DIR’s mission is to provide technology leadership, solutions, and value to all levels of Texas government and education to enable and facilitate the fulfillment of their core missions. To support the mission, DIR has five objectives:
- Solve common business problems through managed services
- Deliver business value and maximize buying power through integrated technology supply chain services
- Provide leadership to secure the state’s technology assets and promote appropriate use of citizen information
- Enhance statewide technology management and collaboration, and
- Deploy value-added technology solutions to meet agency core missions and serve Texas citizens
In addition to our work in establishing statewide technology policies and guidelines with IT Leadership, DIR has five key functions that support these objectives:
ICT Cooperative Contracts
Saves taxpayer money by leveraging the state’s volume-buying power to drive down costs on more than 750 technology contracts through a streamlined co-op purchasing program. In FY 2009 alone, the program had over $1.3 billion in sales generating more than $171 million in taxpayer savings.
Texas.gov
Is the official eGovernment web portal for the state of Texas. As a self-supporting public-private partnership with Texas NICUSA, Texas.gov offers more than 1000 convenient online services including driver license and vehicle registration renewals in a secure technical and service infrastructure. Since its inception in 2000, Texas.gov has received more than 198 million visits and processed more than 118 million financial transactions.
Information Security
Includes the state Network and Security Operations Center (NSOC), delivers security information management and vulnerability assessment services to Texas state agencies, local governments, and institutions of higher education. DIR also develops statewide security policies and best practices, maintains a 24/7 security alert and response system, and promotes security awareness through training.
Data Center Services (DCS)
Manages the outsourced consolidation of 27 key agency data centers into two locations resulting in technology upgrades and improvements in addition to cost savings as a result of statewide economies of scale. This DIR initiative enables agencies to access data center computing as a managed service and pay only for the amount of services used rather than invest in technologies that become quickly outdated and are expensive to own or lease.
Communication Technology Services (CTS)
Manages the statewide communications infrastructure that provides voice, video, and data, including integrated voice response, telephony, wide area network, virtual private network, and call center solutions to more than 600 state and local government agencies. This infrastructure is adaptable to changing customer requirements, and can rapidly incorporate new and emerging technologies.
For more information on the Texas State DIR, please contact Future Com’s DIR experts at dir@fcltd.net or 817-510-1164.
