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Department of Agriculture

Serving Montana Agriculture and growing prosperity under the Big Sky through innovative technology solutions

Goals

Agency Goals and Objectives

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: CITIZEN / PARTNER OBJECTIVES

Objectives

  • WEB SITE IMPROVEMENTS

    Continue to enhance the agency's web site by improving the ability for citizens and employees to find the resources they need in an easy and expeditious manner. in addition, as an agency, continue to develop and enhance documents and forms to be ADA compliant to serve all citizens of the sate of Montana.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Design for Human Experience
  • BIANNUAL FEEDBACK/PLANNING SESSIONS

    Maintain open channels of communication with the agency leadership by meeting twice annually with bureau chiefs and agency administration to provide official status reports on existing projects and discuss new projects that the agency would like to pursue going forward.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Streamline and Elevate Customer Interactions
  • ENABLE STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS

    This objective will include enabling enterprise-wide IT strategic solutions to commonize, where possible, with SITSD initiatives and directives. Where a common solution is not feasible agency specific strategic solutions will be implemented to aid the employees of the agency and our citizens.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Enable Strategic Solutions

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Internal Process Objectives

Objectives

  • IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY

    This objective is centered around providing superior service to the agency through documenting current processes and procedures and then developing methods to improve on what is currently being done. Developing partnerships with SITSD to assist in expediting delivery of systems and system updates as needed. In addition, an added emphasis on first contact rate will be emphasized.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Improve Service Delivery
  • SUPPORT SECURITY CONOSOLIDATION EFFORTS

    This objective will support the SITSD effort to consolidate risk management centrally within the state. The agency will deliver required information and documentation to the SITSD security team to develop a risk management plan and mitigate risk based on the outcomes of the plan. Risk management/mitigation will become an ongoing effort between SITSD and the agency.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Provide Security by Design
  • CONTINUE TO ENHANCE DIGITAL FOOTPRINT OF THE AGENCY

    This objective will concentrate on migrating more paper/manual processes to incorporate digital options for our employees and citizens. In addition, current digital processes and procedures will be evaluated and improved to enhance both the employee and citizen experience with regards to digital/electronic interactions with the agency.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Improve Digital Transformation

State Strategic Plan Goal Reference: Workplace Capacity Objectives

Objectives

  • IMPROVE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

    This objective will concentrate on improving partnerships with SITSD, partner companies, and the Department of Livestock. The agency will partner with these three resources to elevate the service provided to its employees and citizens. In addition, partnerships with other agencies to provide services which are beneficial to both or multiple agencies will be investigated and implemented as is deemed prudent.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Improve Strategic Partnerships
  • BUILD A 'PEOPLE FIRST' CULTURE

    This objective will concentrate on building team comradery and cross-agency engagement between the Agriculture and Livestock IT teams.

    This objective will focus on two key areas:
    1) Professional development of our IT staff by expecting a minimum of 32 hours per year of professional
    development.
    2) Engage in a minimum of two team building events per year that will bring IT employees from both
    agencies together.
    State Strategic Plan Objective Reference: Build a 'People First' Culture

Information Technology Resources and Capabilities

Number of FTE: 3.5

The primary function/mission of the Department of Agriculture Office of Information Technology is:

Deliver world class IT support for employees and citizens who work and reside in the great state of Montana by providing superior customer service and innovative technology solutions.

Projects

Division Agricultural Sciences Division
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives The seed potato inspection program of the Commodity Services Bureau is conducting a proof of concept of the Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Inspection System. The bureau currently conducts all seed potato inspections utilizing physical paper. The system being evaluated would allow for all inspections to be performed electronically in the field and synced back to the inspection system on a regular basis. The system meets all USDA requirements for fruit & vegetable inspections and is fully integrated with the USDA system. It is anticipated that EPP funding will be utilized to purchase the computer equipment and the software system needed to digitize this inspection process.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Improve Digital Transformation
Estimated Start 7/1/2024 Estimated Delivery 3/31/2025
Estimated Cost 87500 Comment
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources State Special Revenue Fund 02268 - EPP Request: 87500 - Comment:
Annual Costs Upon Completion 15000 Comment Annual maintenance cost.
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended.

Division Agricultural Sciences Division
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives The Organics program at the Department of Agriculture is currently managed by PDF files and spreadsheets stored on a shared drive and needs a robust electronic system to manage the program and its customer base. The agency wants to implement an electronic system that will handle functions such as auditing and certifications, accreditation, standards compliance, etc. The system being considered will allow the Organics program to manage all aspects of certification and management of the Organics producers in the state of Montana. The applications consists of data management, linked entities, correspondence, online templates, and service-specific data. There is also capabilities for certification scopes, planning, and audit components as well as administrative review and findings, and corrective actions. The software is unique to organics certification. This product is unique in the industry and is only available through Intact Systems. USDA accredited certifiers, both private and state, use this system exclusively or they have their own in-house developed system. This software is also utilized by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) and has an API directly into the USDA NOP database.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Improve Digital Transformation
Estimated Start 7/1/2024 Estimated Delivery 2/28/2025
Estimated Cost 75000 Comment
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources State Special Revenue Fund 02264 – EPP Request for $45,000: 45000 - Comment:
Annual Costs Upon Completion 20000 Comment Annual maintenance cost.
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended.

Division Agricultural Development Division
Project / Program Purpose and Objectives The marketing, grants, and development bureau desires to implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system to organize basic customer relationship data to include items such as domestic and international contact information, relationships, customer interaction notes, action items, etc. Currently the team is utilizing spreadsheets to track client/customer data and interactions.
State Strategic Plan Goal/Objective Reference Streamline and elevate customer interactions
Estimated Start 7/1/2024 Estimated Delivery 6/30/2025
Estimated Cost 49000 Comment
HB 10 Request No Funding Sources General Fund (EPP): 49000 - Comment:
Annual Costs Upon Completion 10000 Comment
Status of the project as of March 31, even numbered years. Indicate % completed and status of funds expended.

Summary of Hardware

I have reviewed all of my agency's systems in Assurance CM and certify that it is accurate: No

Total Number of Appliances 0
Total Number of Physical Servers 0
Total Number of Virtualized Servers 3
Total Usable Storage Space 0 GB
Device Type Quantity Estimated Replacement Value Comments
Desktops 63 50400
Laptops 81 81000
Tablets 22 88000
Mobile Devices (Phones) 46 20700
Printers 35 10500
Conference Room Video Systems 3 50000

Agency Contact Information

Agency Director / Administrator
Christy Clark
4064443827
Christy.Clark@mt.gov
302 N Roberts St, Helena, MT 59601
IT Contact (CIO / IT Manager)
Rick Corder
4064442934
rick.corder@mt.gov
302 N Roberts St, Helena, MT 59601
Information Security Manager
Rick Corder
4064442934
rick.corder@mt.gov
302 N Roberts St, Helena, MT 59601