PA enterprise architect model
In 2017 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania adopted a shared services model to balance the demand for resources, people, and money and establish a clear set of guiding principles for better decision making. With the FEAF (Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework) as the guiding industry standard, they use a customized version to look for all demand for IT resources.
Pandemic pushed emerging technology into mainstream
Just as the lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of many private companies, the pandemic also forced many state governments to rapidly deploy IT solutions that would address the need to provide online access to state services.
Survey results
Barriers to adoption
Not surprisingly budgetary concerns ranked high as a significant barrier to adoption. This will not get easier in the years ahead as states try to recoup revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic in addition to ongoing cost pressure. Other issues ranked as obstacles include aligning use cases to technology, legacy IT infrastructure, a lack of necessary staff skills and organizational silos.
Still, CIOs also listed a lack of skills as another area of concern. This is made even more acute by the “talent tsunami.” The aging workforce in state governments has and will create significant challenges for IT organizations over the next several years. Many states report that more than 20% of their workforce is eligible for retirement in the next several years and many of these older employees are the ones most familiar with the infrastructure on which many systems are built.
Survey results
The way forward: CIO as broker of IT services
Across the board, we found that most CIOs are eager to embrace emerging technology, provided they can align the technology to projects that advance the state’s overarching digital transformation. In many ways, emerging technologies represent the natural evolution of the state CIO’s role from caretaker of the IT infrastructure to an overall broker of services, in this case one who takes a holistic approach to managing the state’s digital transformation.
That’s not to say that CIOs no longer need to care about keeping the lights on and ensure that core IT functions such as storage and network operations, among others, run smoothly. As CIOs integrate emerging technology into their organizations, they will need to consider a number of actions that will optimize their digital transformation and minimize risk to their organization.
- Adopt emerging technology by design, not by default.
- Include emerging technology in the enterprise architecture.
- Fund emerging technology through an innovation fund.
- Seek procurement waivers for emerging technology. competitive RFPs.
- Organize vendor demonstrations of emerging technology.
- Facilitate emerging technology cross-agency pilot projects.
- Avoid the top-down approach to emerging technology.
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Read moreSummary
State chief information officers (CIOs) are under increasing pressure to deliver a seamless, digital experience to citizens while providing key IT infrastructure support for state agencies. And they will likely be asked to do more with less as state governments face ongoing budget pressure, especially in light of revenue shortfalls related to the COVID-19 pandemic.