State CIOs to Focus on Cybersecurity, Consolidation, Cloud in 2014 Annual NASCIO Survey Reveals Top 10 Strategies and Technologies for States

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LEXINGTON, Ky., November 5, 2013 — Security, consolidation, cloud services and enterprise portfolio management top the list of critical state CIO priorities in 2014, according to state information technology leaders surveyed by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). The prioritized rankings of strategies and technologies reflect voting by state CIOs and are available for download from NASCIO at www.nascio.org/publications/

This year, NASCIO’s annual top 10 ranking shows IT security strategies and tools are at the forefront of discussion around the states, with ‘Security’ topping the list of Priority Strategies, Management Processes and Solutions and ‘Security Enhancement Tools,’ such as continuous diagnostic monitoring, coming in second among Priority Technologies, Applications, and Tools. Following closely behind were efforts at consolidation and a continued transition to cloud services.

Project and Portfolio Management enters the top 10 for the first time in the history of NASCIO’s rankings and assumes position 4. Security, always a member of the top 10, moves to position 1.

“It is significant that security has now risen to the number one priority on our top 10 list,” said NASCIO President and Mississippi Chief Information Officer Craig Orgeron. “As I presented in congressional testimony before the Committee on Homeland Security last week, cyber-attacks against state governments are growing in number and becoming increasingly sophisticated. Security has to be the top priority for all sectors. Clearly from our top 10 voting results, the state CIOs agree on this.”

The 2014 priorities align with the results of the Annual State CIO Survey conducted by NASCIO in partnership with TechAmerica and Grant Thornton. “The results of our top 10 voting correlate very closely with the results of our more in depth 2013 State CIO survey and report,” said Doug Robinson, NASCIO’s executive director. “We’ll clearly see more discipline and investment in managing portfolios at the enterprise level – pursuing the right projects with the right governance and oversight. In the coming months, our Enterprise Architecture & Governance Committee will be publishing in this area and hosting webinars to inform states on opportunities and best practices.”

NASCIO utilizes the annual list of priorities to develop strategic areas of focus for the coming year, formulate new committees and working groups, and plan NASCIO conference sessions and publications.

NASCIO President Testifies Before Congress on State Cybersecurity Readiness

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LEXINGTON, Ky., Wednesday, October 30 — On Wednesday, Craig Orgeron, President of the National Association Of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and State of Mississippi’s Secretary of the Office of Information Technology Services, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives on the readiness of state IT systems.

Before a joint hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications and Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies of the Homeland Security Committee, Orgeron explained that, “the state of Mississippi’s IT systems, like systems from all states, face cyber-attacks ranging from a few thousand stamps to as many as 10 million per day–some domestic, many international. To win this ongoing battle, state IT experts need to be right every time, while hackers need to be right only once. As these attacks continue to grow more sophisticated, both public and private sector entities will need to develop better tools and increase collaboration to both deter attacks and plan a coordinated response to contain the damage from successful attacks. “

Orgeron emphasized ongoing efforts to build better governance models and frameworks for securing state systems. In addition, Orgeron stressed the need for maturing the processes for collaboration between state and federal entities, along with the private sector.

To read the full testimony of President Orgeron, click here.

To see a video of the full hearing, click here.

NASCIO Announces New Executive Leadership

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LEXINGTON, Ky., Monday, October 28 — Top state information technology leaders have been selected to serve as new program year Executive Committee for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). The association is now led by Craig Orgeron, Mississippi chief information officer and executive director, and NASCIO president for the 2013-14 program year. Orgeron succeeds Nebraska chief information officer, Brenda Decker.

