Georgia's 2022 IT Success Stories
Cyber Dawg hands-on cybersecurity exercise
GTA's Office of Information Security led another Cyber Dawg event in September. This cybersecurity training exercise again featured a live-fire format at the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta. Security professionals from 12 state agencies defended against mock cyber attacks in a controlled environment, building skills and experience they can take back to their organizations. Now in its fourth year, the event attracts broad attention as you can from this TV news clip.
Georgia earns A grade again in Digital States Survey
Georgia earned an A grade, the highest possible, in the 2022 survey. That follows the state's A in 2020 and 2018 and an A- in the two surveys before that. Georgia also received a first-place award in the 2022 survey's Constituent Centric category. It recognizes the state's mobile and digital services strategy and efforts to engage constituents via improved service delivery.
DOR cloud project named NASCIO award finalist
The Georgia Department of Revenue's (DOR) tax system cloud migration is recognized at the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) annual conference in October. DOR's ambitious project involved migrating its mission-critical Integrated Tax System (ITS) from on-premise server services to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) commercial cloud. The tax system now operates in a modern, reliable, and flexible cloud environment and DOR has achieved a 40 percent savings in maintenance costs. ITS is used to process tax returns and taxes as well as enforcing tax regulations for the state of Georgia.
GTA earns prestigious national procurement honor
GTA's Procurement Management Office received the 2022 Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award from the National Procurement Institute. This year marks the 11th time GTA has earned the annual award. The prestigious honor recognizes organizational excellence in procurement based on standardized criteria measuring innovation, professionalism, e-procurement, productivity, and leadership. The application process is rigorous, requiring extensive documentation of practices and performance. Evaluation focuses not only on practical work, but also on contributions that further advance the public procurement profession.
StateScoop 50 Awards go to GTA leaders
GTA's Chief Digital Officer Nikhil Deshpande and Executive Director Shawnzia Thomas have earned StateScoop 50 Awards. In her first year as state CIO, Shawnzia received a GoldenGov Award (State Executive of the Year) on the strength of her advancement of a cloud-first approach and continued broadband expansion in Georgia. Nikhil's State Leadership of the Year Award noted his commitment to building digital services created with the citizen in mind. The Georgia Data Analytics Center, a new online data depository administered by the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, also won in the category of IT Innovation of the Year.
GTA-hosted summit explores customer engagement
Technology is increasingly an enabler of public services, and this year's GTA-hosted Technology Summit explored how you can harness technology to improve your customer's experience. The 2022 virtual summit focused on technology considerations that are woven tight into how you engage with your customers. Industry and government experts addressed cloud computing benefits and preparations, securing your IT environment, ensuring digital accessibility, and broadband expansion in Georgia.