CalPERS serves more than 1.8 million members — state, school and public agency employees and retirees who use the agency’s services for retirement and benefits. It’s the largest defined-benefit public pension in the U.S., and CalPERS’ total fund market value was approximately $311 billion as of March 2017.
In response to a request from Techwire, Farland provided answers to some relevant questions and even wrote a brief introduction to himself. Here's Farland:
I began my CalPERS Information Technology Services Branch (ITSB) career in 2002, as a lead on the service desk. That’s the part of the branch that assists team members in all IT-related inquiries.
If you’re locked out of your PC, you call the service desk.
If you need help with a laptop or mobile phone, you call the service desk.
And that’s where I cut my teeth at CalPERS.
For the 10 years that followed, I took on various IT leadership roles, including desktop support, data center manager, and project manager of Enterprise Transition Management — which is CalPERS' transformational and change management effort.
Then, in 2016, I became the chief technology business officer — a role I held until being named CIO. My longtime CalPERS IT experience has bred a passion for the work we do here, and I’m bringing it to the work we do in ITSB to achieve the goals of both the CalPERS and the ITSB Strategic Plans.
I’m lucky to have experience in every portion of IT in this organization, and have been fortunate to touch most of the products and services we provide. It’s this type of experience that provides me a key thousand-foot view of the organization and its needs.
Techwire: What have been your top two or three priorities since taking the position?
Farland: There are three major principles that guide almost everything the CalPERS ITSB does: security, cost optimization, and business relationship management.
- Information Security: At CalPERS, we’re entrusted with the personal information and data of our 1.9 million members, and that brings great reputational and fiscal impacts. We need the data to perform our jobs, but it’s our responsibility to protect that data for our stakeholders. The maintenance of that security is not just the duty of the Information Security Office, but a shared responsibility among all of us. We’ll continue to consider the security impacts of our business decisions at a large scale, as well as in our daily activities.
- Cost Optimization: One of our CEO, Marcie Frost's, key objectives is to be an efficient and effective organization, and one of our CalPERS Strategic Plan goals is to reduce complexity. Currently, CalPERS is at a 71 percent funded status. Therefore, it’s vital to be mindful of how we spend our resources. Within ITSB, we have a responsibility to ensure our processes and operations are efficient, as well as help other CalPERS divisions deliver value as cost-effectively as possible. Cost optimization is not necessarily cost reduction, rather a strategy to identify the correct resources are in the correct place and producing the greatest value.
- Business Relationships: Our ITSB vision is to be a trusted adviser and sought-after partner that drives technology excellence to advance the CalPERS mission. In the last couple of years, we’ve made significant improvements in our relationships across the enterprise. The value of the services we deliver is ultimately determined by those who use and receive those services. So, it’s essential we collaborate with our partners to make business decisions that optimize value, whether that’s helping them make risk-intelligent decisions, achieve operational efficiency, or improve service delivery to our members.
Farland: We’re making a strong move into the cloud. We’ve always had a big presence of software as a service (SaaS), but now we’re moving a lot of that into the cloud. This will streamline business process while reducing costs. Efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness is the name of the game.
TW: Looking beyond three to six months, what should vendors watch for in terms of RFPs, RFIs, etc.?
Farland: We have a few large initiatives this fiscal year. First, we are replacing our Human Resources system, and an RFP will be hitting the streets any day. Also, we are looking for cloud computing expertise in the Azure and AWS realm. On top of those, we will be releasing an RFI for an Emergency Management System.
TW: What’s on the horizon that you can give us a heads-up to watch for?
Farland: First off, a couple of business function upgrades we’re looking at.
In October, we’re looking to kick in the initial phase of our Actuarial Valuation System Redesign & Enhancement (AVSRE). An in-house data and analytics phase to follow that. The product will not only be a huge benefit to our actuarial team, it’ll be open source and should provide great value to other agencies, and in turn, taxpayers. That’s a project we’ll be proud to promote when it’s released.
Again, the contact center’s move to the cloud is one we’re looking forward to.
Our Human Resources Management System will move to a version that streamlines how we manage team members' data. It could also include a move to the cloud, but we’re keeping our options open to the best product. The new system will automate a lot of things, eliminate redundancies, and the like.
Also, we’re continuing down the data analytics path, which could eventually lead us into the AI space, but we’re not there yet. We’ll look to best leverage the data we have in order to improve business services both internally and externally.
Of course we’re working on projects that will benefit members and employers, too. For instance, our member self-service (my|CalPERS) transition to more mobile functionality definitely fits here. We’re kicking off the exploration of that side with the launch of a mobile app for 2018 Open Enrollment, which happens in September and October. That could be a springboard to a more comprehensive self-service product that will allow our members to review their accounts and make changes from anywhere.
TW: Any personal/professional observations about IT as it relates to CalPERS?
Farland: We’re thinking about IT as a continuing effort to be the best strategic partner. There’s somewhat of a shift from IT being a service provider to a business partner. This has culminated in the CIO having a seat at the executive table.
We’re continuing those efforts with a strong focus on Business Relationship Management to build more seamlessness and continuity.
TW: You're a veteran of CalPERS — so what one thing surprised you about the agency since being named CIO?
Farland: Not necessarily a surprise, but people approach me differently now with the CIO title. They bring things forward to me with the goal of doing what’s best for CalPERS. That cultural focus shows in our interactions with business partners, employers, visitors, et al. That constantly reinforces the reason why we’re here.
TW: Will CalPERS use blockchain and/or artificial intelligence in any context, whether in portfolio management, or in HR screening, or whatever?
Farland: At this point, we don’t have any specific initiatives underway to implement blockchain or artificial intelligence. Obviously, these are technologies of the future, so we are doing exploration into each and can foresee applications for our business in the not-so-distant future.
