The Relationship of Other State Agencies and Groups

The Relationship of Other State Agencies and Groups
The North Carolina IRM provides State-level leadership in managing information technology and telecommunications resources, including staff assistance to the IRM Commission (IRMC) as they formulate State-level information technology strategies, plans, policies, and procedures. Working with State agencies, federal and local governments, private citizens and private sector businesses, IRM helps implement new technologies consistent with the directions of the IRMC.

Specifically, the IRM:

Provides analytical, technical and administrative support to the Information Resource Management Commission;
Establishes and maintains the State-level vision and strategy for information technology by developing and publishing an annual Statewide Technology Strategy and Initiatives document;
Provides leadership and direction to the statewide strategic planning process for managing information technology resources;
Provides leadership of strategic technology teams, which are composed of select IRM and agency personnel, to address common issues related to developing and deploying information technologies;
Helps agencies comply with the strategic direction for information technologies established by the IRMC, and helps deploy new and innovative technologies to improve the quality and effectiveness of business and programmatic services of State agencies;
Provides quality assurance by establishing a framework to assure compliance; and
Provides leadership and direction in implementing a statewide quality assurance program.

The IRM has developed the Statewide Technical Architecture in response to North Carolina General Statute 143B-426.21(b)(8) which requires that all State agencies use an open, vendor-neutral systems approach for building technology infrastructure. The purpose of the Statewide Technical Architecture is to provide a framework of principles, recommended best practices, and State standards that will direct the design, construction, deployment, and management of distributed, client/server information systems. It helps agencies develop a technology infrastructure that can cost effectively support rapid change in business and administrative processes across the State.

The framework of the State's technology infrastructure is based on the Adaptive Systems Architecture developed by DeBoever Architectures, Inc. DeBoever, now wholly owned by META Group, Inc., of Stamford, CT., developed the "Architecture Planning and Implementation Advisory Service." The APIAS focuses on assisting organizations with pragmatic, operationally-oriented "frameworks" for designing, implementing, migrating, and supporting an information systems technical architecture. As a paying subscriber to the service, the state of North Carolina received a set of integrated templates, each containing principles, best practices, implementation guidelines, and specific product recommendations, for the various components of a technical architecture. These templates serve as the foundation for the Statewide Technical Architecture.

IRM recommends the following best practices to State agencies:

Minimize the impact to existing application systems:

To the extent possible, the Integration Architecture should enable new applications to use existing resources with minimal disruption;
Where possible, use non-invasive techniques for integration; and
Integration requires good communications infrastructure. If the basic network infrastructure is not in place, a single integrated network of application communication cannot be achieved.

Use statewide technologies:

To the extent possible, use the same technologies in the Integration Architecture that are used in the statewide technical architectur;
Limit the heterogeneity of the technology used in order to simplify integration and enable migration to future technologies.

Provide flexibility:

Provide maximum flexibility to integrate heterogeneous systems when enhancing existing end-user functionality through the use of a middle service tier; and
Implement the middle tier with standards whenever possible.

Use existing integration solutions:

Instead of building a new integration technique from scratch, use an existing vendor solution that answers the specific integration needs of an application system; and

Include centralized security management.

The Statewide Technical Architecture defines the guidelines and standards enabling the State to implement and take advantage of adaptive systems. The NCAS technical model is designed to operate efficiently and effectively, making use of the recommended best practices and the robust technical architecture established as the statewide standard.

Senate Bill 222:

A portion of Senate Bill 222 amended G.S. 143B to create the Office of Information Technology (ITS) in order to strengthen the management of technology in State government. To assist ITS in this task, the General Assembly jointly charged the OSC and the Office of State Management and Budget (OSBM) with the responsibility to meet specific financial reporting and accountability requirements. The OSC, working with OSBM and ITS, is currently in the process of developing Statewide IT Expenditure Reporting formats in response to Senate Bill 222. Additionally, the OSC continues to work closely with the Information Resource Management Division of ITS on e-commerce initiatives and statewide strategic planning.