At NASCIO 2017 State CIOs Will Reveal Best Practices for Cloud, Procurement and More
Government IT leaders face no shortage of challenges, ranging from rapid technological change and limited budgets to a daily barrage of security threats. At the same time, innovations in areas such as data center networking and cloud computing are empowering IT departments to play a major role in engaging citizens and transforming government.
To make the most of those opportunities, state CIOs and their staffs will gather to exchange ideas and share best practices at the upcoming NASCIO 2017 Annual Conference. The event, which takes place in Austin, Texas, Oct. 1-4, will include discussion of NASCIO’s Top Ten Policy and Technology Priorities for 2017, with five IT leaders each delivering a five-minute focused talk on one of the priorities.
Tennessee’s Mark Bengel, for example, will discuss consolidation and optimization. Bengel has led his state in its Enterprise IT Transformation initiative to improve services. “Our EIT project has allowed us to do more by leveraging shared enterprise resources,” he said in a press release earlier this year. “We really do have some amazing things brewing here in Tennessee. We can’t wait to see what the future will bring us.”
Other speakers will be CIO Mike Hussey of Utah discussing cloud services; Washington CIO Michael Cockrill talking about budget and cost control; CIO James Collins of Delaware speaking on valuing diversity; and Colorado CTO David McCurdy discussing enterprise IT governance.
Another highlight of the agenda: Government and private-sector experts will delve into the results of a recent state CIO survey conducted over the summer by NASCIO, CompTIA and Grant Thornton. Although the latest survey findings will not be released until after the session, prior surveys revealed a steady progression toward data center consolidation and increased use of outsourcing. Also, the overwhelming majority of CIOs indicated data governance and management were key factors in their strategic agendas and operational plans. We’ll soon see if these trends continue.
The conference also will focus on procurement reform and transformation, an area that NASCIO and the National Association of State Procurement Officers have addressed together for two years. Minnesota CIO Tom Baden and Sarah Hilderbrand, chief procurement officer for Idaho, will review the work of a joint task force that considered IT procurement negotiations.
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