Why Digital Government Requires IT Optimization

Connecticut recently launched Jobs.CT.gov where individuals can improve their skills, find a new career, and raise their level of employment.  This online service center makes it easy for people to find the employment options that are right for them, regardless of the state agency that might offer the program.

Jobs.CT.gov is the third online service center that the state has launched, joining Business.CT.gov and Health.CT.gov. These centers provide 24x7 access to government services that are available whenever they are needed. Business.CT.gov is focused on business owners in the state.  Open a business, file your annual forms, change your type of business are all transactions available for users.  One business owner remarked, “It was so easy; their teen could do it!.”  Business.CT.gov has had close to 300,000 visitors in the last year with over 70% of them being first-time visitors.  We are making it easier to work with Connecticut. 

Bubbling underneath all this easy-to-use goodness is a collection of much older technology with which our agency employees work every day.  While we have the ability “hide-the-seems” between government agencies for our public, the underlying technology can be decades old and difficult to support.  The additional digital government layer that makes it easy to use also creates additional support demands.  In making it easier for the public, we are also making it more complex to maintain.

IT Optimization is the name for our approach to bring together the technologies and skills within the state.  Optimization is defined as “the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource”.  In this instance – the resources in question relate to Information Technologies (IT).  We’ve undertaken IT Optimization to:

• Make our systems more secure;
• Utilize our technology skills more dynamically to solve evolving challenges;
• Provide backup support for areas in critical need;
• Provide opportunities to support new technologies and grow careers; and
• Keep technology cost growth in check.

Increasing cyber threats are driving a near-continuous need to patch applications.  Commercial software and hardware are seeing shorter support cycles that drive more frequent upgrades. Resident demands for government to be as easy to use as other technology means that systems must be more flexible, supportable, and modern.  The result of these forces is simply an increase in the amount of daily technology change.

The environment in which we live in work has become more fluid and complex.  IT Optimization helps Connecticut embrace these changes in the most responsible manner.