NASCIO Releases the 2018 State CIO Survey

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released the 2018 State CIO Survey. In this ninth annual survey, all 50 state CIOs offered up perspectives on factors and trends driving IT at the state government level. Given the timing, coming right before numerous gubernatorial elections, NASCIO has decided to use the survey findings to provide a guide of sorts for a new generation of technology leaders, who may be entering government with the election of new governors.

One topic addressed is Legacy Modernization, namely funding and procurement for these initiatives. There have been some changes in how state governments procure technology products and services, such as with a move to modular or incremental deployment, rather than a large single phase. 48% of respondents said they are using this approach, and 40% are either planning or considering this approach, so it could become more widespread in the coming years.

The survey also addressed digital transformation and emerging technologies. For new technologies, 57% of respondents selected artificial intelligence, significantly up from last year’s 29%. Other areas of interested mentioned include the Internet of Thing, Connected Vehicles, and Blockchain. Aside from these new areas, the survey also addressed other technologies.

One area that is regularly include in the survey is topics related to the cloud. This survey addressed the status of categories migrating to a cloud environment. Of those surveyed, 41% have a cloud migration strategy in place, while 37% have a strategy under development. Categories of services that have ongoing migration or planned migration include citizen relationship management, digital archives, project and portfolio management, and open data. Major drivers behind the migration of legacy applications to the cloud include cost, security, and flexibility.

The 2018 survey also probed at how states will use data and analytics. The biggest opportunity state technology leaders see for data management and analytics is in data-driven policy making, as 54% selected this as having the most potential. Otherwise, respondents also included transparency and accountability to citizens, dashboards and reporting, workforce planning, and performance-based budgeting as opportunities for data.

To conclude, the survey findings show that the state technology landscape continues to evolve, along with the role of the state CIO. As mentioned, the upcoming gubernatorial elections may result in significant turnover in state technology leadership, and the findings of this survey will hopefully serve as a guide for technology leaders both in terms of what their roles will entail, as well as what technology-related issues will be priorities moving forward.

Source: NASCIO