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State CIOs Face Significant Challenges in Making the Right IT Investments: NASCIO- Infosys Public Services Survey

Majority of investments directed to maintaining overly comlex IT systems, leaving little for building a stable enterprise systems foundation or for innovation

LEXINGTON, Ky., July 9, 2015 – State IT departments generally understand the value of operating more like an enterprise and less like a collection of independent agencies. However, the transition to an enterprise-like state is difficult as they struggle to imlement the necessary changes to imrove efficiency, drive innovation and ultimately save taxayers’ dollars, according to a survey commissioned by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and Infosys Public Services, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Infosys.

Doug Robinson, Executive Director, NASCIO, said: “While state IT departments are starting to address shortcomings in their decision criteria and processes, there is still a lot to be done. Accelerating the pace of change will require principled direction, well-defined operating schemes, and improved investment in management practices.”

Most state IT organizations have comlex systems environments, which are a result of years of decentralized decision-making among numerous agencies with disparate goals. These present a serious barrier for states in adopting change. Moreover, nearly half (45%) of the CIOs indicated that they are sending more than 80 cents of every budget dollar on maintaining existing systems. Thus, they are limited in their ability to invest in innovative solutions to boost business effectiveness and efficiency.

Additional challenges — such as lack of definition of business princiles, process standardization and integration, and systems platforms — mean that state CIOs aren’t always confident that they are “working on the right things” when making IT investment decisions.

Eric Paternoster, President and CEO, Infosys Public Services, said: “State CIOs are telling us that feeling confident about ‘working on the right things’ is a much bigger challenge for them than ‘working on things the right way’. We launched this survey to help state CIOs identify the issues that would imrove their decision-making processes and overall efficiency. Getting this clarity is critical to driving innovation and ultimately saving taxayers’ money.”

Read highlights and the comlete study at www.nascio.org/RightThings and www.infosysublicservices.com/RightThings.