The NYS Forum is the place for collaboration in a fully neutral environment, where state and local IT organizations and corporations come together to share knowledge and ideas that foster mutual understandings, facilitate public sector progress, and provide insight into what government can be for all of those it serves.
Forum Highlights
In the News
Procurement Changes in NYS Article VII
On May 11, The NYS Forum IT Procurement Work Group brought together a panel of public and private sector subject experts to speak to the significant procurement changes recently passed in Article VII of the 2012-2013 New York State Executive Budget.
http://publications.budget.ny.gov/budgetFP/enacted1213.html
John Traylor, Chief Procurement Officer and Anne Phillips, Deputy Counsel & Director of Legislative Affairs, NYS Office of General Services, opened the session by providing the procurement highlights of the 2012-2013 Article VII. Specifically, they addressed the sunset of the Procurement Stewardship Act; "Best Value" for commodities; quantitative factor for small businesses and MWBEs; extension of the commodities definition; removal of OSC's pre-contract approval; changes in the Printing Law; and OGS' vision for implementing the procurement changes in the Article VII.
Following their presentation, John and Anne joined the panel members: Arthur M. Brown, Arthur Brown LLC; Mark F. Glaser, Greenberg Traurig, LLP; Todd Vandervort, The Vandervort Group LLC; and Ruth Walters, The Walters Group for a topical discussion on: centralized contracts and best value, as well as advertising thresholds, electronic bidding, reverse auctions and local government changes.
The presentation is available at: http://www.nysforum.org/events/procurement_5_11_2012/presentation.aspx
Update on the Strategic Progress of SLMS
The New York State Governor's Office of Employee Relations (GOER) has implemented an enterprise learning management system (SLMS) for use by all agencies to manage and deliver training. On April 27, Moses Kamya, Ph.D., CIO, Director Statewide Learning Management System, GOER, provided an overview of the SLMS to The NYS Forum IT Corporate Roundtable members at the Ft. Orange Club in Albany, NY.
SLMS supports training for State employees and will also meet the needs of agencies whose mission is to provide training for external constituents such as first responders. The system will replace several stand-alone learning management systems that exist in state agencies today utilizing disparate standards for training administration and management, online course development, and delivery. SLMS is being implemented in phases with all agencies expected to come online by September 2013.
About Moses Kamya: http://www.nysforum.org/events/ITCR_4_27_2012/bio.aspx
Dr. Kamya's presentation is available at: http://www.nysforum.org/events/ITCR_4_27_2012/
CTG: A Global Resource in Public Sector IT
The mission of the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University at Albany is to foster public sector innovation, enhance capability, generate public value, and support good governance. On March 23rd, Theresa Pardo, Center Director and Meghan Cook, Program Manager, provided an overview of CTG to members of The NYS Forum IT Corporate Roundtable. The basic building blocks of CTG include: problem-solving applied research; formal academic research; executive advice and education; and formal education.
About Theresa Pardo: http://ctg.albany.edu/about/about?sub=people§ion=theresa
About Meghan Cook: http://ctg.albany.edu/about/about?sub=people§ion=meghan
The presentation is available at: http://www.nysforum.org/events/ITCR_3_23_2012/
NYS's Enterprise Shared Services Initiatives
The Huxley Theatre of the NYS Museum was the place to be the morning of Friday, March 2. Ronald L. Greenberg, First Deputy Director of the NYS Division of the Budget addressed nearly 100 NYS Forum IT Corporate Roundtable members and government CIOs. Those in attendance got a sneak peek at NYS's Enterprise Shared Services Initiatives that are being developed to transform New York State's back-office operations in the areas of Procurement, Real Estate, Business Services Center, Statewide IT Transformation, Call Center Consolidation and E-Licensing.
About Ronald L. Greenberg: http://www.nysforum.org/events/ITCR_3_2_2012/bio.aspx
Health IT and New York State's Health Care Transformation Strategy
On January 27, The NYS Forum IT Corporate Roundtable provided a platform for Rachel Block to speak to the Health IT and New York State's Health Care Transformation Strategy. The audience comprised nearly 80 ITCR members and select representatives of NYS Chief Information Officers.
