Work force tops CIOs' worries

Information technology staffing remains a top concern among government

chief information officers, according to a recent survey. But that does

not mean CIOs are ready to turn their work over to private contractors.

Asked to rate the importance of more than a dozen issues in their jurisdiction,

a group of 132 federal, state and local CIOs ranked IT staffing above other

hot issues such as security/privacy, e-government and records management,

giving it a score of 4.38 on a scale of 5.

Outsourcing, on the other hand, finished last on the list, with a score

of 2.88, which is a weak response, according to Steve LeCompte, vice president

for events, online and research at FCW Media Group.

Despite the strong response on IT staffing, "it is clear government

CIOs do not view outsourcing as the solution to staffing," LeCompte said.

LeCompte surveyed CIOs and other IT directors who registered to attend

the Government CIO Summit, taking place this week in Savannah, Ga. The summit

is produced by the FCW Government Tecnology Group, which publishes Federal

Computer Week and civic.com.