What are the key critical issues facing state CIOs? The National Association of State Chief InformationOfficers have unveiled their survey of state and local government CIO’s. They asked them one simple question – what is your biggest challenge?
Eric Sweden is the Program Director for Enterprise Architecture & Governance at NASCIO. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program what topped the priorities list.
1. Consolidation / Optimization: centralizing, consolidating services, operations, resources,
infrastructure, data centers, communications and marketing “enterprise” thinking, identifying and dealing
with barriers
2. Cloud Services: scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities provided “as a service” using internet
technologies, governance, service management, service catalogs, platform, infrastructure, security,
privacy, data ownership, vendor management, indemnification, service portfolio management
3. Cybersecurity: risk assessment, governance, budget and resource requirements, security frameworks, data
protection, training and awareness, insider threats, third party security practices as outsourcing increases,
determining what constitutes “due care” or “reasonable”
4. Mobile Services / Mobility: devices, applications, workforce, security, policy issues, support,
ownership, communications, wireless infrastructure, BYOD
5. Budget and Cost Control: managing budget reduction, strategies for savings, reducing or avoiding
costs, dealing with inadequate funding and budget constraints
6. Shared Services: business models, sharing resources, services, infrastructure, independent of
organizational structure, service portfolio management, service catalog, marketing and communications
related to organizational transformation, transparent charge back rates, utility based service on demand
7. Health Care: the Affordable Care Act, health information and insurance exchanges, health enterprise
architecture, assessment, partnering, implementation, technology solutions, Medicaid Systems (planning,
retiring, implementing, purchasing), eligibility determination
8. Legacy modernization: enhancing, renovating, replacing, legacy platforms and applications, business
process improvement
9. Interoperable Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network: planning, governance, collaboration,
defining roles, asset determination
10. Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity: improving disaster recovery, business continuity planning
and readiness, pandemic flu / epidemic and IT impact, testing
Role of the CIO
“The role of the CIO has changed. And that change has gone in parellel with the recognition of how valuable is. But technology can’t solve all problems. CIOs have gained credibility because they have a much broader view of the enterprise,” said Sweden.