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State Auditor's Office

The Office of the Montana State Auditor, Commissioner of Securities and Insurance (CSI) is the state government regulator of the insurance and securities industries. The CSI protects and advocates for Montana’s consumers by ensuring fairness, transparency and access for Montanans in two of Montana’s largest industries — securities and insurance.

CSI's mission:
-Inform consumers and industry through education and outreach
-Provide responsive and meaningful customer service
-Support Montana business by promoting industry innovation and removing unnecessary regulatory roadblocks and red tape
-Manage State Trust Lands for the ongoing benefit of public education

Goals

Agency Goals and Objectives

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Goal 2. Strategic IT investment empowering delivery of citizen services & Goal 4. All enterprise products and services are widely leveraged to provide maximum benefit

Objectives

  • Create and sustain a CSI Data and Technology Plan and Roadmap: This is two separate items, a plan and a roadmap:

    1. CSI will annually produce a plan that outlines all software, hardware and services necessary to support the foundational operational data and technology needs of the CSI. The plan documents what we know we will be doing the coming year in a detailed manner and the benefit of the plan will be to help us know, manage and control our data and technology efforts and will enable us to make better informed investments and decisions around data and technology.

    2. Road-mapping is more about maintaining a continuous longer-term data and technology strategy that enables the CSI to be adaptable and changeable as business needs, drivers and technology evolve and change.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Goal 2. Strategic IT investment empowering delivery of citizen services & Goal 4. All enterprise products and services are widely leveraged to provide maximum benefit
  • Policies and Procedures: All processes and procedures related to data and technology operations are documented and followed. In addition to operating more efficiently, knowing and following proper procedures and policy will help the CSI protect and manage data better.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Goal 5. The State’s information assets and citizens’ data are protected
  • "Right-size" the CSI IT Department: CSI will ensure the agency has the skills and capacity needed to support the CSI's data and technology needs now and into the future. CSI will move away from trying to have the all the necessary skills "in-house" and towards having them only when and where needed.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Goal 1. An innovative workforce dedicated to reshaping the way IT Services are delivered

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Goal 2. Strategic IT investment empowering delivery of citizen services & Goal 3. Citizen one-stop shop anywhere, anytime, any device & Goal 4. All enterprise products and services are widely leveraged to provide maximum benefit

Objectives

  • Identify, prioritize and begin execution on candidate projects and areas of operations that can be streamlined or automated to improve services. Doing this will require the CSI to adopt and use project management and project portfolio skills and practices.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Goal 2. Strategic IT investment empowering delivery of citizen services & Goal 3. Citizen one-stop shop anywhere, anytime, any device & Goal 4. All enterprise products and services are widely leveraged to provide maximum benefit

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Goal 3. Citizen one-stop shop anywhere, anytime, any device

Objectives

  • Begin the transformation of the CSI into a "data-driven" organization through awareness, education and training and identifying what other states and regulating organizations are doing well and what best-practices exist and can be applied or used in Montana.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Goal 3. Citizen one-stop shop anywhere, anytime, any device
  • Participate in the National Association of Insurance Commissioner's (NAIC) data modernization and sharing efforts. The NAIC is in the process of modernizing their data systems and has been soliciting feedback and participation from member states. Strong participation by the CSI will be helpful in transforming the CSI into a data-driven organization.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Goal 3. Citizen one-stop shop anywhere, anytime, any device

Information Technology Resources and Capabilities

Number of FTE: 3

Provide day-to-day operational IT support to the CSI. Function as guide to and strategic partner for the business units of the CSI in the application of technology and data. Liaison with industry and the state's enterprise data and technology groups to ensure the CSI is appropriately aligned with industry and enterprise data and technology directions and strategies.

Projects

Division IT, Securities, Investigations, Legal
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives Currently, investigative matters are tracked and managed manually, meaning there is no centralized repository or investigation tracking system. Investigation status, investigator assignments, evidence and other relevant information of an investigation are stored in supervisors' and investigators' notes and spreadsheets, typically located on network drives, or in email. While this approach has worked well, recent staff turnover highlighted weaknesses in this approach, primarily around the continuity and operational visibility of pending, active and closed investigations. By utilizing a modern investigations workflow management system, the CSI expects to have better visibility into current investigation status, investigator workloads, and enable consistent approaches to storing and managing information of an investigation. The CSI has named the proposed system "Securities and Insurance Investigations Management System" or SIIMS.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Goal 2. Strategic IT investment empowering delivery of citizen services
Estimated Start 7/1/2022 Estimated Delivery 12/31/2023
Estimated Cost 100000 Comment Cost provided is first year not-to-exceed figure (NTE) and is a high-end estimate based on research conducted by CSI in 2022.
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources State Special Revenue: 100000 - Comment: Cost provided is first year not-to-exceed figure (NTE) and is a high-end estimate based on research conducted by CSI in 2022.
Annual Costs Upon Completion 50000 Comment Annual cost provided is not-to-exceed figure (NTE) and a high-end estimate based on research conducted by CSI in 2022.
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended. January 2023 Status - ITPR Submitted to SITSD, expect to enter formal procurement process (RFP) in February 2023 and release RFP in April 2023

