Language Translation
  Close Menu

IOT Connections Sept/Oct 2016

Indiana earns further recognition for use of digital technology 
As the private-sector tech industry booms in Indiana – with more than 20 acquisitions and initial public offerings of tech companies over the past decade -- the state’s public sector also continues to build a national reputation for its use of digital technology to provide the best possible service to taxpayers.

Most recently, the State of Indiana earned an overall “A-” grade from the Center for Digital Government (CDG) for use of digital technology “to improve service delivery, increase capacity and reach policy goals.” As part of the assessment, Indiana received “Top 5” designations in the areas of Finance and Administration (1st place), Enterprise Information and Communications Technology (2nd), Health and Human Services (3rd) and Citizen Engagement (3rd).

“We are fully committed to putting the latest digital technologies to work for Hoosier taxpayers,” said Chief Information Officer Dewand Neely, who oversees the Indiana Office of Technology. “No other state makes it a higher priority to apply technology in the smartest and most efficient ways possible.”

Since assuming office in 2013, Gov. Mike Pence has communicated a vision of a data-driven state government that makes maximum use of IT resources and other technology, Neely said.

“Agency leaders have embraced this vision,” Neely said. “The result is better government for citizens, which in turn produces the kind of recognition we have received from the CDG.”

The state’s achievements come on the heels of two other technology awards from the CDG in 2016 – a “Best of the Web” award for the IN.gov website and a Digital Government Achievement Award for the Indiana Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IN-ISAC), a cybersecurity venture.

For 19 years, the CDG has helped benchmark all 50 state governments’ use of digital technologies, conducting a bi-annual survey designed to highlight best and emerging practices that can be shared across state borders. In 2014, Indiana’s received a “B+.”

“Best of Indiana” summaries from each winner
At the 16th annual Indiana Digital Government Summit on Oct. 20, Indiana distributed its first ever “Best of Indiana” awards. The awards program was established to recognize Indiana state and local government and education organizations for their dedication, hard work and contributions in information technology. State agencies and local governments were eligible to summit nominations for the awards.

Awards were distributed for the “Best Application Serving an Agency's Business Needs for Local and State” and for the “Best Application Serving the Public” by a state agency.
The winners were the Indiana State Police, the Indiana Secretary of State and the City of Bloomington.

Best Application Serving an Agency's Business Needs - State
The Shield application was developed out of a need to track multiple internal activities of various divisions of the Indiana State Police. ISP divisions represented in this application include Human Resources, Fiscal, Operations, Criminal Justice Data, Training, Field Support Services, and Public Information Operations. This application provides record-reporting on Indiana State Police daily trooper activity, charting days off, regular duty, project duty, injury and illness, training, public/community and police action.

Best Application Serving an Agency's Business Needs - Local
inRoads is a digital service developed by the City of Bloomington’s Information & Technology Services (ITS) Department. inRoads is used to manage and publish road, sidewalk and parking status information including closings, lane reductions, reservations, and other uses. The service is provided through an open-source PHP application that stores road event data using Google's Calendar API and notifies email subscribers. The Open Layers (http://openlayers.org/) library provides map rendering functionality. The source code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/City-of-Bloomington/inRoads.

Our tool is an open-source, lightweight, simple-to-use application that benefits city staff and the public. It provides not only current information about road events but future planned events as well. Open data is available in multiple standard formats. The city also provides Waze and other navigation tools with data to improve safety for city workers and help travelers get from A to B in our community.

inRoads has become an essential tool for managing street information and activities at the city.

Best Application Serving the Public - State

INBiz is a one-stop resource for registering and managing business filings and ensuring existing businesses are compliant. INBiz includes services from the Secretary of State, Workforce Development and Revenue – all of which streamline and expedite business interactions with the state.

This initiative makes it easier for existing businesses to register with the state and saves businesses time and money. INBiz is the first application to use the state’s new single sign-on process and is the most secure application with the advanced protected data security features.

