Giving IT Greatness Its Due

With Michigan scooping five of the 10 2006 National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) Recognition Awards — in categories as diverse as Digital Government: Government to Business, Enterprise Information Technology Management Initiatives, and IT Project and Portfolio Management — it’s something of an understatement to describe 2006 as Michigan’s year.

So, what were the driving factors behind Michigan’s success? StateTech spoke with Teri Takai, Michigan’s CIO, to find out.

“One of the key factors is that as we develop our projects, we really try to keep the value of these projects to the department and the citizens in the forefront of our minds. We try to quantify these benefits to ensure that we’re getting value for the money that we’re spending on technology,” Takai says.

Recognizing that every state IT department is involved in innovative IT projects, Takai advises them to continue doing what they’re doing today.

“I would just encourage state IT departments to always make sure that they’re really gauging the success of that technology in terms of what the citizens gain from it. That can sometimes be kind of hard for us to articulate as technical people. We make the mistake of thinking that technology speaks for itself,” she says.

Takai believes that IT departments can fall into the trap of thinking that whiz-bang technology and sophisticated solutions are always more effective, whereas it’s often the simple things — such as adding a few extra features to an existing program — that can make the biggest impact.

2006 NASCIO Recognition Awards