Division Executive
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives Enhance agency's online presence and ergonomics/information accessibility.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Goal 3. Citizen one-stop shop anywhere, anytime, any device
Estimated Start 1/3/2022 Estimated Delivery 12/30/2022
Estimated Cost 10000 Comment
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources State Special Revenue: 10000 - Comment:
Annual Costs Upon Completion 1000 Comment
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended. 10%

Division IT, Centralized Services and HR
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives Utilize the docusign platform for facilitating paper-less HR and Contracting functions, including electronic signatures.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Goal 2. Strategic IT investment empowering delivery of citizen services
Estimated Start 5/2/2022 Estimated Delivery 6/30/2022
Estimated Cost 5000 Comment
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources State Special Revenue: 5000 - Comment:
Annual Costs Upon Completion 4000 Comment
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended. 0%

Division IT
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives Augment/supplement the internal IT staff with as-needed data and IT skills. Going into FY 2023, the CSI expects to have a data and technology FTE count of 2 as an appropriate staffing level for an agency of around 70 total FTE. Two data & technology FTE can adequately support the day-to-day technology needs of the agency and provide strategic leadership and planning of CSI data and technology efforts. CSI will continue to need specialized data and technology skillsets, such as IT security, programming, and database support for the foreseeable future to support existing applications and fulfill existing and future State security and auditing requirements. Also, as business and processes automation improvement and artificial intelligence efforts ramp up, skill sets such as project management/business/system/data analysts will also be needed. CSI will move away from trying to have the all the necessary skills "in-house" as FTE and towards having them only when and where needed. This approach should enable the CSI to avoid the pitfalls and inefficencies of having these skill sets in house and allow the CSI to obtain "best of breed" from the data and technology service providers.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Goal 1. An innovative workforce dedicated to reshaping the way IT Services are delivered
Estimated Start 7/1/2022 Estimated Delivery 6/30/2025
Estimated Cost 225000 Comment $75,000 per fiscal year 23, 24 & 25.
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources State Special Revenue: 225000 - Comment:
Annual Costs Upon Completion 0 Comment Upon successful completion, it is expected the CSI will continue this approach in follow-on years, however the exact scope and cost will be determined after the current project is completed.
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended. Project is in initiation phase, no funds have been expended so far.

Summary of Hardware

I have reviewed all of my agency's systems in Assurance CM and certify that it is accurate: Yes

Total Number of Appliances 2 Barracuda backup devices. CSI has moved to SITSD's rubric service, however the Barracuda devices are still under support and are providing a "2nd level" of backup and restore capability to the CSI. The devices are planned for decommissioning in 2023.
Total Number of Physical Servers 1 The only physical server the CSI operates is used for the surveillance camera system, which is comprised of 30+ cameras. This server is scheduled for decommissioning in June 2022 and the surveillance system being down-sized to an appliance and for security purposes only with 5 cameras.
Total Number of Virtualized Servers 0 The CSI migrated it's entire physical server environment (with the exception of the surveillance system server) to SITSD in early 2022 and so far is extremely pleased and satisfied with the cost and performance.
Total Usable Storage Space 0 GB
Device Type Quantity Estimated Replacement Value Comments
Computers 75 150000
PC-Attached Printers/Scanners 15 7500
Mobile Devices (phones and tablets) 20 10,000
Network-Attached Printers/Scanners 12 15000

Agency Contact Information

Agency Director / Administrator
Troy Downing
406-444-2040
troy.downing@mt.gov
840 Helena Avenue Helena, MT 59601
IT Contact (CIO / IT Manager)
Michael Sweeney
406-444-3517
michael.sweeney@mt.gov
840 Helena Avenue Helena, MT 59601
Information Security Manager
Michael Sweeney
406-444-3517
michael.sweeney@mt.gov
840 Helena Avenue Helena, MT 59601