Rachel Block, Deputy Commissioner for Health IT Transformation, NYS Department of Health is the lead on New York State's effort to adopt wide-scale changes to Health IT and encourage wide-scale adoption of technologies, common practices and guidelines. Deputy Commissioner Block has overseen development and implementation of New York's statewide health information technology strategy since May 2009. She was the founding executive director for the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), a statewide multi-stakeholder organization committed to advancing health information technology adoption and use in New York from 2006-2009. Increased efficiencies, effectiveness, operational improvements, quality, performance and accountability are common themes that are being heard with increased frequency in New York State. These same themes are the underpinning of the goal to transform the nation's health information technology system. Deputy Commissioner Block shared her perspective on how New York's Health IT initiative has evolved. Specifics of her presentation included the challenges, implications and ongoing needs associated with the IT infrastructure, linking IT and programmatic operations, federal-level engagement, considerations for funding, shared resources and services. To view the presentation go to http://www.nysforum.org/events/ITCR_1_27_2012/
The NYS Executive Forum: IT Transformation & Strategic Sourcing in NYS
On January 13th, Daniel C. Chan, Acting NYS Chief Information Officer and Acting Director of NYS Office for Technology and John C. Traylor, Director of Enterprise Shared Services at the NYS Division of the Budget, presented to nearly 400 attendees at the Clark Auditorium in the NYS Museum.
Dan Chan provided an Update on the IT Transformation Project Progress and Asset Inventory Findings. New York State's IT Transformation effort will be introducing a new operating model and will chart a new course for delivering technology services in a manner that is cost-efficient and outcome-oriented. The joint effort among the Office for Technology, the Division of Budget and Deloitte Consulting engaged 43 state agencies in defining the scope and benefits of four IT Transformation projects that include, Data Center Consolidation, Email Services, Converged Network Services and Enterprise Identity and Access Management. In less than nine months, a comprehensive IT asset inventory was conducted, a statewide enterprise IT governance model was designed, business and technical requirements for all four initiatives were developed and three Requests for Information (RFIs) were issued. To view the presentation go to http://www.nysforum.org/events/NYSExecutiveForum_1_13_2012/
John Traylor spoke to Strategic Sourcing, a new approach to procurement in NYS that uses data, market analysis and extensive cross-agency collaboration to aggregate buying power and secure the best value for the State with a focus on how this effort impacts IT purchasing.
The NYS Executive Forum: Statewide Financial System (SFS): Transforming the Way New York State Does Business
On Friday, October 14, members of the New York Statewide Financial System (SFS) Program addressed an audience comprised of government and corporate attendees interested in learning how New York State is transforming the way it does business. SFS featured presenters included Michael McDermott, Change Manager; Alison Pingelski, Deployment and Business Lead; Connie Rowe, Deployment Manager; and John Corbett, Assistant Director Bureau of State Expenditures, NYS Office of the State Comptroller.
Presentation slides are available at: http://www.nysforum.org/events/NYSExecutiveForum_10_14_2011/
For additional information about the Statewide Financial System and answers to frequently asked questions, visit the SFS website at: http://www.sfs.ny.gov/
View the Vendor Guide to New York State's Centralized Vendor Management Processes at: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/vendors/vendorguide/guide.htm
Additional vendor information is available at: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/vendors/index.htm
The New York State Forum, Inc, Releases Starter Kit for setting up Communities of Practice
The New York State Forum, Inc. has released a new resource for government leaders, the Community Of Practice (CoP) Starter Kit. Communities of Practice are increasingly a means for members of a defined community to collectively address issues and draw upon the knowledge and energies of their members regardless of whether they work on the national, state or local level. The CoP Starter Kit is being made available for use by any group interested in establishing collaborative communities to examine common issues and to learn from and with one another.
Operating IT as a Business Within a Business
State government entities have made significant progress in adopting governance processes to prioritize and manage IT projects. Despite progress, agency IT organizations are often viewed as unresponsive and offering services that are not aligned with the needs of the business. These perceptions are exacerbated by increasing demands to reduce agency budgets. As government entities face these challenges is it reasonable to expect that they can also balance supply and demand for IT services, add value and satisfy their customers?