NASCIO’s 2013-14 Executive Committee leaders are:

Executive Committee Officers:
President – Craig Orgeron, Chief Information Officer and Executive Director, Mississippi
Vice President – Stu Davis, State Chief Information Officer and Assistant Director, Ohio
Secretary/Treasurer – David Gustafson, Chief Information Officer, Nevada
Past President – Brenda Decker, Chief Information Officer, Nebraska

Executive Committee Directors:
Claire Bailey, Director and Chief Technology Officer, Arkansas
Carlos Ramos, State Chief Information Officer, California
Karen Robinson, Chief Information Officer, Texas
Jim Sills, Secretary and Chief Information Officer, Delaware
Darryl Ackley, Secretary and Chief Information Officer, New Mexico
John Letchford, Chief Information Officer and Assistant Secretary for IT, Massachusetts
Calvin Rhodes, Executive Director and State Chief Information Officer, Georgia

NASCIO to Partner with Georgia Tech Research Institute on NIEF QuickStart Program

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LEXINGTON, KY, Tuesday, October 22, 2013 — Building on the adoption of the National Identity Exchange Federation (NIEF), the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has partnered with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) to pilot the NIEF QuickStart Program in multiple states to promote data exchange among law enforcement, public safety, and emergency management agencies.

The goal of the pilot is to provide a standard, commoditized capability of trusted identity and attribute sharing. NIEF member agencies can leverage this capability to achieve wide-scale identity reuse, single sign-on (SSO) to resources, and policy compliant control of access to the broadest set of public safety-related information resources at all levels of government. This approach promises to deliver a marked improvement in the efficiency and automation of policy-based access control decisions on information resources. The goals of the pilot are to strategically jump-start key states’ information exchange capabilities, improve awareness of NIEF’s strategic vision, and drive an increased value proposition for all NIEF participants.

“States have struggled to develop identity trust frameworks, but the NIEF QuickStart Program will demonstrate the value proposition of a common framework,” stated NASCIO Executive Director, Doug Robinson. “The value of any federation or information sharing environment increases with the number of participants, and the pilot participants will be seeds that drive wide adoption.”

GTRI will assist selected participants by facilitating and shepherding them through NIEF’s formal on-boarding process. It is expected that the selected on-boarding projects will be completed in approximately twelve (12) months.

“Over time, the NIEF QuickStart Program will create a way for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to create an affordable, fast and repeatable process for on-boarding into a common trusted environment for identity and attribute exchange,” said John Wandelt, who is a GTRI Research Fellow and the Executive Director of NIEF. “Scalability is vital, and this pilot will demonstrate the practicality of rapid NIEF on-boarding for partners of any size.”

It is expected that the NIEF QuickStart Program will eventually grow to accommodate and facilitate on-boarding of agencies at all levels of government, but the pilot phase of the program is targeted primarily towards U.S. states and state-level agencies. NASCIO and GTRI seek to quickly engage with interested states and begin executing on the selection process. States interested in submitting a readiness assessment profile for the NIEF QuickStart Program can go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/R8Z7CBN and submit an assessment profile online. For more details on NIEF, please visit https://nief.gfipm.net/.

This effort is a partnership between the US Department of Homeland Security, Program Management Office for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE) and the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and is led by the GTRI/NASCIO team. Funding for this effort is provided by the PM-ISE through BJA.

About GTRI
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is a highly regarded applied research and development organization that is part of the Georgia Institute of Technology, one of the world’s top-ranked research universities. With more than 1,700 scientists, engineers and other professionals, GTRI helps solve the most difficult problems facing government and industry across the nation and around the world. For more information on GTRI visit www.gtri.gatech.edu.

NASCIO Launches Inaugural CISO Scholarship Program

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. Wednesday, October 16 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), awarded the Thomas M. Jarrett State Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Conference Scholarship to three deserving CISO’s during the 2013 Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

2013 is the year of inception for this program, which was created to pay homage to Thomas M. Jarrett, past president of NASCIO (2004 – 2005), for his passion for cybersecurity. The scholarship grants current CISO's the opportunity to attend the NASCIO Annual Conference.

Due to their dedication and leadership in cybersecurity, the following individuals were selected to receive the scholarship:

John Byers, Chief Information Security Officer, State of Kansas

Brian Engle, Director and Chief Information Security Officer, State of Texas

David Brown, Chief Information Security Officer, State of Ohio

NASCIO Recognizes Exceptional Contributions in State Government

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Tuesday, October 15 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) honored Scott Gessler, Colorado Secretary of State and Selvi Stanislaus, Executive Officer, State of California, Franchise Tax Board, with the association’s State Technology Innovator award. The awards were presented during NASCIO’s 2013 Annual Conference in Philadelphia, Pa.

