful when the stakeholder has problems articulating or communicating the requirements. In some way you could call this the “Missouri” technique, that is, “just show me”.
 
In our next newsletter article we will continue our series on various techniques - we’ll explore the concept of “Requirement Reuse”.