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What to Know:
- The project is located on a 440-acre site near Lytle just north of Interstate 35 in an unincorporated area of Medina County.
- The data center will provide cloud storage and artificial intelligence services for an unnamed customer described as one of the nation’s top five technology companies.
- Rowan plans to power the campus primarily with hydroelectric, solar and wind generation.
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The Best of Texas Awards, part of the Texas Digital Government Summit, honor public agencies working to improve the constituent experience.
What to Know:
- A recent Texas Digital Government Summit panel brought public- and private-sector IT leaders together to discuss practical AI.
- Agencies are evaluating AI investments not on novelty but on measurable impacts.
- Panelists stressed the importance of understanding agency missions, building trust and offering solutions that agencies can scale across multiple business units.
What to Know:
- The district’s intention is to contract with a provider that can monitor traditional, digital and social media channels and provide customizable reports.
- The media monitoring system should include features such as keyword tracking, earned media valuation, social media listening and integration with press distribution tools.
- The solution must also support multilingual coverage in English and Spanish and include tools for correlating social and traditional media activity.
What to Know:
- The UT System's Supply Chain Alliance represents 14 individual institutions.
- The preferred platform is a comprehensive, scalable, cloud-hosted payment platform for all 14 institutions.
- The chosen vendor is required to provide the necessary hardware components, implementation support, onboarding, configuration and training.
What to Know:
- TDA CIO Chris Bunton and Dallas College Director of Workforce Development LaKesha Raynor spoke at a panel at the Texas Digital Government Summit in Austin.
- TDA has rolled out several AI-enabled tools, including a chatbot for its Farm Fresh program and a new internal HR bot.
- Dallas College serves more than 130,000 students each year and is expanding sector-based partnerships designed to meet the unique upskilling and reskilling needs of public agencies.
What to Know:
- Texas Department of Public Safety CIO Jessica Ballew spoke at an Industry Insider — Texas member briefing on July 23.
- The agency is moving away from maintaining internal support teams for every system in favor of managed services contracts to free up and refocus DPS staff.
- Ballew is eyeing a new internal automation capability aimed at streamlining administrative workflows and improving customer-facing services.
What to Know:
- The Enhanced Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community Epidemics tracks public health threats across the state.
- The vendor will be required to provide not only software licensing but also installation, updates, defect remediation and enhancements to the existing system.
- The vendor will also help with SQL query support, build analytical cubes for operational efficiency and maintain the system’s API.
The project, a collaboration between the North Central Texas Council of Governments' TXShare arm, the Alliance for Innovation and Civic Marketplace, provides an AI tech purchasing platform with already vetted vendors.
What to Know:
- State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, the most prominent Texas legislator on tech issues in recent sessions, announced the end of his tenure in the Texas House after 14 years.
- In the 89th Legislative Session alone, Capriglione authored or co-authored five tech-related bills that were signed into law by the governor.
- The Southlake Republican has not yet indicated his next steps.
What to Know:
- The city is interested in AI-powered interpretation and translation tools for a potential pilot program.
- The four-month pilot would support live AI interpretation and captioning services during both virtual and in-person public meetings and events.
- The city wants to understand how tools might support in-person settings and hybrid formats.
Sen. Parker authored legislation to establish the Texas Cyber Command and spearheaded the state’s first AI governance framework for public agencies.
What to Know:
- Nearly 90 percent of the projected IT spending will be focused on modernizing the George Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Automated People Mover (APM) System.
- The next largest project is a $13 million implementation of the SAP S/4HANA enterprise resource planning system.
- The city has plans to migrate at least two systems to the cloud.
What to Know:
- Verizon has donated $100,000 to support search and rescue efforts.
- AT&T has announced that its Mobile Connectivity Center will remain at The Hunt Store for the next three weeks if weather permits.
- Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to activate state emergency response resources ahead of expected weather threats.
What to Know:
- The district is seeking vendors to deliver an enterprise-scale solution across thousands of endpoint devices.
- The effort is part of the Federal Communications Commission’s three-year Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program.
- The initiative centers on patch management, identity protection and network access controls.
What to Know:
- The county aims to gather details on available technologies and best practices for an integration platform that could support a wide range of justice system stakeholders.
- The judicial web system currently serves as the central system for more than 100 courts and multiple agencies.
- The county processes more than 70,000 civil cases annually and over 30,000 criminal cases through the platform each month.
What to Know:
- H-GAC requires a solution that will replace the council’s current system and support a full life cycle of project tracking
- The new platform is intended to be mobile compatible, support multiple user roles across agencies and integrate with existing systems.
- The selected contractor will provide hosting, configuration and annual technical support.
What to Know:
- A report produced by the Texas Association of Business (TAB) shows significant population and economic growth in Collin County.
- Plano hosts major business and technology companies like Toyota, JPMorgan Chase and Hewlett-Packard.
- AI usage is surging among Texas businesses, fueling growth in productivity and profitability.
What to Know:
- The library is looking to modernize its information security via the Federal Communications Commission’s three-year Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program.
- The library seeks a managed solution to safeguard about 1,000 public-facing Windows machines used by patrons.
- Identity and access management services will also play a key role.
What to Know:
- The city's proposed budget includes $166 million for Austin Technology Services (ATS).
- Two-thirds of ATS' proposed budget would be allocated to its information and technology fund.
- $12 million has been transferred from the city's Information Security Department to ATS.
The analyst will monitor security alerts, perform forensic investigations and help guide response to cybersecurity threats.
What to Know:
- The preliminary budget includes nearly $1 million for IT operations and maintenance.
- $550,000 has been allocated for enterprise resource planning software.
- The budget includes funding for a new assistant director of IT position at an annual cost of $133,000.
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Cloud platforms provide financial flexibility, but also uncertainty. CDW's FinOps tool helps organizations take control.
Tax season drives millions of constituents to seek government help. In 2023, the IRS saw a staggering 65% increase in calls. Most revenue departments had to ramp up staffing 25% to 100%.
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