To encourage valid voter registration and reduce the potential for fraud and abuse of the system, Secretary of State Scott Gessler spearheaded a focused effort to make registering to vote more accessible and voter rolls more accurate in the state of Colorado. To make registering to vote easier and more accessible, Secretary Gessler and his office developed the first mobile-optimized voter registration site in the country. GoVoteColorado.com enabled Coloradans to register to vote through their mobile device for the 2012 election and avoid the inconvenient trip to the post office.

Stanislaus extraordinary efforts helped the nation’s most populous state close its tax gap and get on with the critical work of service delivery for all Californians. She leads the nation’s second largest tax department with over 5,300 permanent and 2,000 seasonal and intermittent employees nationwide. Under Stanislaus’ leadership, Franchise Tax Board (FTB) brings in roughly $55 billion annually—more than 65 percent of California’s annual General Fund revenue. Each year, FTB processes more than 17 million personal income tax returns and more than 1 million business entity tax returns.

Nominations were gathered from NASCIO members as well as non-members. NASCIO presents the State Technology Innovator Award on an annual basis to recognize state leaders who steadily promote innovation, excellence and good government. Nominees must be an employee of, elected official, appointed official or other appointee representing state government.

NASCIO Honors Dugan Petty CIO for Exceptional Service in State Government

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Tuesday, October 15 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) recognizes Dugan Petty, past NASCIO president and former chief information officer (CIO) for the State of Oregon, with the association’s Meritorious Service Award. Petty was honored during a special ceremony last night at the NASCIO Annual Conference in Philadelphia, Pa.

To spotlight outstanding service, NASCIO created the Meritorious Service Award, honoring leadership in state government and dedication to the advancement of NASCIO's mission. The association’s achievements have largely been the product of the enthusiasm, focus and dedicated service of its members, and in turn, this commitment to excellence has served as a catalyst to redefine the role of technology at the federal, state and local levels.

Petty’s service as CIO of the State of Oregon began in 2006, where he led the creation and execution of Oregon’s enterprise-level information resource strategy aimed at reducing costly duplication of efforts and resources. Before becoming the state CIO of Oregon, Dugan directed state contracting and procurement, risk management, and served as the deputy administrator for the State Services Division. He has led a number of enterprise level initiatives in Oregon. He previously served on several committees with NASCIO including vice president for the association, chair of the Programs Committee, co-chair of the Enterprise Architecture and Governance Committee and chair of the Green IT Committee.

“As the NASCIO president and a previous recipient of the NASCIO Meritorious Award, it is my great honor to present Dugan with this prestigious award,” said Brenda Decker, NASCIO president and Nebraska chief information officer.

NASCIO Recognizes Outstanding Achievement in State Government Receipients Announced for 2013 NASCIO Recognition Awards

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LEXINGTON, Ky., Monday October 14 — Eleven exemplary initiatives were chosen as recipients for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ (NASCIO) 2013 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology in State Government.

According to NASCIO, innovation and excellence continue to thrive in state government. These projects demonstrate that states strive to support the public policy goals of state leaders, provide cost-effective service to citizens, and make available solutions that are transferable to other agencies or units of government.

Celebrating 25 years, the NASCIO awards program will recognize one project in each category with this prestigious award during the State Dinner and Awards Presentation at the 2013 NASCIO Annual Conference on October 14.