INBiz includes the Secretary of State’s increased capacity of providing 13 additional filing types and nearly 100 reports. Many of these filing types previously required citizens to mail in forms or file in-person. With current online filing adoption rates of 90 percent plus, this gives citizens greater accessibility and expanded functionality, 24 hours per day. It is also anticipated to increase staff efficiency by at least 15 percent.

This effort is a collaboration between the Governor’s Office, Secretary of State, Office of Technology, Workforce Development and Revenue. Future phases are being planned to include other state agencies and potentially local government entities.

ISAC receives more national recognition
The Indiana Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IN-ISAC) continues to stand out from its peers and break new ground in how government handles cybersecurity. Last week, the Center for Digital Government announced that the IN-ISAC won a Cybersecurity Leadership and Innovation Award.

GovTech.com summarized the project in a recent post:

The Indiana Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IN-ISAC), for instance, is a multi-agency initiative between the Indiana Office of Technology and Purdue University. The IN-ISAC provides notifications to local governments and schools either through its own work or through developed relations with the private sector. It also has a number of public partnerships.

“Indiana State Police, Homeland Security, the National Guard and our universities — Indiana University, Purdue and Notre Dame — are cybersecurity leaders in their respective fields,” said IN-ISAC Manager Nicholas Sturgeon. “We have a mix of activities and projects that makes Indiana a hot spot for cybersecurity.”

Sturgeon added that instead of getting lost in the barrage of “shiny objects” that create clutter in the cybersecurity field, he advised narrowing the focus to one or two goals.

“It can be a tall mountain to try to address everything,” he said, “so take what you’re good at and become better at it.”

Read the full story at GovTech.

Coming Soon: MobileIron needed to access email on mobile devices

Beginning on Nov. 16, 2016, users will no longer receive emails on mobile devices unless they are registered with MobileIron. MobileIron is the state’s mobile device management platform.

If you sync your email to a mobile phone or tablet, whether State-owned or personally-owned, you are required to register your device in MobileIron by Nov. 15, 2016, if you wish to keep receiving email on your device.

IOT will hold a registration open house for users wishing to have hands-on help registering in MobileIron on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 9-11 am and 1-3 pm, in IGCS Conference Room B. IOT Mobile Staff will be available to assist users on a walk-in basis with registrations and answer questions about MobileIron. This will be the last open house prior to the deadline.

MobileIron enables the user to:
*    Quickly access your corporate email, calendar, and contacts
*    Automatically access corporate WiFi and VPN networks
*    Easily find and install work-related applications
*    Check compliance with corporate security policies
*    Locate lost or stolen devices

Using MobileIron, IOT CANNOT do any of the following:
* See or copy your photos
* See or copy your iMessages/text/sms
* See or copy your personal email accounts
* Limit your access to specific access points, websites or locations
* See, copy or track internet usage
* Record phone calls

Access may vary depending on whether the device is personal or state-owned -- as well as whether the device is Apple or Android.

Watch this MobileIron video to understand what can and cannot be seen on devices

For further information on MobileIron and the State of Indiana mobile device use policy please click here and and read the two policies regarding mobile devices.

To learn more, go to here.

Siteimprove adds new features

IN.gov provides a variety of products to help agencies manage online content. One of those products, available at no cost, is Siteimprove, a powerful resource that offers several ways for webmasters and communication staff to govern content.

Siteimprove, through its Quality Assurance module, finds broken links on websites or within .PDF documents. One new feature of Quality Assurance is a Readability test, which uses the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level scale to rate the content of webpages. This ensures that users can easily read and understand the content on websites. The goal is to at least have most content at or below the 10th grade level.

To request access to Siteimprove visit https://sts3.in.gov/adfs/ls/IdpInitiatedSignon.aspx and select Siteimprove. All requests will be verified with either the agency webmaster or communication director before being approved.


For questions, please contact Graig Lubsen, who can direct you to the correct department.

IOT News

Click here to view more events

Top FAQs