Editor’s note: Following is one in an ongoing series of profiles of the largest California state government agencies.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control has a budget of almost $286 million for the 2017-18 fiscal year. As part of its 2014-2018 Strategic Plan, the DTSC will complete three pilot projects that use geographic information systems (GIS), which will help identify sources of contamination in soil and groundwater. This is supposed to help the DTSC address contamination issues faster and more effectively.
“One of the biggest things were looking at from an organizational perspective is IT governance," CIO Jennifer Benson told Techwire in an interview. "There’s a big initiative right now for IT governance within the department.”
The department is establishing how it can use SharePoint and its existing intranet to upgrade the tech environment.
In terms of future procurement, Kham Xiong, chief of apps development for the department, said: “We really don’t dictate what the department needs, but we kind of consult and work with the program to find out what the needs are, and through that — that’s how we decide, on our procurement, what we’re going to get.”
DTSC is looking at its legacy systems to see how it can use its existing technologies to serve more than one business purpose. It is considering moving some legacy systems to cloud services. The department is beginning to look into how to use cloud services and technologies.
“One of our first engagements was with with Salesforce, so we currently are leveraging Salesforce for some internal use case for document tracking,” Benson explained.
Benson added, “We’re looking at ways to leverage the same technologies — the same technologies we already have in-house — for different use cases for the business.”
As DTSC looks to upgrade its old systems, Benson said, “My goals in this position are to improve IT services for the department, modernize legacy systems, and look for ways to be innovative, creative and efficient with IT initiatives and empower my staff to be successful with technology and technology solutions.”
Director — Barbara A. Lee Contact info: barbara.lee@dtsc.ca.gov
916-322-0504
Chief Information Officer — Jennifer Benson Contact info: jennifer.benson@dtsc.ca.gov
916-327-2508
Chief of Apps Development — Kham Xiong Contact info: kham.xiong@dtsc.ca.gov
916-327-7946
