IT Vision and Strategy

Georgia’s vision for its use of technology in the future is captured in the Georgia Enterprise IT Strategic Plan 2025, the latest update to the state’s assessment of issues influencing which technology solutions agencies will deploy in the years ahead. The plan was published in May 2017 and can be accessed at https://gta.georgia.gov/it-strategic-plan-2025.

The plan is intended to aid Georgia government leaders in making informed technology decisions. It defines IT focus areas and goals. It also sets the technology direction for the state’s IT enterprise.

The strategic plan does not replace the business-oriented plans of individual state agencies but serves as a secondary vision document to help them align their technology with the direction established for the state’s IT enterprise.

In developing and maintaining the plan, GTA collaborates with technology leaders in Georgia state agencies, other states, and the private sector to understand business priorities for Georgia state government and the proven technologies that can help achieve them. This work identified the following long-term IT priorities:

Ensuring cybersecurity for Georgia’s agencies, citizens, and businesses
Managing a growing pool of data to support state decision makers
Leveraging emerging technologies to improve interactions between Georgia agencies and their constituents
Evolving state government’s portfolio of shared technology services to ensure agency access to the best services at competitive prices
Partnering with the private sector to bring the latest innovative technologies to bear on the state’s business problems

Strategic Planning

The goal of IT strategic planning in Georgia is to understand agencies’ business objectives and guide them in using appropriate technology to achieve those objectives. Agencies are also guided in their business objectives by the Governor’s policy priorities.

During FY 2018 and previous years, agencies were guided in their business objectives by Governor Nathan Deal’s policy priorities, which set specific goals in the areas of jobs and the economy, education, transportation and infrastructure, criminal justice reform, health care, and natural resources.

With a new administration coming into office in January 2019, agencies will need to align their IT strategies with the new governor’s business objectives. Given the maturity of Georgia’s strategic IT planning process, it is anticipated that agencies will quickly align their IT strategies with the new objectives.

Georgia’s IT Strategy Cycle

The IT strategy cycle is a framework for supporting Georgia agencies in their effective and efficient use of technology to achieve the Governor’s vision for Georgia. A collaborative environment where agencies recognize shared objectives and work together to achieve greater enterprise benefits is key to success. GTA serves as a facilitator in identifying common needs, as a technology guide in identifying technology-enabled business strategies that have proven successful in other organizations, and as an advocate for agency solutions that show promise for the enterprise.

The Strategy Cycle is comprised of the following five components:

1. Scan Technology Enablers

Technology scanning is a continuous process of gathering information about how technology is helping Georgia state agencies meet their objectives. It identifies what is relevant for state agencies and shares appropriate findings through periodic reports and presentations. When targeted to business needs, this information helps agencies make more effective use of proven technology. Effective new uses of technology are incorporated into the annual update of the Georgia Enterprise IT Strategic Plan.

GTA relies on numerous sources for information about new business uses of technology, including Gartner, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), and the Center for Digital Government.

In addition, we monitor a broad range of publications and participate in professional organizations and in national summits, conferences, and symposia targeting effective application of technology to business problems.

2. Survey Agency Priorities

GTA places high value on understanding agency business needs and will continue to review agency strategic plans, conduct agency surveys, and hold regular meetings with agencies to ensure a clear picture of the business objectives that drive technology needs. In addition to one-on-one meetings with agency leaders, the State Technology Annual Report Register (STARR) is used to conduct an annual IT strategy survey of all agency CIOs or IT Directors.

3. Refresh Enterprise IT Strategy

The Georgia Enterprise IT Strategic Plan establishes focus areas and goals for the state’s IT enterprise in a multi-year look ahead. In doing so, it guides agency IT leaders in choosing new technology solutions that align with the state’s enterprise IT vision and direction.

The enterprise strategic plan was first published in 2014 and provided a 7-year forward look at technology. GTA recently established an update schedule that calls for a new version to be published every four years (in the year after each Georgia gubernatorial inauguration). In addition, GTA now publishes an annual addendum to refresh the enterprise strategic plan and adjust for emerging uses of technology. The process also allows for adjustment to support new leadership policy initiatives. The 2025 plan is available at https://gta.georgia.gov/it-strategic-plan-2025. An annual addendum to the 2025 plan is to be posted on the GTA site in early calendar year 2019.

4. Identify Innovation Opportunities

GTA continues to recognize agency successes in using technology to deliver services in new and better ways. Top innovations are recognized at the annual Georgia Digital Government Summit. Examples of these successes can be found under Georgia's IT Excellence.

GTA also works closely with the Governor’s Office and the Office of Planning and Budget to identify agency and statewide business needs that are ripe for new applications of technology. GTA provides leadership in identifying and adopting proven technologies to solve pressing government issues.

5. Host Technology/Strategy Summit

GTA’s annual Technology/Strategy Summit, first launched in 2012, has gradually shifted focus to address a limited range of high-value technology opportunities or issues. The summit is directed toward both business leaders and technology professionals in state agencies and features presentations by subject matter experts from leading technology companies.

More than 250 state employees and vendors attended the 2018 summit, which took place July 11 at the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta and whose theme was “Strengthening Georgia’s Cyber Defenses.” The summit explored the current cybersecurity landscape, its pervasive risks, and the state’s efforts to stay ahead of them. Session topics included the dark web, cybercrime, cybersecurity workforce development, cyber ranges, innovative defenses, and security policy.