Department of Agriculture

Update: We are near completion with establishing current SOPs for User On/Off boarding processes, and PC Standard configuration. Established workflows for critical 3rd party application general 'Change' processes and 'User Acceptability Testing'.

Update: Completed. The department went live with ServiceNow CSM on 7/29/22, which allows digital support request submission and resolution tracking. Next phase will address implementing a department user self-help knowledgebase.

Update: Completed. We now have a department ServiceNow Hardware Asset Management environment, and are working on gathering additional information to migrate into the system.

Update: With third-party assistance, we have upgraded our Hay Hotline application from an old version of Java to the ServiceNow platform. This is in its final phases, and soon to be released.

We are currently working on upgrading our Oracle environment which supports four Java application databases. We have additional outdated Java applications still in need of replacement/updating. Efforts are ongoing.

Update: Remote work technologies are heavily used within Agriculture, allowing considerable mobility for our department users.

With the transition away from MT Interactive, we lost a number of applications that were used to automate event registrations and support remote field work data collection. We have put temporary solutions in place that provide some level of automation, but have not yet had the opportunity to re-build these applications in-house.

Update: Completed - VDI was evaluated, but in the end, was determined to be near the same cost as a physical desktop computer. It was determined that VDI did not bring a substantial benefit at this time.

Update: Migration to Cascade was completed in June of 2021.

Update: Unmet due to time and resource constraints.

Update: Ongoing - We have implemented the Outlook Phishing Button for quick reporting of Phishing emails, implemented 'micro IP segmentation' in the Montana Data Center for an application server hosting a critical application, increased the frequency that we are monitoring and addressing critical software updates for outdated software on department computers, and reached 100% completion by department employees of of annual security training.

Update: Due to time and resource constraints, progress has been limited. Improved DocuSign by identifying issues we were having with time out periods, and forms not routing properly due to having either timed out, or being edited by a signer after initiating the form for signatures. Increased timeout period and drafted additional support information.

With the recent implementation of ServiceNow, following finalizing Customer Service Management and Hardware Asset Management fine tuning, we will be pursuing workflows to bring automation to a number of department processes.

Update: We have improved approximately 21 electronically fillable forms, and added approximately 15 new forms for submitting inquires, performing payments and event registrations.