How Pennsylvania is taking tech modernization ‘to a new level’

As in many states, Pennsylvania is now amid a wide array of technology modernization projects, state Chief Information Officer John MacMillan tells StateScoop in a video interview — and data is playing a key role in that modernization.

Based on a new IT strategic developed collaboratively by state agencies a couple years ago, MacMillan says Pennsylvania is seeking modernization in an organized fashion.

“That plan is working for us,” he says. “It gives us lots of room to maneuver and deciding which projects to launch and how we are gathering data about the benefits of those projects. Some of the key ones include modernization and in Pennsylvania we’re taking the modernization concept to a new level. We’re not only talking about application portfolio modernization but we want to talk about data modernization.”

Data modernization in Pennsylvania is largely driven by the state’s open data initiative, MacMillan says. In 2017, the state launched its first open data competition, which encouraged participants to find data-based solutions to the state’s opioid addition trend. But data pervades the work being done throughout the state, he says.

“We can’t forget the data,” MacMillan says. “And we are trying to drive new value out of existing data by creating new relationships and using our data science skills to deliver new results.”

MacMillan takes about technology he’s excited about:

MacMillan on his team’s greatest accomplishments last year:

MacMillan on his office’s top projects and priorities: