NASCIO Awards

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

2001 Awards: Information Architecture

WINNER Pennsylvania: PA Commonwealth Connect
[Download Nomination - Word]
When Governor Tom Ridge came to office in 1995, he directed the Office for Information Technology (OIT) to pursue technology initiatives that would improve public service delivery while holding down operational costs. One immediate area of interest was the potential benefit to be gained from standardizing all state agencies on the same core desktop software and a common e-mail network.

In August 1997, the Office for Information Technology (OIT) began holding roundtable discussions with leading software producers to explore the value of standardizing on a single software product for office productivity and e-mail capabilities. After months of meetings and comparative evaluations, the Microsoft (MS) proposal was selected. This agreement covers the desktop operating system, office suite (for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications) and e-mail software. In addition to delivering software, Microsoft also agreed to provide consulting services to state agencies and the new migration team. This consulting help has included advice on the optimal hardware configuration and on the best plan for managing the software rollout.

The desktop software and e-mail standardization project came to be known as "Commonwealth Connect." Since mid-1998, the Commonwealth Connect team has been working closely with Microsoft to plan and implement the migration of 47 state agencies under this initiative. To date, 38 agencies, representing 30,000 users, have been successfully transitioned to the new software and e-mail system. When finished, more than 40,000 personal computers will have been united within the Commonwealth Connect environment.

In executing the Commonwealth Connect project, Pennsylvania became the first state to establish a strategic partnership with a global software company and the largest state government to standardize software across the enterprise.

Benefits of the Commonwealth Connect project include:

Reduced Software Costs: Agencies' software costs have been cut by $9.2 million over three years.
Reduced Total Cost of Ownership: A 1999 study revealed Total Cost of Ownership savings of another $8.96 million annually.
Heightened Productivity: Employee frustrations due to incompatible software have been reduced, and employees no longer have to be trained on multiple software packages.
Strategic Enterprise Management: When software purchases can be managed on behalf of the entire organization, instead of just segments, purchases are not only less expensive but can be used to position the entire enterprise more strategically.
Reduced Administrative Burden: The network infrastructure is less complex without the gateways and bridges needed to integrate dissimilar software. Hardware needs have been reduced and network administration is simplified.

Contact Information: John Carmelite, Project Director, Office of Administration, Bureau of Desktop Technology, Commonwealth Technology Center, 1 Technology Park, Harrisburg, PA 17110, (717) 772-4240, jcarmelite@state.pa.us

Other Nominations:
Click on the link to download program submission.

California
MyCalifornia

District of Columbia
The DC Government Web Portal

Indiana
The Millennium eGovernment Team is Born

Kansas
Information Architecture: State of Kansas Web Portal Redesign

Kentucky
Revenue Evaluation and Decision Support System

New Jersey
One EASE E-Link

New York
Human Services Modernization: Shared Front-End-Proje ct

North Carolina
Common Payment Service

Virginia
Government Without Boundaries

Washington
Applications Template and Outfitting Model

West Virginia
State Library Network 2000