HARRISBURG – The Office of Administration’s server virtualization efforts and the Department of Public Welfare’s child support enforcement data exchanges are among 30 state IT initiatives chosen as finalists for national awards.
The 2011 Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology Awards are presented by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). The awards recognize states whose information technology initiatives exemplify best practices, support the public policy goals of state leaders, assist government officials in innovatively executing their duties and provide cost-effective service to citizens.
“These are just a few of the examples of how technology is transforming government in Pennsylvania to operate more efficiently and improve services to citizens,” said George White, the state’s chief information officer. “It’s an honor to lead such a talented and dedicated group of professionals whose work stands out on a national stage.”
Since 2009, the Office of Administration has saved more than $36 million by “virtualizing” servers at the state’s enterprise data center. The data center houses 2,300 servers supporting 45 agencies, including more than 750 applications, most of state government’s public-facing websites as well as the statewide employee email system. Virtualization allows a server to run multiple applications simultaneously and share computing resources across them, as needed. This greatly increases the amount of work a server can perform, thereby reducing the overall number of servers that are needed, as well as the associated floor space, power, cooling and maintenance costs.
The Department of Public Welfare’s child support enforcement data exchanges allow for the secure sharing of information with financial institutions, employers, courts, health insurers and other state and federal agencies. These exchanges have helped Pennsylvania increase child support collections and improve case management processes by providing comprehensive information to locate parents, aid retrieval of child support payments via income attachments, identify other financial assets available to meet support obligations and enforce child support court orders. In 2009, Pennsylvania became the first and only state to meet or exceed all six performance measures used by the federal government to evaluate state child support enforcement programs. As a result, Pennsylvania has received an additional $30 million per year in funding for its child support enforcement program.
NASCIO received more than 100 nominations for consideration for this year’s awards. Winners in 10 categories will be announced on Oct. 3. To learn more about the awards and view all of the finalists, visit here.