Department of Public Employee Retirement Administration

Goals

Update: Continuous and ongoing focus on system issue reduction moves forward. System issue counts continue to trend downward and enhancement opportunities are being evaluated.

Objectives

  • G1O1: Enhance the employer reporting information center to improve usability and timely reporting.
    Update: Ongoing. This past FY, in addition to bug fixes, functionality enabling employers to create payroll schedules was enhanced, simplifying and improving the user experience.
  • G1O2: Keep line of business application up to at least current -1 version of the framework.
    Update: Ongoing. All framework versions are near current, with the exception of the employer reporting functionality - which is presently being upgraded.
  • G1O3: Maintain the internal line of business and content management system to improve usability and timely processing of transactions.
    Update: Ongoing. A significant number of code and data updates and fixes have been implemented, reducing the total number of impactful issues in the system. "System Issue" counts have shown a downward trend and continue to trend downward.
  • G1O4: Plan for disaster recovery by participating in SITSD exercises and business continuity planning.
    Update: Ongoing. Business Continuity plans were executed as a result of COVID-19, and presently all non-essential staff are in a remote working capacity. Two additional personnel have been trained to maintain Assurance for the agency.
  • G1O5: Grow the audience for member self-service portal.
    Update: Pending. A strategic decision was made to first improve the User Experience in the member self-service portal, and convert to okta for SSO prior to marketing a broader use, nevertheless 'soft rollout' adoption continues to grow.

Update: Ongoing. See objectives below.

Objectives

  • G2O1: Implement new technologies that will enhance efficiencies within the business
    Update: Ongoing. Line-of-business system issues and enhancement opportunities are tracked through Microsoft Team Foundation Server. Outstanding enhancement and configuration improvements between March 2019 and August 2020 number > 95 (including addressing new incoming requests)
  • G2O2: Support MPERA through appropriate utilization of SITSD offerings.
    Update: MPERA utilizes existing state technology options wherever possible. This past year we have migrated to MS Teams as a collaboration suite and are presently migrating to Cascade for web CMS. We will be evaluating ServiceNow/eGov solutions for future potential.
  • G2O3: Support MPERA through the purchase / creation / maintenance of software where SITSD offerings are not an appropriate fit.
    Update: Docusign is being implemented presently, at MPERA. Though this technology is currently under contract for state purposes.

Agency Contact Information

Agency Director / Administrator
Dore Schwinden
406-444-5459
DSchwinden@mt.gov
PO BOX 200131 HELENA, MT 59620-0131
Information Technology Contact
(CIO / IT Manager)
Paul Lambeth
406-444-9175
paul.lambeth@mt.gov
PO BOX 200131 HELENA, MT 59620-0131
Information Security Manager
David Swenson
406-444-2537
dswenson@mt.gov
PO BOX 200131 HELENA, MT 59620-0131