NASCIO’s Monthly E-Newsletter

November 2006

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To submit information for the next edition, contact Dianne Adams, NASCIO Fast Facts editor.
 

TOP STORIES

  • NASCIO's Annual Conference held in Miami, Florida

    October 15-18 CIOs and officials from 43 states along with representatives from 113 related groups and companies converged on Miami for the 2006 NASCIO Annual Conference. The theme of the event was Leadership and Innovation in Changing Times, and the conference featured a wide variety of speakers and sessions. A first for NASCIO, this year webcasts of all conference sessions have been archived and are available for review. Click here to access these archives. Also available are the interactive audience polling results, individual speaker presentations and a webcast of Monday's keynote address by Neal Petersen.

    At the conference NASCIO announced the new officers for the 2006-2007 program year. Teri Takai, CIO of Michigan will serve as President. Terry Savage, Nevada, has been elected Vice President and John Gillispie, Iowa, will serve as Secretary/Treasurer. Click here to access the complete Executive Committee roster.

  • NASCIO Presents 2006 Meritorious Service Award

    NASCIO presented Delaware CIO Thomas Jarrett with its prestigious Meritorious Service Award on October 17, 2006. NASCIO created the Meritorious Service Award to spotlight a state CIO who has exemplified outstanding service, advocacy, and leadership in state government. Jarrett has been a consistent champion of the vision, mission and principles of NASCIO.

    Jarrett was named Cabinet Secretary of the Delaware Department of Technology and Information and Delaware State Chief Information Officer in 2001. He serves as Governor Minner's chief advisor on technology matters and as the Chairman of Delaware's Technology Investment Council. Over the past five years, Jarrett has managed the transition of the Office of Information Services to the new Department of Technology and Information (DTI). Today DTI, under Jarrett's direction, utilizes business case methodology for review and approval of all state government IT projects, and has implemented its own compensation and performance packages. Jarrett has been an active member of NASCIO since 2001. He has served as chair of several committees and has held the position of NASCIO Vice President and President.

    "Tom Jarrett's exceptional leadership skills and diplomatic finesse are second to none," said Iowa CIO John Gillispie, who nominated Jarrett for this year's award. "As a past President of NASCIO and Chair of numerous committees, Mr. Jarrett has vigorously championed NASCIO's mission to foster government excellence through quality business practices, information management, and technology policy. His longstanding commitment and dedication have been instrumental in NASCIO being recognized as a national leader in IT policy at all levels of government."

    Click here to read more.

  • 2006 NASCIO Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in State IT Announced

    Recipients of the 2006 NASCIO Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology in State Government were announced on October 17 at the State Dinner held in conjunction with NASCIO's Annual Conference. NASCIO selected twelve state IT initiatives in ten categories to receive the 2006 Recognition Awards.

    NASCIO's Recognition Awards Program, in its 18th consecutive year, featured several new categories, which reflect the wide range of IT projects currently under development within state governments. Emphasis was placed on recognizing programs that exemplify best practices, support the public policy goals of state leaders, assist government officials to execute their duties and provide cost-effective services to citizens.

    State government projects and initiatives from each of the 50 US states were eligible to be nominated for these prestigious annual awards. Criteria for selection included a description of the project with length of time in operation; relative significance to the operation of government; benefits realized by service recipients, taxpayers, agency, and state; and return on investment. The twelve award-winning entries were chosen from a record 139 submissions by 33 states. Full submissions from all nominations are posted on NASCIO's website at http://www.nascio.org/awards/.


NASCIO In The News

October was designated as Cybersecurity Month. Many states capitalized on this opportunity to educate internet user of all ages about safe computing and internet practices. One example is the Delaware Department of Technology and Information's cybersecurity bus.

Members In The News

  • CIO Transitions

    MASSACHUSETTS
    Massachusetts CIO Louis Gutierrez resigned from his post effective November 3, 2006, after only eight months of service, citing concerns about the lack of state funding for IT projects. Gutierrez has accepted a position as principal at Cambridge-based Exeter Group, Inc.

    Bethann Pepoli has been named Acting Massachusetts CIO by Thomas Trimarco, the Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance. Pepoli, who formerly served as deputy state CIO under Gutierrez, also served as interim CIO earlier this year after the resignation of former state CIO Peter Quinn.

  • Williams Featured in Government Technology

    Rhode Island CIO Tracy Williams was recently featured in Government Technology magazine. The Q&A format showcased the many hats that Williams wears in her state position. While many folks are aware that she is involved in the development of Rhode Island's health information exchange system, most are surprised to learn that in addition to serving as the state's CIO, Williams also serves as the assistant state court administrator of Rhode Island's state Supreme Court. Click here for more information.

  • Ackles Featured in Government Computer News

    Michele Ackles, deputy principal assistant at Delaware's Department of Technology and Information, was recently featured in Government Computer News for her leadership role in Access Delaware, a project designed to bring Internet access and provide government information to all citizens across the state. Click here for more information.

  • New Corporate Members

    NASCIO is pleased to welcome Compuware as its newest corporate member.

Staff Updates

  • NASCIO Issues Coordinator Stephanie Jamison represented NASCIO at eHealth Initiative's Third Health Information Technology Summit in Washington, DC on September 25-27. NASCIO was a co-sponsor for this event which featured keynote speakers Michael Leavitt, Secretary for Health and Human Services, Dr. Robert Kolodner, Interim National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel Corporation, and Mark McClellan from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Panel discussions included strategies for HIT adoption by state policy-makers, policy goals and strategies on the federal level, establishing national standards, and privacy issues.

