Friday, May 09, 2003

Budgets, Silos, and Interim In a recent article in varBusiness, NASCIO sounds like a club for complaining about declining budgets.  Then, in another article that claims state CIOs are gaining clout, Jeff Schwartz argues that CIOs can use budget shortages to gain leverage with vendors.  The real challenge is that governments are not always as good as they could or should be at delivering efficiencies through technology and then communicating that with state legislatures who appropriate the money.  I think more legislatures are beginning to see the silos that exist, but feel that it is the responsibility of executive branch agencies to fix that by working together more cooperatively without fully grasping how much the appropriations process and career service restrictions contribute to these silos. The Utah Technology Commission has suggested a list of interim technology study items, in addition to those passed in the Master Study Resolution.  The list includes: Biomedical Engineering Licenses Broadband Service Do Not Call lists Electronic Waste Recycling Internet Privacy State Information Technology Services Security I could suggest a log more, but these will probably keep them pretty busy.  I would like them to review major initiatives like the Utah Wireless Integrated Network and enterprise online licensing, and then provide constructive feedback.  We need legislators to understand the value of these initiatives and collaborate to solve the budget issues. 11:31:35 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.