The 2013 awards recipients are as follows:

Cross-Boundary Collaboration and Partnerships
Nebraska: Network Nebraska-Education

Data, Information and Knowledge Management
Michigan: Unemployment Insurance Agency Overpayment Recovery

Digital Government: Government to Business
California: Electronic Services Expansion Project

Digital Government: Government to Citizen
Massachusetts: mTicketing for Commuter Rail and Ferry Services

Enterprise IT Management Initiatives
Minnesota: Managing State IT Through Service Level Agreement: An Unprecedented Journey

Fast Track Solutions
Utah: Legislative Bill Watch

Improving State Operations
California: Business Information System Project

Information Communications Technology Innovations
Hawai’i: Mobile Emergency Response and Command Interface (MERCI)

Open Government Initiatives
Utah: Utah’s Open Transportation Data in the Cloud with uGate and UPlan

Cybersecurity
Michigan: Cyber Training 3.0: New Solutions Addressing Escalating Security Risks

State CIO Office Special Recognition
Virginia: eGov Business Process Re-engineering

This is the 25th anniversary for the awards program. The Awards Committee, comprised of judges from NASCIO’s state and corporate members, selected the 2013 award finalists. Full submissions from over 100 nominations are posted on NASCIO’s website at www.nascio.org/awards.  

The State CIO: Partnering to Drive Innovation

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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/.

Enterprise Vision, Governance, and Services are Priorities say State CIOs

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PHILADELPHIA, October 14 – The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), TechAmerica, and Grant Thornton LLP today release the 2013 annual survey of state chief information officers (CIOs), The Enterprise Imperative: Leading Through Governance, Portfolio Management, and Collaboration. This fourth annual survey report discusses how state CIOs are advancing their enterprise vision for information technology (IT). The pressures for operational cost savings and optimization continue unabated; as a result, state CIOs are emphasizing effective enterprise governance models, adopting business disciplines, and forging the right relationships for collaboration.

Last year’s survey identified the balancing act that CIOs must maintain both in providing high-quality services and in delivering new, innovative solutions. These demands have not decreased over the past year, and CIOs are responding by focusing on the enterprise and by coordinating across boundaries. The enterprise focus could involve integrating governance and portfolio management across the state, improving the effectiveness of IT procurement, or deploying statewide identity and access management solutions. CIOs are also reaching out across traditional boundaries to collaborate with other branches of state government and with local governments.

“While CIOs continue to face a wide variety of challenges in the effective delivery of technology services, the reforms they are driving consistently embrace a common philosophy: adopt an enterprise vision, drive enterprise thinking, and implement enterprise solutions,” says Doug Robinson, NASCIO’s executive director. “Whether it is IT shared services, security vulnerability monitoring, or Software as a Service, many of the most critical initiatives under way today require an enterprise-wide approach in order to be effective.”

The economic recession increased pressure on state leaders to examine alternative approaches to many services traditionally owned and delivered by state government. This included a focus on IT infrastructure, applications, and services. As a result, CIOs are concerned about the business models and sourcing strategies they use within their organizations.

“A lengthy and cumbersome IT procurement process remains a top concern for the majority of state CIOs, the survey found,” says Trey Hodgkins, TechAmerica’s senior vice president for the Global Public Sector. “The survey also reveals that the risk-averse culture of a procurement process that inhibits innovation continues to be a major problem for states around the country. It is worth noting that CIOs recognize that reasonable IT terms and conditions are important, but the findings demonstrate that CIOs are divided on whether their states are equitably sharing risk with vendors during the contracting process.”

According to the CIOs, the most desired procurement reforms are better training, more opportunity for negotiation during the procurement process, and development of standard terms and conditions for cloud and/or Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings.

The survey finds that integration and collaboration are increasingly occurring beyond the boundaries of the state’s executive branch, with shared services across jurisdictional boundaries rapidly becoming the norm. Through use of social media and mobile technology, citizens are also becoming partners in this integration, and they are leveraging identity and access management frameworks designed for everyone in the state – not just for state employees.

“State CIOs are in a unique position to lead their states in embracing an enterprise viewpoint and in delivering an integrated suite of IT services to their government customers and citizenry,” says Srikant Sastry, Managing Principal of Grant Thornton’s Global Public Sector practice. “Many of the traditional challenges – governance, cost, and the decentralized nature of state government – remain, but topics as diverse as IT project oversight, cybersecurity, shared services, and social media policy have demonstrated the enormous benefits of an enterprise approach.”

You can find the complete report at www.nascio.org, or www.techamerica.org,