On September 9, 2011 attendees at The NYS Executive Forum: heard from Kevin Belden, Deputy Comptroller - Chief Information Officer, NYS Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) on how to Create an Internal IT Economy that supports operating IT as a business within a business. Belden presented tangible and humorous examples to examine the value and impact of consumer/provider relationships, accountability in the general marketplace and the benefit of adopting similar practices in the public sector. A divergence often exists in the roles, responsibilities and expectations we have as customers or providers in the work environment versus our life outside of work. As customers in the general marketplace we make decisions that consider our needs versus wants; our willingness and ability to pay the costs necessary to support the decision; and our expectations regarding the value, accountability and responsiveness of the service or product we purchase. These factors are examples of what to consider when developing an internal marketplace. To view the presentation and learn more about what OSC is doing to build their internal marketplace go to http://www.nysforum.org/events/NYSExecutiveForum_9_9_2011/
Daniel C. Chan Kicks Off Annual Planning Session
Daniel C. Chan, Ph.D., Acting NYS Chief Information Officer and Acting Director of the NYS Office for Technology kicked off The NYS Forum's Annual Planning Session on August 17th. Dr. Chan's keynote presentation drew upon comparisons to other environments to address how technology leaders may act as an agent for change to drive innovation, improve business processes and generate greater operational efficiencies. In particular, Dr. Chan highlighted some of the thought provoking industrial trends and responses at the federal level that are shaping enterprise IT solutions.
Deborah V. Buck, Executive Director of The NYS Forum, spoke to the changes that The Forum, like our government and corporate sector members, have experienced over the past year. As a whole, New York State is undergoing a fundamental change with a focus on transitioning the state to a new level of competency, efficiency and leadership. This changing environment has required The Forum leadership to be forward thinking in developing a plan that will strengthen and position The Forum to sustain itself as a unique, relevant and valued organization.
Attendees were provided with first-hand knowledge of The Forum's strategic planning efforts to date. Over the last several months, members of The Forum's Board of Directors, work group co-chairs and IT Corporate Roundtable and a representational core planning group have met to provide input and guidance to develop the two-year Plan. The Forum's mission, visions and values statements were shared as well as recommendations for goals and strategies for the two-year plan. Attendees at the Annual Planning Session participated in interactive exercises to generate feedback and ideas on the objectives and to identify specific tasks and performance measures that should be considered as means to achieve the proposed outcomes. Input from the event will be compiled into a summary and shared with members and will be considered by the Board of Directors as they consider adopting the Plan.
To view the presentation and photo loop please go to http://www.nysforum.org/events/AnnualPlanningSession2011/
14th Annual NYS Cyber Security Conference and 6th Annual Academic Symposium
On June 7th, the 14th Annual New York State Cyber Security Conference provided more than 800 registrants from the public and private sectors with two-days of more than 30 sessions - both technical and non-technical - conducted by experts representing government, academia and industry. Sessions included topics for law enforcement, business managers, cyber security professionals, CIOs, technical staff and executives.
This year's theme - Stop. Think. Connect. - a national public awareness campaign aimed at guiding the nation to a higher level of Internet safety by challenging the public to be more vigilant about practicing good "cyber hygiene" was presented in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and co-hosted by the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services' Office of Cyber Security (OCS), The New York State Forum, Inc. and the University at Albany's School of Business and College of Computing and Information.
Lieutenant Governor Robert J. Duffy provided the Welcome Address for this two-day event which included several keynote and featured speakers. Topics of discussion included the importance of raising awareness about the need to strengthen cyber security and new approaches and strategies to help increase safety and security online in the public and private sectors.
The Forum's Security Work Group organized a panel addressing Our Shared Responsibility: Protecting Your Community through Public/Private Sector Partnerships. The panel of experts focused on opportunities and vulnerabilities and promoted discussion on how public and private sector officials can leverage technology to best serve the citizens of New York State and work together to increase awareness and preparedness to defend against cyber attacks. Several of The Forum's IT Corporate Roundtable were panelists including Larry Kovnat, Product Security Manager for Xerox Office Group; Richard Rees, EMC Consulting; and, Eric Brohm, Verizon Business; Additional panelists included: Reg Harnish, Tag Solutions; Deborah Snyder, NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance; and, Thomas D. Smith, NYS Office of Cyber Security.
For complete details about the conference, visit: http://www.dhses.ny.gov/ocs/awareness-training-events/conference/2011/index.cfm
For older articles please see our Forum News Archive
Upcoming Events
- Tuesday, June 05, 2012
15th Annual New York State Cyber Security Conference
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