Jon Rogers named Tech 25 honoree
IOT Strategic Workforce Planning and State Earn and Learn IT Director Jon Rogers is a 2023 TechPoint Tech 25 Award Winner!
Now in its ninth year, the Tech 25 Awards honor a prestigious selection of 25 individuals who are critical and exceptional performers helping to grow Indiana’s tech and tech-enabled companies, but who — not being the CEO or other top executive — don’t get celebrated publicly as often.
Jon attended the Tech 25 event with his employees; Strategic Workforce Planning Assistant Director Lucy Lankford (left) and Program Director for Employee Development Maya Alcala Gomez (right).
Jon has served in a number of roles at the local, state, and federal levels. Of note, he launched the first agency-based State Earn and Learn (SEAL) IT program, which is a work-based learning adult reskilling effort. The program has allowed IOT to find and train the next generation of its workforce.
Indiana places 3rd in the annual Government Experience AwardsThe State of Indiana has again been recognized as a leading state by the Center for Digital Government (CDG) in its Government Experience Awards. The CDG annually evaluates the achievements of states, cities and counties that have raised the bar on the experience of government services to create a better-engaged constituency and a more responsive government. Indiana finished thirdin the overall state government experience awards, and the Geographic Information Office was touted for its modernized IndianaMap (www.indianamap.org) site with a Project award. CDG noted Indiana for its user experience with Access Indiana, its single sign-on program is now connected with more than 120 applications and has grown to 2.1 million accounts. Additionally, the Office of Technology (IOT) was lauded for offering free and low-cost services to local government, including website development and hosting, payment processing, web domains and cybersecurity training. IOT provides more than $525,000 in estimated value through its free and low-cost services to local governments. "We are honored to receive this award from the Center for Digital Government, which recognizes Indiana's commitment to providing our citizens with a top-notch digital experience," said Indiana Chief Information Officer Tracy Barnes. "This recognition is a testament to the hard work the Office of Technology does to ensure the state's online services are accessible and easy to use for all Hoosiers. I'm proud of the work of our team and of the effort by the Geographic Information Office to launch its new online portal. We are focused on constantly improving and providing a better user experience for citizens and state employees across our state's digital infrastructure." The new IndianaMap launched in April 2022 with a more robust and user-friendly experience with new tools and capabilities. Users can create an account where their maps and customized data are saved, interact with rich datasets, conduct analysis using thousands of spatial data layers, and share maps and data. In addition, the office collaborated with its partners to provide more open data, a new map viewer, and near-real-time data publishing, which improves access and confidence in the data for all users. Indiana has placed in the top four among all states in each year of eligibility for the CDG awards. In the seven years of the competition, Indiana has placed second (2017), third (2018), first (2019), fourth (2021), fourth (2022) and third (2023). The state was ineligible to compete in 2020 after winning the preceding year. Find more winners of the Government Experience Awards here: https://www.govtech.com/gov-experience/government-experience-awards-2023-enhancing-access-and-efficiency. |
Indiana SEAL program named a NASCIO finalist
The State Earn and Learn IT Program has been named a National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) finalist in the Enterprise IT Management Initiatives category!
More than 80 NASCIO members selected the finalists from a pool of more than 100 entries. The association named 31 finalists across 10categories, ranging from cybersecurity and business-process innovation to digital services and innovation.
The SEAL (State Earn and Learn) program uses a work-based learning approach to give individuals entry-level experience in different IT business areas while providing paid study opportunities to achieve industry-valued certifications. As of September 2023, IOT has hired 57 individuals into the program, with 41 graduates and 6 active associates in the program. The SEAL IT Program has allowed IOT to find and train, precisely as needed, the next generation of its workforce. Additionally, the program has been expanded to roles with four other executive branch agencies.
The award nominations showcase the use of information technology to address critical business problems, more easily connect citizens to their government, improve business processes and create new opportunities that improve the lives of citizens. To ensure states have access to the innovations and leading practices of their peers, all award submissions have been added to NASCIO’s Awards Library here: https://www.nascio.org/awards/awards-library/.
IOT's 2023 Community Listening Tour wraps up
After 12 regional stops around the state on their Community Listening Tour, the IOT team held their last cybersecurity conversation meeting of the year at Indiana Municipal Power Agency in Carmel
The IOT team host their last regional meeting: (from left) Communications Director Graig Lubsen, Local Government Program Director Taylor Hollenbeck, Indiana Information Sharing and Analysis Center (IN-ISAC) Executive Director Tad Stahl and IN-ISAC contractor David Cartmel.
These cybersecurity regional meetings invite local government units to find how we can better protect against growing cybersecurity threats and attacks. Indiana has about 3,000 local units of government, but many do not use a trusted .gov domain. IOT provides free in.gov domains for email, websites and web applications.
By the Numbers:
- IN.gov domain names: 1,099
- IOT-negotiated Google Workspaces accounts – that come with IN.gov domain email addresses: 1,453
- Hosted websites: 72
- Payment processing instances: 77
- KnowBe4 accounts: 150
- Estimated total value of the KnowBe4 contract: $519,677.48
For more information about services IOT can offer local governments, visit the Local Government Services page here: https://www.in.gov/iot/local-government-services/.