Tennessee has long recognized the value of centralized IT — as early as 2004 the state moved to central data centers and a single network infrastructure used by all state agencies. The next logical step was to consolidate IT staff, services, applications, management and support — a move that came from recognizing the high cost of funding separate IT services in the 23 executive branch departments.
The resulting Enterprise IT Transformation (EIT) initiative transitioned 21 agencies representing 1,000 employees to the Strategic Technology Solutions (STS) division in the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration