The State CIO: Partnering to Drive Innovation
LEXINGTON, Ky., Monday, October 14 — One of the National Association of State Chief Information Officer’s (NASCIO) guiding principles is to “promote the CIO as the technology leader who drives innovation and transformation.” To advance this belief, the NASCIO CIO Leadership Working Group explored the various structures and relationships of the state CIO’s role and how these differences impact the state CIO’s participation in government transformation and innovation in a report, “State CIO Leadership in Government Innovation and Transformation.”
The Working Group examined the numerous structures and relationships of the state CIO’s role and how the differences impact the state CIO’s participation in government transformation and innovation. It was discovered that a “one size fits all” approach is not the objective given and there are clear reasons for variations. State models are influenced by factors such as the position of the office within the governor’s leadership team, the span of authority granted by statute or policy, the services being provided, and human resource constraints.
“CIOs must adapt to quickly evolving technology, disruptive forces, and a new generation of customers,” said David Behen, NASCIO CIO Leadership Chair and chief information officer for the State of Michigan.
“We looked at how the role of the CIO might evolve given ‘forces’ that could impact this evolution, such as technology disrupters and innovation,” said John Letchford, NASCIO CIO Leadership Chair and chief information officer, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “We also discussed these ‘forces’ and critical success factors with private sector CIOs to learn how they have evolved their position, authority, and responsibility to support corporate transformation.”
This whitepaper was prepared as a guide for CIOs, Governors, and other state officials to learn more about the various models that exist and how those models could evolve to support the direction of the enterprise. For more information and to view the whitepaper, visit www.nascio.org/publications/.
