How State CIOs Are Focusing on the Enterprise
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How State CIOs Are Focusing on the Enterprise
State CIOs are tasked with taking proactive steps to ensure that IT efforts are current and properly aligned with the business. -
Team Work
82% of surveyed state CIOs and senior-level IT decision-makers collaborate with business to develop both business and IT strategies, plans and tactics. -
Smashing Silos
68% of those surveyed said the state has an enterprisewide business strategy, with an IT strategy that supports it. -
All Systems Go
67% said that there are processes and governance in place to ensure that the enterprisewide IT strategy remains current while being aligned with business and communicated effectively. -
Savvy State, Part I
59% said business has a good understanding of how to use IT to consistently improve. -
Savvy State, Part II
59% said it's generally known which IT decisions should be made on an enterprise level, and which should remain the jurisdiction of individual agencies. -
Shared Resources
53% said there is a platform or platforms of standard business processes, applications and data that provides input for investment decision-making enterprisewide. -
Directional Signal
53% said the state has a roadmap to align infrastructure and app deployment within each agency, as well as throughout the enterprise. -
Planning for Success
77% said that processes and governance are in place to support IT project prioritization, decision-making, funding and other initiatives. -
Singular View
56% said that there is a single system used to track requests, provide status to business/IT and capture data related to demand management. -
Incomplete Effort
Only 35% measure benefits realized after a project has been completed. -
Status Quo
44% said they spend more than 80 cents of every budget dollar on maintaining existing systems, limiting the opportunity for innovation.
Most state CIOs are implementing enterprisewide strategies to best support business efforts and make better investment decisions, according to a recent survey from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and Infosys Public Services. The resulting report, titled "Is State IT Working on the Right Things?" indicates that these CIOs are taking proactive steps to ensure that IT efforts are current and properly aligned with business. They're also moving forward with consolidation efforts to establish a single system for tracking and managing business requests. Most of the survey results are encouraging, but there are areas in which state CIOs can improve: Relatively few are measuring benefits of completed projects, and they're still spending too much of their budget on the maintenance of existing systems as opposed to innovation. While the findings are focused upon CIOs in the public sector, they provide useful perspectives for tech leaders within all industries who are dealing with the same challenges. "While state IT departments are starting to address shortcomings in their decision criteria and processes, there is still a lot to be done," said Doug Robinson, executive director of NASCIO. "Accelerating the pace of change will require principled direction, well-defined operating schemes and improved investment in management practices." A total of 34 state CIOs and other senior-level state IT decision-makers took part in the research.