Patrick Thibodeau highlights recent success within the public sector at consolidating agency data centers into single statewide environments [“States Move Toward the Center on IT — Finally,” News Analysis, Sept. 10].
The financial benefits of doing so, as he rightly points out, can be very large, as has been evident in the private sector for many years. We should applaud the momentum that has been achieved in West Virginia and Michigan.
However, there are some key differences between commercial organizations, where driving down cost is often a primary motivator for change, and government organizations, where politics can sometimes be a significant influencer.
State agencies and county-level IT bureaus have often historically operated in silos and, as Thibodeau points out, enjoyed a high level of autonomy from central state technology offices.
State CIOs may encounter significant resistance to change from agencies when attempting to bring more and more infrastructure and applications in-house, unless a pragmatic and truly collaborative approach is adopted.
Trust and respect must be nurtured on each side, and state offices should understand that agencies and counties are not accountable to the state. Instead, they should know that the state is there to provide a service to its agency customers.
Significant effort should be made upfront to establish rigorous policies, procedures, guidelines and service-level agreements on how the service is to be provided, along with clear governance structures and communication channels.
State CIOs may wish to look to well-proven frameworks such as ITIL in preparing for this. Attention to these issues will ensure that agencies are not left in the dark and that they are committed for the long term.
