Monthly IS Updates

• Beginning June 14, OMES is automating the delivery of passwords for new employees, with the first two weeks as a stabilization period. The Automation Center of Excellence will work with the Customer Success team to monitor entries during the stabilization period. 

Previously, the new hire would receive communication to call the Service Desk to acquire their password. The automation will alleviate the service desk's manual involvement, speeding up the ability for your new employee to log into their account.

Upcoming projects:

• We understand the pressure to deliver exceptional customer service. To align with this goal, OMES is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer a comprehensive call center solution.  

AWS Connect shines in its ability to adapt to your needs. AWS Connect can easily scale up or down based on your requirements. Additionally, its open APIs and development tools allow for a high degree of customization. The OMES team will be contacting the agencies using call center to get discussions started.

• The Server team has virtualized 11 more physical servers for OSDH and nine are in process saving the state another $69,000 a year in maintenance costs. DHS has five virtualizations in progress.
• The Financial Operations team continues to examine cloud service provider resource utilization/allocation to get maximum business value from the cloud by adjusting resource allocation and decreasing cloud costs.
• OMES IS is establishing a Cloud Platform Engineering team to enhance agency service as the state develops a cloud strategy. This team will set patterns, practices, and standards to ensure a robust and scalable IT workload platform.
• The network team continues the process of replacing network hardware across the state to refresh end-of-lease equipment, standardize all older network configurations to the current OMES standard and upgrade other equipment to increase functionality and performance.

In June and continuing through July, the network team has, or will be servicing:

1. Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
2. Oklahoma Human Services.
3. Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
4. Oklahoma Employee Security Commission.
5. Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Upcoming projects:

• The Server and Applications Development Team is working on an initiative to migrate all servers and applications from physical hardware to cloud providers to decrease the physical footprint and costs to the state.

• We would like to remind you to stay vigilant while using your Outlook email account. If you come across any suspicious emails, please make use of our Outlook phishing tool to report them. This is an important step in maintaining the security of our systems and protecting our data. Watch this video to learn how to report a phishing email.
• With so many online accounts to manage, remembering all your passwords can be a challenge. We encourage state employees to use Secret Server. A secure and easy-to-use platform to store your credentials. Watch this video to learn how to set up your account.

Upcoming Projects:

• OneDrive is the standard cloud storage service for the State of Oklahoma. It is currently installed on all workstations but requires user interaction to log in and set up the OneDrive application for backup and synchronization of documents and folders. The OneDrive Autoconfiguration change will configure the OneDrive application to silently log on to Windows and synchronize documents, desktop and picture folders.
  • This change will take place statewide on June 28.
• Microsoft Authenticator Lite will be available for users who are not enrolled in the Microsoft Authenticator app. This feature is built right into Outlook, enhancing your mobile and email security without the hassle of downloading additional apps to prevent unauthorized sign-ins.

If you receive an authenticator enrollment prompt in Outlook, we encourage you to set it up. To make things even easier, we've prepared a step-by-step guide to help you get started. 

If you're already enrolled in the Microsoft Authenticator app, you won't receive a notification.

• • This change will take place statewide on June 27.
• Windows 10 will be migrated to Windows 11 on all workstations in October 2025.  Testing is underway.  If your agency is interested in an early adoption of Windows 11, please reach out to Cyber Command.

• To be as efficient as possible with state funds OMES-IS chose to scale back on state-issued mobile devices. The way we work and communicate continuously changes so it is important to re-evaluate what is needed to accomplish the agency mission. This initiative has already saved $200,000 in the first year.

• The Accessibility Mail-In email address is no longer available. Accessibility concerns and complaints regarding Federal and State 508 compliance issues that hinder people with disabilities from using web services or applications for OMES will now be addressed within ServiceNow. 

  The new form for reporting Federal and State 508 compliance accessibility concerns and issues can be accessed on the OMES Accessibility Policy Website and at the ServiceNow links below: 

  • Report Accessibility Issue - Citizen.
  • Report Accessibility Issue - OK State Employee (Login Required).
• The AI Task Force will be meeting on a regular cadence to discuss emerging technologies and the opportunities to create strategic plans and roadmaps to implement these technologies, garnering efficiencies and reducing manual processes. For questions, please contact Jessica Gateff.