Texas CIO touts success of new data coordinator

Texas agencies are finding new ways to work together on data projects after the state createda newdata coordinator position,state CIO Todd Kimbriel said.

Since Ed Kelly, the new coordinator, came on last September, he’stackled a number of projects to help the state run more efficiently, including one to link data from theAlcoholicBeverage Commission and the Department of Public Safety to help officials determine how to best use their resources.

Its a great example of how previously without a position like a statewide data coordinator, very difficult to really get disparate data sets together and sort of push forward that initiative…the synergies are far greater from an efficiency perspective, Kimbriel said in a StateScoop TV interview at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers midyear conference in April in Baltimore.

Collaboration between agencies and data sharing is alsoopening up the potentialfor a service delivery portal.This would allow residents to accessservices from different agencies deliverable on theirphone or tablet.

In this sort of portal environment, we want to be able to shift that so that we share that data among the agencies and bring that data to the citizen in the context that the citizen proscribes. So that now, the portal would provide a reminder, Kimbriel said.

Kimbriel also talked about efforts to update the state’s technology.

In this program area, we actually created a contract requirement to refresh the technology every five years, Kimbriel said. Now, he said,vendors are updating20 percent of each program’s technology every year. “For those organizations thatparticipatein that program, they will never go back toincurringlegacydebt.”