NASCIO Names Finalists for 2015 State IT Recognition Awards

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) announced the last round of contenders for its State IT Recognition Awards, highlighting the year’s elite public sector state information technology campaigns.

Forty-four IT strategies were selected across 11 categories. Cybersecurity standouts include Colorado’s Secure Colorado: Achieving Quick and Sustainable Risk Reduction; Idaho’s Cyber Security Program; Michigan’s Michigan Cyber Disruption Response Strategy; and Pennsylvania’s Advanced Cyber Analytics Improves Pennsylvania’s Cybersecurity Intelligence and Response Program.

Colorado also earned recognition for emerging and innovative technologies through itsPEAKHealth Mobile Application. Completing the category are Crowdsourcing Minnesota's Unsession; Oregon Road Usage Charge; and Washington’s COBOL to Cloud: Transparent, Real-Time Change Detection and Data Exchange from On-Premises Legacy Mainframe System to Software as a Service.

In terms of improving state operations, California was nominated for its Strategic Offender Management System Project. Pennsylvania’s PennDOT Mobile Highway Construction App was chosen, as were Massachusetts’ Preventing Healthcare Fraud through Predictive Modeling, and Iowa’s Internet Unemployment System (iUS).

Furthermore, the awards committee pointed out that the process of selecting winners is different from what occurs in similar programs.

“Unlike many award programs that honor state IT projects, NASCIO awards are determined by peer review,” committee co-chair and Oklahoma CIO James “Bo” Reese said in a press release. “I believe this distinction is very meaningful to award finalists; it is a nod from your colleagues nation-wide that says you’re doing amazing work.”

The full list of nominees can be found at NASCIO’s website.