LEXINGTON, Ky., Tuesday, August 30, 2022 —The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has selected 31 finalists across ten categories for the State IT Recognition Awards. Projects and initiatives from NASCIO member states and territories were eligible for nomination. Fifty-five NASCIO members served as volunteer judges to review the nearly 90 submissions, narrowing the nominees down to three finalists in each category. From these finalists, a recipient from each category will be announced during the NASCIO Annual Conference in October.

The award nominations showcase the use of information technology to address critical business problems, more easily connect citizens to their government, improve business processes and create new opportunities that improve the lives of citizens. To ensure states have access to the innovations and leading practices of their peers, all award submissions have been added to NASCIO’s Awards Library.

Award finalists for the 2022 State IT Recognition Awards are:

Business Process Innovations
State of North Carolina: When Minutes Mattered: Automated COVID-19 Reporting System Saved Hospitals’ Time and Reduced Administrative Burden
State of Ohio: Increasing Operational Efficiency Through Process Automation
State of Oregon: Service Transformation Program (STP) OLIVR: Oregon License Issuance and Vehicle Registration 

Cross-Boundary Collaboration & Partnerships
State of Nebraska: United Effort for Law Enforcement
State of North Carolina: The Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) Program: Administering Additional Food Assistance Benefits to North Carolina’s Students and Children
State of Washington: Vessel Broadband Modernization (We don’t need the Wi-Fi password anymore!)

Cybersecurity
State of California: Strengthening Security Through Automation: FTB Governance Risk Management and Compliance Project
State of Illinois: Security Scorecard: You’re the CISO, Cybersecurity is Your Problem
State of Michigan: MILogin: Michigan’s Digital Identity Program
State of North Carolina: Collective Defense and Support: A Whole-of-State Approach to Cybersecurity

Data Management, Analytics & Visualization
State of Michigan: Monitoring the Heartbeat of Michigan: DTMB Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection
State of North Carolina: Unemployment Insurance Fraud: Fraud Detection and Prevention through the Power of Data and Analytics 
State of Tennessee: Vaccination Registration and Administration Solution 

Digital Services: Government to Business
State of Arizona: Underground Storage Tank Compliance and Reporting Goes Digital
State of California: With CROS, Customers Come First
State of North Carolina: Expediting North Carolina Business Creation: An Online Document Filing Wizard 

Digital Services: Government to Citizen
State of Connecticut: OEC Parent Portal
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: My PA Tax Hub: The “PATH” to Improving Taxpayer Services
State of Texas: Texas by Texas (TxT) Digital Assistant 

Emerging & Innovative Technologies 
State of North Carolina: Life-Saving Innovation: ATSC 3.0 in Public Safety Communications
State of Ohio: The Ohio Benefits Program is BOT “In”
State of Tennessee: Intelligent Automation: Reinventing the Way Government Does Business 

Enterprise IT Management Initiatives
State of Georgia: Cloud and Taxes, That’s Certain: Georgia DOR’s Tax System Migration Project 
State of North Carolina: North Carolina: Transforming Procurement in the Cloud 
State of Tennessee: Tenncare Cloud Services Project

Information Communications Technology (ICT) Innovations 
State of North Carolina: Prison Telehealth Program: Efficiency and Innovation In North Carolina Correctional Facilities 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Mass Text Messaging for Human Service Recipients
State of Washington: COVID, Murder Hornets and Wildfires—Oh My! Harnessing the Power of GIS to Manage Statewide Crises

State CIO Office Special Recognition
State of California: Forging the Path to Recovery: Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record
State of Illinois: Access Illinois: Elevating Accessibility for Residents with Disabilities
State of Indiana: Building a Work-Based Learning Program and Hiring the Next Generation of State Employees  

 

NASCIO Contact

Meredith Ward
Director of Policy and Research
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, May 17, 2022 — The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) donated over $40,500 to Byte Back and Stem for Her. The NASCIO Programs Committee chose both organizations for the Midyear giveback program because they ignite passion in STEM fields and open the IT profession to new communities. NASCIO’s 2022 Midyear Conference was held in National Harbor, Maryland earlier this month.

Donations were collected during the NASCIO 2022 Midyear Conference and NASCIO state, corporate and nonprofit members donated through individual contributions. NASCIO corporate members Accenture, Carahsoft Technology Corp., CGI, In Time Tec and UiPath sponsored this year’s Give Back Program and contributed to the donation total.

Byte Back closes the digital divide by providing historically excluded communities an equitable pathway into the digital economy. They achieve this through transformative digital advocacy, digital literacy and tech certification training. Byte Back is one of the only organizations in the US that helps diverse adults who have been left behind by the digital divide to build a foundation of computer skills, earn tech certifications, and launch careers. Graduates who were hired in 2021 started earning $25,000 more per year than before Byte Back.

