Alaska CIO developing long-term tech plans that cut reliance on legacy systems

Alaskas CIO Jim Steele is developing long-term technology plans that streamlinethe state’s IT contracts and systems.

[I] was brought primarily to focus on contract consolidation and looking to find efficiencies in how we buy and consume IT, Steele said in a StateScoop TV interview at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers midyear conference in April in Baltimore.

As part of his plan,Steele wants to replace legacy systems and allow officials to test and adjust procurement choices over a longer period of time. These changes, he said,wouldimplement building blocks for future state governmentleaders.

I think the nature of government leadership cycles sometimes is an impediment to really playing the long ball when it comes to a technology advance, anything thats going to be consumed takes time to really implement correctly, and I think sometimes we rush in an effort to fulfill a short-term goal, Steele said.

He said the state shouldapply the long-term planning strategy to address other challenges like recruiting a robust workforce, which can be a particular challenge in asparsely populated state like Alaska.

Our vision is really to become more service oriented, more customer focused, more responsive to our customers needs, making sure that the decisions we make that impact those agencies are done in a collaborative spirit and working to develop trust with those agencies, Steele said.