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Welcome to the latest edition of What’s Up at DAS. Before we launch our program updates, let me tell you about a new series we recently started internally as part of DAS’ sustainability program.
Scott L. Harra, DAS Director
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One-Thing Thursday is a weekly e-mail we send to DAS employees. Each message describes one simple sustainable thing people can do in the workplace or at home. The goal is to help people realize that small actions can add up to a big difference, and to big savings, which is a major plus as we face a future of tight budgets. To view two sample messages from One-Thing Thursday, see the Facilities Division article below.
We hope you enjoy this edition of What's Up at DAS. As always, feel free to contact us if you have questions, or if you’d like to suggest a future topic. We look forward to hearing from you.
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| State Services Division |
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Surplus coordinates a new beginning from the end of an era
The Oregon State Hospital’s pallet shop has employed patients for decades, providing both a form of therapy and work training. Today, however, the construction project for a new hospital has required the shutdown and removal of the pallet shop to make room for the new facility.
Steve Smith, Darren Kennedy and Brian King of the DAS Surplus Property program worked with OSH and Sunrise Enterprises of Roseburg to arrange the removal of the equipment from the site. Sunrise is a Qualified Rehabilitation Facility and plans to expand its pallet manufacture operation to create more job opportunities for people with disabilities.
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Sunrise paid a fee of $5,000 for the equipment — based on the age of the equipment (now 20 to 40 years old), the additional cost of transport, and the relationship between the clients served by the Department of Human Services and Sunrise. The original purchase price of the equipment was $315,000.
Surplus specializes in the continued use of state resources. Partnerships such as these allow an agency’s original investment to carry on.
Contact: Brian King, (503) 378-6057
SPO wraps up another successful conference
The State Procurement Office (SPO) recently held its education conference at the Salem Conference Center. SPO holds the event every two years to provide training in public procurement for state and local governments. This year, DAS Director Scott Harra helped kick off the event, which focused on sustainability.
Approximately 300 purchasing professionals from various levels of government attended. In addition, more than 70 vendors participated in the three-day event. The conference featured more than 25 presentations by regional and national purchasing experts, including legal experts from the Department of Justice. Topics included IT contracts, terms and conditions, bid rigging, ethics, managing risk, audits and more.
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DAS Director Scott Harra (left) and keynote speaker Scot Case
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The conference highlighted some of the following “bottom lines:”
- The purchasing profession is a critically important function in government. It’s possible to capture huge amounts of money through multi-state contracts, managing freight costs and including procurement in decision-making processes.
- Green products are everywhere, and so are false claims about products. Use Web-based resources such as the Responsible Purchasing Network to search out environmentally friendly products.
- Oregon state government has set aggressive targets to reduce energy use in public buildings and increase solar power and other forms of renewable energy. The Oregon Department of Energy and Energy Trust of Oregon offer a number of financial incentives and consulting expertise.
- The increasing collaboration between purchasing and suppliers must be done within a fair and structured framework that preserves the integrity of the process.
- Disaster preparedness has received more attention since hurricane Katrina and Oregon’s storms in December 2007, making the role of purchasing increasingly important.
The conference provides a cost effective way for purchasing professionals to network with each other and get the latest updates on a wide range of topics. Visit SPO's Web site for conference highlights, photos, and Scot Case's presentation.
Contact: Nancy Ahlbin, (503) 378-2497
Publishing & Distribution
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We've all heard about using plain language to communicate effectively with a wide audience. Another part of good communication is graphic design. People will notice, read and remember printed documents better if the material is well organized with proper use of space, fonts and graphic elements.
Publishing & Distribution's professional graphic design services can help state agencies successfully convey important messages. P&D can help with simple or complex projects from concept to completion or something in between. Call on the professionals at P&D to solve your design problems.
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Contact: Karen Adams, (503) 373-1700
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| State Data Center |
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New mainframe showcases excellence in consolidation
To support its agency customers, the State Data Center recently improved its mainframe environment. A move from two mainframes to one — a “z10” — will save power, minimize license fees, lower maintenance costs, reduce requirements for floor space and increase capacity. The new mainframe has cut agencies’ response time for online transactions by 65 percent. Agencies’ batch jobs that took eight hours now process in two and a half hours.
The new z10 offers unmatched security as well as capacity-on-demand, improving the data center’s ability to respond to the changing requirements of its customers. Agency directors and chief information officers are understandably happy with this success at the data center.
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The SDC's IBM z10
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"With the recent z10 mainframe migration, the SDC showed service excellence as ODOT customers didn't miss a beat with this flawless execution. The additional computing power serves our long-term business strategy!"
Ben Berry, Chief Information Officer, Department of Transportation
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“Many thanks to the data center’s Enterprise team; despite workload challenges and public scrutiny, you pulled off another non-event.”
