What problem does it solve? The State does not currently have a way to efficiently send emails to every single State employee. If a given Department wants to share important news or program updates across all State government organizations - including those that do not use the Office365 platform - they must do so in a piecemeal manner and work through decision-makers at individual departments. This limits the State's ability to share important information that broadly affects NJ government. What is your solution and who does it apply to? The State should establish a universal email distribution list that includes all State employees. This solution would apply to all New Jersey State executive branch departments, agencies and commissions. The list should be automatically updated based on employee payroll data so that list management can be streamlined and does not require excessive staff time. Governance of the list's use should be managed by the Governor's office to ensure that statewide employee outreach is used responsibly and efficiently coordinated. Additionally, general use guidelines should be established so that departments know when the statewide distribution list can and should be used. In addition to the ability to message all State employees, the list would also allow more narrow use-cases, such as instances in which information needs to be shared with all departments that work on child-care related policy, or sharing information with all departments that deal with transportation and logistics issues. What is the anticipated impact? By instituting this solution, the State will realize cost-savings related to staff time that is currently expended to share information across State agencies. Further, a statewide email distribution list would also facilitate better information sharing practices across department and agency silos, and could encourage more effective inter-agency collaboration. By including all state employees - from Cabinet-level officials to front-line service workers - the State could also benefit from the insights and intelligence of a broader collection of employees, rather than limiting exposure to information which results from top-down information sharing practices.
Beyond email, can this also include phone #?
This seems like an easy idea. One issue would be sending out conflicting information that will not apply to certain agencies. In the end it will be more work on agencies that will then have to work to separate what applies to them versus information that was sent out to all. Good luck.
To take this a step further, a state-wide intranet would be a fantastic platform for cross agency collaboration and communication. Almost like a state-wide bulletin board for important information. Some ways to accomplish this could be creating a Sharepoint Intranet with Yammer features or Workplace by Facebook.
The State is currently working on developing a solution that would address this need.
This idea is important to implement as part of the eNJine competition! I just heard about this portal on 4/1. That gives a 2.5 weeks head start to those who heard about it on 3/14 when the portal opened (according to the timeline). The amount of votes a proposal will receive will correlate to how long the idea has been out on the portal. If the values of two proposals are otherwise the same, an idea submitted on 3/14 will amass a much greater vote count than one submitted close to 4/15!
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