Government Technology - March 2008 - (Page 26)

STEVEFLETCHER C I O , U TA H There’s no glamour in consolidation. Often sold as a way to rein in IT costs, CIOs are usually stuck with selling what’s perceived as a negative by most agencies. Staff members dislike the disruption, the T O P 25 D O E R S D R E A M E R S A N D D R I V E R S Fletcher also has a flair for leadership that enabled DTS to succeed. change and cost cutting. In the end, many CIOs end up drained of all momentum for initiating anything of strategic value. That’s not the case with Utah CIO Steve Fletcher. In 2005, out of the dysfunction and failure of running IT as separate agency fiefdoms, the state created the Department of Technology Services (DTS) and hired Fletcher to run what has become one of the nation’s few fully centralized state IT departments. Fortunately the state hired someone with both prior government IT experience — as CIO for the U.S. Department of Education — and a solid private-sector business background. Fletcher also has a flair for leadership that enabled DTS to succeed. Since taking over, Fletcher streamlined how technical staff service remote government locations in the large, mountainous state — reducing travel time and labor costs. He also took control of an IT project that many government CIOs would gladly avoid: a state enterprise social service system. It is, in theory, a Holy Grail of systems integration. In reality, it can be an unwieldy IT project that may often buckle under the weight of federal policy mandates, cost overruns, cultural issues and inflexible software. Fletcher took over the state’s fledgling enterprise program for health and human Mount Timpanogos, Utah services (HHS) eligibility and case management, after removing the systems integrator who was struggling to keep the project on track. Fletcher made DTS the project integrator, partnered with the system’s software vendor to ensure quality in the system’s modules, and worked with the state’s HHS agencies to maximize project management success. Why did Fletcher believe it would succeed? “For one thing, we have control over the entire project and it’s cheaper this way,” he said. That control is balanced by solid relationships with the software vendor and the various business managers who have a stake in the project’s outcome. Fletcher’s unique background as both a public CIO and businessman makes him uniquely positioned to lead government IT in the 21st century. TOD NEWCOMBE, EDITOR, PUBLIC CIO C I O A N D D E P U T Y D I R E C T O R , I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y S E R V I C E S D I V I S I O N , C A L I F O R N I A D E PA R T M E N T O F H E A L T H C A R E S E R V I C E S CHRISTYQUINLAN Christy Quinlan is excited about IT. As CIO and deputy director of the Information Technology Services Division at the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), she’s also excited about the department’s mission. DHCS helps get health care to those who normally wouldn’t have access to it, including about 6.5 million low-income residents. “We also are the provider for Californians who have AIDS, people who would not be able to get health-care insurance otherwise,” Quinlan said. “When you think about it in those terms, I find it compelling.” She’s especially proud of DHCS’s awardwinning program for genetic screening, which tests expectant mothers and newborns for dozens of hereditary and congenital disorders. “In our pilots, we would identify babies who have these conditions, and change their diet in some cases, and profoundly affect the outcome of their life by just diet,” Quinlan said. Sometimes this change eliminated the need for medication; sometimes it saved a life. The testing also saves money. “The savings is monumental,” Quinlan said, noting that a lifetime of care for one person with mental retardation can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, while a diet change costs very little. Screening can make the difference. excellent staff. They’re very dedicated and committed.” The staff is quite familiar with tight deadlines. Earlier, it added data encryption to about 2,000 laptops in a month. Once that ambitious goal was met, the team also encrypted 6,000 desktops. Quinlan’s team recently completed an award-winning service-oriented architecture (SOA) project for identity management with the Social Security Administration. It’s a shared service, so other state agencies can also use it. “We’ve been focusing a lot on the SOA,” Quinlan said. “I find that kind of exciting, because it seems to be giving us more flexibility.” SOA will help the DHCS move forward on various improvements, including health-care reform, automation, e-health records and eprescribing. For Quinlan and her staff, it’s all part of helping to improve the health of California’s citizens. JIM MEYERS, STAFF WRITER “I can honestly say I have excellent staff. They’re very dedicated and committed.” When the department increased the number of disorders it was screening for, numerous IT challenges arose, such as aggressive legislative deadlines and hardware issues with delicate lab equipment from Europe. New requirements were also added during development. Still, Quinlan’s team finished the project a month early. “I can honestly say I have MAR_08 26 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - March 2008

Government Technology - March 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Scene Four Questions for... Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers Let's [Not] Get Physical No Data Left Behind Conservation King Community Drug Test Reinventing the System Better Late Than Never Closing the Deal Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities The Expanding Focus of Digital Communities The Digital Imperative Hot Fusion Redefining Municipal Wireless Made in the USA Bridge Detectives The 2008 Agenda

Government Technology - March 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.