Dave Howard, Service Delivery Manager, Department of Justice
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Wonder how it works, what it’s made of, and what it looks like under its sleek cover? Click here for IBM's Web-based virtual tour. Flip the mainframe upside down, turn it around, remove the covers, and pull it apart. Animation makes this the closest thing to touching the z10 from the comfort of your personal computer.
The Department of Administrative Services thanks its Enterprise team for the time, effort and dedication they put forth to ensure a quality outcome for the data center’s customers.
The State Data Center's Enterprise Team
Left to right, back row: Matthew Massey, Dave Keeton, Roger Oakes
Middle row: Steve Lehman, Roger Webster, Robert Kollmar, Thomas Cowles
Front row: Christine Andrews, Randy Fleshman, Yvonne Regimbal, Alan Hopkins
Not pictured: Margaret Anderson, Michael Zeazeas, Nigel Lemaire
Contact: Barbara Jensen, (503) 378-6029
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| State Controller's Division |
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SCD earns recognition for excellence
Once again the State Controller’s Division has received a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officer’s Association. The association presented the award in recognition of Oregon’s 2007 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).
The award is a Key Performance Measure for SCD and represents consistent compliance with financial accounting and reporting requirements and a commitment to meet high quality standards and performance timelines. The Department of Administrative Services congratulates the Statewide Accounting and Reporting Services’ team for its leadership and dedication to another successful CAFR. Oregon’s ability to compete in capital markets is enhanced greatly by an efficient and effective annual financial report.
Contact: John Radford, (503) 378-3156, ext. 226
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| Human Resource Services Division |
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HRSD produces online guide for human resources
DAS’ Human Resource Management and Consultation group recently completed an online guide for the state’s human resource staff. The guide offers a variety of resources and insight into the day-to-day work of HR professionals including information about common HR procedures within state government.
The world of human resources can confuse people, especially if they are new to state government or unfamiliar with HR practices. Unusual terminology or new situations can overwhelm even the most experienced practitioner. Mistakes in human resource management can inflict major costs to an agency. The online guide provides valuable HR information “at your fingertips.” From how to establish a position or locate an enabling statute, to managing discipline and lawsuits, the guide is a useful, cost-saving tool for the state.
Contact: Cindy Forest, (503) 373-7062
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HR professionals who need access to the guide may contact Cindy Forest for a user ID and password.
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| Facilities Division |
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One-Thing Thursday
DAS' sustainability program recently began sponsoring a weekly e-mail to employees called One-Thing Thursday. Each message describes one simple sustainable thing people can do in the workplace or at home. The goal is to help people realize that small actions can add up to a big difference and to big savings.
Example 1:
Stand-by power, also called "vampire power," refers to the electricity consumed by appliances when switched off or in standby mode. Electricity vampires include power adapters with no power-off switch, digital clocks on VCRs or microwaves, and the cradles for laptop computers or cell phones. Vampire loads occur at work and at home, and can use up to 10 percent of home electricity and 1 to 5 percent of electricity in an office building.
One thing you can do: Unplug devices when not in use. This may pose difficulty for a VCR or microwave, but it’s not hard to unplug cell phone chargers. In fact, by plugging devices into a power strip, it's easy to flip the switch on the strip at the end of the work day or at bedtime.
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Example 2:
One thing you can do: Check your car’s tire pressure every month and maintain it at the manufacturer’s specifications. If your tires are under-inflated by just four pounds, it will cost you a half mile per gallon.
Contact: Elin Shepard, (503) 373-7132
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| Enterprise Information Strategy and Policy Division |
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E-government upgrades TeamSite
State government’s Web site software — TeamSite — recently received an upgrade that includes a new feature called SitePublisher. The system will give webmasters (users) a more interactive experience than the previous version. Users can move components around (drag-and-drop) as they build Web pages.
Users can also create Web pages with different presentations by changing a component’s “skin.” Skins allow users to make significant changes to components such as layout, different fonts and colors. For example, a skin could change the colors and size of a calendar component. A state style guide for the Web (coming soon) will give direction on consistent formatting of state Web pages.
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SitePublisher also allows access to up-to-date information because of the system’s ability to pull data from various databases. This enhancement ultimately enables users to create Web pages with greater ease and flexibility. Another feature enables shorter “workflows” — the process to publish completed Web pages to the Internet.
The E-government team wishes to thank the departments of Transportation and Human Services for their support in using SitePublisher during a trial period.
E-government will soon announce enterprise-wide training on the new SitePublisher tool.
Contact: Wally Rogers, (503) 378-2973
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| Thank You |
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The department values your input. What's Up at DAS will return next quarter with more news and information. If you want us to cover a specific topic, please let us know.
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