Information technology is a tool used by state agencies to improve their ability to deliver public services efficiently and effectively. Advances in information technology, including advances in hardware, software, and business processes for implementing and managing these resources, offer new opportunities to improve the level of support provided to citizens and state agencies and to reduce the per-transaction cost of these services. These advances are one component in the process of reengineering how government delivers services to citizens.

To fully realize the service improvements and cost efficiency from the effective application of information technology to its business processes, state government must establish decision-making structures that connect business processes and information technology in an operating model. Many of these business practices transcend individual agency processes and should be worked at the enterprise level. To do this requires an effective partnership of executive management, business processes owners, and providers of support functions necessary to efficiently and effectively deliver services to citizens.

To maximize the potential for information technology to contribute to government business process reengineering, the state must establish clear central authority to plan, set enterprise policies and standards, and provide project oversight and management analysis of the various aspects of a business process.

Establishing a state chief information officer as the director of the consolidated technology services agency will provide state government with the cohesive structure necessary to develop improved operating models with agency directors and reengineer business process to enhance service delivery while capturing savings.

To achieve maximum benefit from advances in information technology, the state establishes a centralized provider and procurer of certain information technology services as an agency to support the needs of public agencies. This agency shall be known as the consolidated technology services agency. To ensure maximum benefit to the state, state agencies shall rely on the consolidated technology services agency for those services with a business case of broad use, uniformity, scalability, and price sensitivity to aggregation and volume.

To successfully meet public agency needs and meet its obligation as the primary service provider for these services, the consolidated technology services agency must offer high quality services at the best value. It must be able to attract an adaptable and competitive workforce, be authorized to procure services where the business case justifies it, and be accountable to its customers for the efficient and effective delivery of critical business services.

The consolidated technology services agency is established with clear accountability to the agencies it serves and to the public. This accountability will come through enhanced transparency in the agency's operation and performance. The agency is also established with broad flexibility to adapt its operations and service catalog to address the needs of customer agencies, and to do so in the most cost-effective ways.

[2015 3rd sp.s. c 1 § 101; 2011 1st sp.s. c 43 § 701. Formerly RCW 43.41A.003.]

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