State CIOs moving up the ranks
- By Diane Frank
- Mar 26, 2000
State chief information officers have progressed rapidly to positions where
they can have a real impact on how the state serves its citizens, according
to the president of the National Association of State Information Resource
Executives.
More than half of state CIOs report directly to governors or hold cabinet-level
positions, said Otto Doll, commissioner of the bureau of information and
technology in South Dakota. Such power positions enable those CIOs to work
with policy and operations people to find ways that information technology
can make the government better, he said. "In the increasingly technology-reliant
world we live in, the CIO serves as the government's information management
leader and key strategist to the decision points facing our political leaders,"
Doll said. "The role of aligning technology to achieve government program
goals has never been so crucial to effective government. The CIO plays an
essential role for making information technology work for government."
South Dakota is an example, Doll said.
For several years South Dakota has allowed citizens to download forms
from its World Wide Web site, print them out, and send, e-mail or fax them
in. The state has slowly added the ability to fill out and submit forms
online, but Doll recently initiated a program to provide electronic submission
for 80 percent to 90 percent of the state's forms in the next 18 months,
he said.