State CIOs Shift Priorities

Work-from-home and remote-work options will not only continue but also expand across state governments. That was one of the key findings from a recent 2020 survey conducted by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. The annual study reveals insights on how state CIOs are managing their IT enterprise and infrastructure and what they anticipate for the next year.

The 2020 State CIO Survey includes insights from 47 of the 50 states. Here are three areas vendors should pay attention to:

1. Expanding Cloud Services: This new working environment has led state CIOs to adjust and prioritize projects that deliver critical employee applications through expanded cloud services. Migrating critical applications to the cloud and SaaS applications took on new urgency to continue managing critical citizen services, such as unemployment insurance, Medicaid claims and business licenses. There will continue to be opportunities for vendors here as more and more states look to migrate services online in areas like the DMV, health and human services and law enforcement.
2. Introducing Chatbots and Virtual Agents: Speedier migration of applications wasn’t the only change state CIOs saw. Emerging technologies, such as automation solutions, had been slow to catch on; but when work-from-home orders were issued and state offices were closed, agencies became overwhelmed by the number or inquiries, questions and claims from citizens. More than 75% of state CIOs indicated they introduced chatbots and virtual agents to handle the influx of citizen service inquiries. As the Interim CIO from Texas explained, he saw agencies suddenly “slingshot” from not considering chatbots at all to suddenly buying chatbots. Vendors who can provide automation solutions that help ease the burden on agencies handling citizen service requests and questions will be welcomed.
3. Pushing Online and Digital Services: Overwhelmingly, CIOs expressed that ensuring continued delivery of citizen services was the driver behind their push for online and digital services. States and agencies have been forced to change the way they operate, so they can continue delivering those services.

With reduced revenues and IT budgets strained, opportunities are still out there — from increased use of cloud and SaaS applications to automation and chatbots. CIOs and technology have suddenly become central to a state’s operational strategy as agencies are forced to find new ways to serve their citizens.

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This article was adapted from a recent blog published in immixGroup’s Government Sales Insider. The original post can be found here.