STEM for Her promotes education to create awareness, excitement, and opportunities among girls and young women to launch successful STEM-related careers. Through direct exposure to hands-on experiences, mentors and role models and other programs, STEM for Her enables girls and young women to envision the path to an education and a career in STEM.

 

NASCIO Contact

Meredith Ward
Director of Policy and Research
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

Lexington, Ky., Wednesday, April 13, 2022— today, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released Diversity and Inclusion: An Essential Element to the State IT Workforce. It has been widely acknowledged that state government has significant challenges in recruiting and retaining a qualified IT workforce and this has been a theme in NASCIO’s research. State chief information officers (CIOs) reported that one way they are trying to meet these challenges is by prioritizing diversity and inclusion. The NASCIO Executive Committee therefore voted unanimously in December 2021 to study the state IT workforce and identify gaps and meaningful steps that state CIOs can take to recruit and retain a diverse workforce and maintain an inclusive workplace.

“The vast majority of job seekers today prioritize diversity and inclusion,” said Doug Robinson, NASCIO Executive Director. “If state CIOs are to recruit and retain the needed workforce to meet the current and future needs of the states we serve, they must also prioritize diversity and inclusion.”

The publication includes data from a survey of state CIOs on diversity and inclusion in hiring, retention and culture in CIO offices. It also provides interviews with NASCIO corporate members. These conversations were an important component of the project as the private sector generally has well established diversity and inclusion programs that can provide blueprints for states.

The publication, along with NASCIO’s other research on the state IT workforce, can be found on NASCIO’s website in the Resource Center.

NASCIO Contact

Meredith Ward
Director of Policy and Research
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

Lexington, Ky, Wednesday, December 8, 2021—today, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released the State CIO Top 10 for 2022. The Top 10 represents state technology leaders’ top policy and technology priorities for the coming year, as voted on by state chief information officers (CIOs), and has been published every year since 2007. Cybersecurity remains the top priority for the ninth year running and enterprise architecture makes the list for the very first time.

“It is no surprise that digital government, broadband and legacy modernization are ranked as high priorities by state CIOs,” said Doug Robinson, NASCIO Executive Director. “The past two years have highlighted their importance to governors, state CIO customers and the citizens they serve.”

Other items of note from the 2022 Top 10 are:

• Digital government / digital services ranks as number two for the second year in a row
• Broadband moves up one spot to number three
• Legacy modernization moves up to the number five spot after being in the seventh position last year
• Consolidation/optimization takes the number ten spot which is the lowest ranking it’s had since the Top Ten started
• For the first time since 2008, budget and cost control doesn’t make the Top 10 list

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

 

NASCIO Contact

Meredith Ward
Director of Policy and Research
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]

Lexington, Ky., Tuesday, October 26, 2021 – The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), the Center for Digital Government (CDG) and IBM today released a report entitled, AI Meets the Moment: How a pandemic has shaped AI adoption in state government and what it means for the future. The report explores the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by states during the COVID-19 pandemic and includes insights from a survey and in-depth interviews with multiple state chief information officers (CIOs) and agency leaders.

Broad gains in AI adoption by state governments were revealed since this report was first done by the same group in 2019 – especially in chatbots and digital assistants – in combination with robotic process automation (RPA). Overall, the survey and interviews showed growing optimism on the potential of AI, propelled in part by its role in helping to address challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic including capacity increases and business process changes in state systems that serve the public. For example, the survey found that 60% of respondents started to use digital assistants, such as chatbots, to help more effectively deliver critical information to large numbers of constituents via channels like call centers. While there was some suggestion that an underappreciation for the level of skill and dedication required to mine the possibilities of AI still exist, success with AI-enabled applications is starting to melt resistance in state agencies nationwide.

Michael Leahy, NASCIO President and Secretary of Information Technology for the State of Maryland, commented, “The COVID-19 pandemic presented the right business case for many state CIOs to adopt AI and it has been beneficial to the expedited delivery of services to citizens.”

Some of the key findings from the CDG / IBM / NASCIO study include:

• AI is driving positive results in several areas, for example improved service delivery (71%).
• Optimism on AI’s potential to transform organizations runs high among the state-level technology leaders surveyed with just over half (56%) believing that transformation can happen in one to three years, and just under a quarter (23%) believing it can happen right away.

“This year’s report shows the proven value of AI to state leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a powerful indicator AI acceptance is rapidly maturing,” said Steve LaFleche, General Manager for IBM’s U.S. Public and Federal Market. “We look forward to collaborating with government leaders as they continue to expand the benefits of AI for their constituents – I am optimistic and excited for the future.”

“Last year, we observed how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of AI. Our 2021 report findings show that momentum continues to build, and AI is delivering real, tangible outcomes,” said Joe Morris, Deputy Chief Innovation Officer for CDG.

To read the publication, visit NASCIO’s Resource Center.

NASCIO Contact

Meredith Ward
Director of Policy and Research
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
859.514.9209
[email protected]