  • Eric Sweden, NASCIO's Enterprise Architect, presented to the Northern Illinois Planning Commission in Chicago, Illinois, on October 24. This presentation and subsequent discussion included the subjects of information sharing, NIEM and the NASCIO Enterprise Architecture Program. Illinois CIO Rafael Diaz was also in attendance. Other participants represented federal, state, and local government agencies including environmental protection, public health, health and human services, economic development, and information systems.

  • NASCIO Past President Matthew Miszewski and Eric Sweden attended the Global Advisory Committee (GAC) meeting on November 2. At the meeting a new chair and vice chair were elected to the GAC. Various Global committees provided project updates. These presentations were followed by general discussion on issues related to enterprise architecture, security and privacy, NIEM and ongoing relationship building at the state and local levels of government.

  • Eric Sweden also participated in the Global Infrastructure and Standards Working Group - Executive Architecture Committee strategic planning meeting on behalf of NASCIO. Planned deliverables from this working group include the Global Justice Reference Architecture for SOA and guidance documents on security and privacy issues related to SOA. These documents are expected to be released during the first quarter of 2007.

Committee & Work Group Updates

  • NASCIO's recently formed Best Practices and Innovations Working Group is developing a white paper addressing the topic of best practices and innovations applicable to the state IT enterprise. This white paper will identify critical line of business best practices and emerging trends from sources preexisting in state government and based on ideas that can be replicated from the private sector. The white paper will establish guidelines to help states identify innovative solutions to common business issues and will also outline processes to implement and manage those solutions once identified. Anticipated release of this working group's paper is late January 2007.
  • Plans are well under way for the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Working Group's scenario-based video project. This video's target audience will be elected officials and government leaders who influence funding decisions related to disaster recovery planning. This DVD will serve as a tool to demonstrate the critical dependencies that government has on the functions enabled by IT. Several interviews with state CIOs were taped during NASCIO's Annual Conference in October, and the working group is now integrating these into the video project. The anticipated release date for this video is January 2007.
  • NASCIO's Enterprise Architecture Committee presented a webinar on November 9 featuring Dick Burk of the US Office of Management and Budget and Keith Tucker of the US Department of the Interior. The presentation, entitled Making the Federal Reference Models Work: Developing Segment Architecture for Lines of Business will be archived and available for viewing next week.
  • The Enterprise Infrastructure and Services Committee recently released an issue brief entitled Relationships Matter: Customer Service Strategies to Promote Enterprise Services. This brief provides an overview of the challenges state CIOs face when promoting enterprise services under statewide IT consolidation and shared services initiatives. The brief also identifies methods for achieving strategic initiatives using proven customer service strategies and examines the types of business processes used to successfully launch and promote consolidation and shared enterprise services. The committee is currently finalizing a second issue brief on this subject which will delve further into the topic of using CRM tools and strategies to sustain relationships with agencies once the CIO has established buy-in for consolidated and shared enterprise services. Release of this second brief is anticipated in early December.
  • NASCIO’s Health Information Technology Committee has recently completed work on a compendium of state health information technology (HIT) initiatives. This report, entitled Profiles of Progress: State Health IT Initiatives provides a state-by-state “snapshot” of progress that each state has made in the health information technology (HIT) implementation process. Each individual state profile highlights the steps that states are taking with regard to HIT issues, from Executive Orders and legislative-driven initiatives to public/private or non-profit relationships. This compendium also examines what function, if any, the state CIO has in these efforts. Health information technology is a rapidly growing faction of health care reform and this compendium seeks to capture where states, and state CIOs, stand in the midst of the progress.
  • NASCIO's State IT Project Management (PM) Forum released an issue brief, Looking to the Future: Challenges & Opportunities for Government IT Project Management Offices, addressing many of the top challenges facing state government projects. Subjects covered in the brief include portfolio management, strategic planning, project management skill maturity, political risks, structures/organizations, procurement processes/rules, funding models and spending cultures particular to government. This brief addresses both the challenges and opportunities inherent to emerging discipline and further outlines strategies and best practices proven to be successful in several states.
  • The Security and Privacy Committee is pleased to announce the release of its latest research brief entitled, Keeping Citizen Trust: What Can a State CIO Do to Protect Privacy? This research brief examines how privacy in the state government context has evolved as a defining issue in response to rapidly changing technological advances and the complexities of a fast-paced world. The brief then explores some initial areas in which a state CIO may encounter privacy issues, including in the context of IT governance, enterprise architecture, policy, security and business processes, and offers some potential ways of addressing those issues.
  • NASCIO Executive Director Doug Robinson and Issues Coordinator Mary Gay Whitmer are currently revising NASCIO's 2002 publication, the Chief Information Officer Transition Handbook. The new version will contain updated information about the current state IT environment and an overview of the important issues that new state CIOs (and seasoned CIOs as well) are likely to face in the next several years. NASCIO anticipates the 2006 Transition Handbook will be released in mid-December.

Mark Your Calendar

  • Upcoming Committee Calls
    Best Practices Working Group - Thursday, November 30 at 3:30 pm ET
    Executive Committee - Thursday, December 7 at 2:00 pm ET
    Corporate Leadership Council - Thursday, December 14 at 4:00 pm ET
  • Other Events of Interest
    NEIM Training
    Executive Briefing - Tuesday, November 28, 2006, 1:00 - 5:00 pm EST George Washington University, Ashburn, VA
    There is no cost to attend, but advanced registration is required. For more information, click here.

    Practical Implementers Training - Wednesday, November 29 - Friday, December 1, 2006 George Washington University, Ashburn, VA
    The registration fee for this 3-day course is $195. For more information, click here.