The Department of Information Systems began as a new state agency in 1977 when, by Legislative act, the Department of Computer Services (or D C S) and State Planning Division were created. D C S was organized from what was known as the Administration Services Division (A S D) of the Department of Finance Administration. At the time, D C S consisted of a 24/7 mainframe I T shop running an IBM 360/145 mainframe computer, a tape library, a production control section, an applications development section and an administration section. The new D C S was housed in the top three floors of what is now the Luther S. Hardin Building located at the west end of the Capitol Mall complex.

A S D Staff, April 1975

In late 1979, D C S moved into the newly opened Multi-agency Complex (MAC) building at One Capitol Mall. The agency numbered about 200 employees and its main focus was application systems development for state agencies and telecommunications networking for the support of law enforcement.

The 1980's brought new technology and an increased customer base. During the decade, D C S employees increased to about 250. The agency acquired an Amdahl 470 series mainframe system, and then later switched to I B M 3090 series systems. New peripheral equipment was added for increased printing and data storage demands. Expansion of the state telephone system included a new vendor with better service to agencies located in the Capitol Complex and in downtown Little Rock. Several major I T application systems were created, and maintained by the applications development section. Among these systems were state personnel, treasury, and financial systems that were still in use until 2001 and the advent of AASIS.

D C S Staff, April 1987

Evolution and Y2K

In the 1990's space in the MAC building became a premium and in 1992, State Planning Division, Telecommunications, and part of Human Resources was moved to the Executive Centre complex (formerly the Koger Center) in west Little Rock. Late in 1995, D C S relocated its applications development sections and computer training classrooms to the 9th, 11th and 12th floors of the Union National Building in downtown Little Rock. Also in 1995, the units housed at Executive Centre were returned to the MAC Building.

Union Building, One Union National Plaza

With nearly 150 employees moving to the Union facilities, development of a major WAN/LAN network was required. Cost savings were achieved by converting the majority of employee workstations from mainframe terminals to personal computers. This also opened the way for D C S to begin WAN/LAN support for state agencies. After settling in at Union, D C S began the enormous task of preparing for the year 2000. Employees were enlisted into this project from other duties, and a large contract staff was acquired for the correction of date problems in existing systems. As a result, Union Building office space was expanded in 1997 to include the 10th floor for specifically dealing with Y2K.

D C S was re-organized into the Department of Information Systems (D I S) by Act 914, The Arkansas Information Systems Act of 1997. The Act elevated D I S to a cabinet level department reporting to the governor. Act 914 also re-organized State Planning Division into the Office of Information Technology (O I T), and a statewide emphasis of building coordinated and standardized I T architecture and I T planning among state agencies and institutions was launched. As networking, client-server, and services demands increased, D I S began a series of restructuring phases to better align itself for the support of emerging I T methodology and anticipated customer expectations. Also in 1997, D I S posted its first agency web page on the World Wide Web.

In late 1999, D I S was ready for Y2K. Employees worked hard through the last two months of the year without Thanksgiving or Christmas breaks, and many were on duty the night of December 31st. New Year's Day proved the massive effort had paid off as one of the greatest challenges for D I S was overcome.

Since 2000

As the new century opened, D I S underwent further restructuring of organization and services. This was in keeping with growing customer needs for data warehousing, statewide networking infrastructure, the 2001 advent and support for conversion to the S A P/Arkansas Administrative Statewide Information System (AASIS), new wireless phone services, expanded Internet/e-mail connectivity services, and web-enabled application development. Program and project management was elevated to an enterprise level. Additionally, Act 1042 of 2001 created the state Executive Chief Information Officer (E C I O), and the Office of Information Technology was incorporated into the E C IO organizational structure.