NY CIO: In the future, states will share systems
May 31, 2011
A New York state commission is expected to release recommendations next June on how to streamline the state’s hodgepodge of programs and processes, which, like many states’, are behind the technology curve, duplicative and draining taxpayer dollars.
The report, by the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) commission appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January, will look across state services and agencies and propose steps to manage the state’s IT investment, estimated to be as high as $2 billion.
The governor’s focus on IT efficiency is a key reason acting state CIO Daniel Chan says his top priority is to determine the size and scope of the state’s IT spending. Understanding that will help identify what IT programs work or don’t work, he said, and therefore which steps to take next.
“The bottom line is we don’t really have a good handle on how much of an investment we’re actually making,” said Chan, who was named acting CIO in April. “And to some degree the fact that we don’t really understand that makes it difficult to get a handle on how effective IT really is – so what we need is a good baseline.”
Chan is helping develop the State Financial System (SFS), a two-year old Oracle enterprise resource planning project aimed at sifting the financial minutiae of state expenditures. “The system will give us an idea of how much we are really spending on servers, networks and [staff],” he said. “Without getting detailed data, it’s difficult to make a decision about what you’re going to do first or what project is going to give you the biggest impact.”
A powerful lens will be needed. A recent assessment by Deloitte showed that the state was doing well in mainframe management, but not so well in its data center strategy. The study identified 50 data centers operated by the state, only four of which were managed by its Office for Technology. “They are called data centers but some of them could be a server room,” Chan said. “There are all kinds of different setups.”
Chan, who holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California and was chief technologist at GE Infrastructure, says his background has trained him to take a more “holistic approach” to his work with the state.
“There’s a pretty good correlation,” he said. “The nature of the aerospace industry is very high risk. You spend your time developing the discipline and the methodology to help you identify and mitigate some of these risks.”