IT Governance Arrangement

Federated/Hybrid

Central IT Office

Georgia Technology Authority (GTA)
The GTA was created through legislation in July 2000 to replace the GeorgiaNet Authority. The GTA's powers and duties extend to all agencies except those under the authority, direction, or control of the General Assembly or statewide elected officials other than the Governor. For administrative purposes, GTA is assigned to the Department of Administrative Services (DOAS).

The GTA provides for the procurement, management, and coordination of technology resources, as well as the centralized marketing, provision, sale, and leasing of certain public information maintained in an electronic format to the public.

More specifically, GTA as four main tasks:

• Manage the state’s IT infrastructure — data center, network and telecommunications services and security
• Establish policies, standards, and guidelines for state IT
• Promote an enterprise approach to state IT
• Develop and manage the state portal, georgia.gov

GTA's statutory responsibilities also encompass the following:

• Technology enterprise management — methods for managing technology resources for state agencies; resources include data centers, servers, mainframes, PCs and laptops, wide and local area networks, telecommunications and technology personnel
• Technology portfolio management — approaches for analyzing and ranking the state’s technology investments

The GTA has five offices led by a designated officer:

• Administrative
• Technology
• Enterprise Governance and Planning
• Marketing
• Operations

State CIO

State CIO
The State CIO serves as the executive director of GTA and is both appointed and removed by a vote of a majority of the full membership of the GTA board.

The GTA established and directs a technology empowerment fund in which the CIO is authorized to identify and select individual projects, initiatives, and systems to be funded through the technology empowerment fund.

Roles of other agencies in state IT management

State Agencies
State agencies must submit an Agency Project Request (APR) through an automated system. GTA account managers continue to work with agencies to gather any additional information needed to complete APR reviews. GTA partners with the Office of Planning and Budget and state agencies to ensure only necessary information is collected. All agencies must contract through GTA for any technology resource purchase of such agency exceeding $100,000.

Office of Planning and Budgeting (OPB)
The OPB and the state auditor are responsible for jointly developing a system for budgeting and accounting of expenditures for technology resources.

Coordination Mechanisms

GTA Board of Directors
GTA is guided by a twelve member Board of Directors, including seven members appointed by the Governor, two appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, two appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and one non-voting member appointed by the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. 

The GTA’s Board of Directors is responsible for enterprise IT policies. In September 2008, the Board established the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as the official basis for IT infrastructure management, service delivery, and support in Georgia.

Technology Empowerment Fund Steering Committee
The Committee is composed of the chairperson of the House Appropriations Committee, the chairperson of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the director of the Office of Planning and Budgeting (OPB), the legislative budget analyst, the state auditor, and a representative from the Governor's office. Their role is to advise and consult with the CIO regarding initiatives to receive funding from the technology empowerment fund.

Critical Projects Review Panel
The Review Panel, comprised of the state chief operating officer (COO), state chief financial officer (CFO), Office of Planning and Budgeting (OPB) director, and the State CIO, meets regularly to oversee IT projects with a significant impact on state operations.

PeopleSoft Program Governance Council
The Council was established to create and enforce policies for the state’s enterprise resource planning system. PeopleSoft is used by more than 80 state agencies and organizations, and the council is charged with setting business processes and deciding on system changes and upgrades. Like the Critical Projects Review Panel, the Council is also comprised of representatives from state agencies and key members of the Governor’s staff.

CIO Council
The Council is an advisory group of 37 agency CIOs formed to establish technology standards for state government. The Chief Technology Officer from GTA leads the Council.

Planning document

In late 2007, the Governor directed GTA to proceed with a plan to transform state government’s IT operations. Called GAIT 2010 (Georgia Infrastructure Transformation), the plan called for consolidating IT infrastructure and moving both infrastructure and telecommunications delivery to external service providers.

At the end of restructuring GTA, GTA will have 150 FTEs and a $45 million budget. The 5-7 year contracts will be awarded by competitive bid and are expected to total $1.1-$1.6 billion. Selected service providers will likely commit approximately $40 million to:

• A second data center
• Enterprise disaster recovery capability
• Server consolidation
• Technology tools needed to manage and diagnose
• Best practice operational management