News | New Mexico State Treasurer's Office

As the state’s banker, the State Treasurer’s Office (“STO”) is entrusted with the safekeeping, prudent management, and disbursement of the state’s financial resources. Needless to say, it is paramount that the STO carries out these duties and responsibilities on a daily basis. Additionally, just as individuals, households and businesses should be prepared for the unexpected, the state’s banker must be able to continue its functions and operations in the event of an emergency or a disaster. For the STO, Information technology support and services are a significant part of managing banking services and investing short-term funds on behalf of the state and local governments.

Since 2007, the goal and directive for the Information Technology (“IT”) Bureau of the STO Operations Division has been to establish, implement and integrate a hot site as part of the comprehensive disaster recovery plan. A “hot site” is generally a data back-up, storage and processing facility outside of the STO that houses communications and IT equipment and can accommodate staff in the event of a disaster or an emergency situation. I am proud to say that we have accomplished this goal and, in doing so, have advanced the state’s emergency and disaster preparedness. We continue to focus on additional enhancements that will allow STO staff to access the hot site remotely if necessary.

Through the process of integrating the hot site into the STO disaster recovery plan, the IT Bureau has made significant modifications to improve and bolster the STO’s IT systems. These modifications are in direct response to the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission, which I empanelled in 2007 to independently review the STO’s operations and procedures. The IT Bureau has improved data security, centralized administrative efforts, and reduced the use of administrative resources by automating patching and virus protections. The IT Bureau is also able to better monitor what STO’s systems are doing throughout the day and can update these systems with minimal disruptions during the workday.

These internal improvements and enhancements have been a success as a result of the IT Bureau’s communication, collaboration and cooperation with our internal customers – STO staff. Previously, the STO’s IT systems made users completely dependent on administrative assistance for routine functions, such as renewing expired passwords. The vision of the IT Bureau now is to empower users to be self-sufficient and proficient with the technology they access every day to do their jobs. The IT bureau’s goal is to provide STO staff with user-friendly, problem-solving techniques as well as an accessible internal helpdesk when they need it.

To better serve the state and our external customers, we continue to carefully review and reallocate IT-related expenditures to reduce costs. We are also identifying ways to reduce our impact on the environment. For example, we decided to revive and update a server that was considered out dated and out of commission. By doing this, we eliminated the need for new hardware. We also alleviated the need for additional hardware through “virtualization.” These means we turned the resurrected server into three additional “virtual servers” and used one server as if it were four. By having to cool and operate one unit instead of four, we have reduced costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

I appreciate the hard work and dedication of our Operations Division and the IT Bureau staff. I also want to thank the state agencies that have dedicated time and provided assistance to help the STO complete these crucial improvements. Securing and ensuring the continuity of state treasury functions every day – as well as in an emergency or disaster situations – is a vital part of protecting the state’s financial interest.