November-20178GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKFocus on the Fundamentals, then the Shiny Objectsechnology leaders have too many choices these days. They have so many options that they can get distracted from the most basic imperative of effective and efficient delivery of technology services. New technology is being presented at a faster rate; cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, bots, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, blockchain technology, and data lakes just to name a few. A steady trend that is becoming apparent to me in the public sector is the growing distraction by the latest fad or buzz word, going in several directions at once, often not implementing anything or at least not implementing it well, and compounding the issue by not putting the appropriate support in place once the technology is finally implemented. Shiny new objects cause confusion, and fads should not be confused with the daily business value that is: providing support for the mission critical technology already in place. I see more and more state leadership acknowledging the strategic value of IT and its role in improving agency effectiveness while at the same time exhibiting a lower tolerance for any disruption in service regardless of the severity. A CIO must give more attention to evaluating their current IT processes. These are the processes that support the current technology and measure customer service to optimize customer satisfaction. The best way to achieve these goals is to adopt a series of best practices that benefit the supporting groups on two levels: setting customer expectations, and providing service accountability. Providing Accountable ServiceApproximately 12 months ago, Nebraska initiated an IT consolidation effort.One of the first questions that our customers asked us when we took Ed Toner, CIO, State of Nebraska TByManagers must learn to collect driven metrics to define successful customer service by analyzing indicators and trendsEd TonerIN MYOPINION
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