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County CIO Sees Advisory Role for Industry in IT Governance

During 2019, Los Angeles County will stand up or continue four groups that could help it further tech, innovation, business management and strategy while more closely collaborating with the private sector, CIO Bill Kehoe said at the Techwire State of Technology Industry Forum.

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Enhanced collaboration is coming to Los Angeles County in ways that could more closely circle in the private sector while generating opportunities for the county government to continue improving its technology and innovation.

 

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During 2019, the nation's most populous county will start up or continue four groups aimed at furthering tech, innovation, strategy and business management. At least two of these could have opportunities for vendors to make their voices heard, county CIO Bill Kehoe said Monday at Techwire's State of Technology Industry Forum. Among the takeaways:

• The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has called for a proposal for an innovation and emerging-technologies work group, the CIO said. The group’s makeup is still under discussion, but he said it’s “obvious” it will be an innovation program that will work “with you all and the civic tech community around innovating quickly around challenge areas” from county departments.

“Without going through the full procurement cycle to see what’s out there, we can build this innovation program, have access to innovation labs, include our industry partners and the local and regional colleges in the area, and innovate around challenge areas — and there’s many of them in our organization,” Kehoe said during remarks at the Crocker Art Museum. County officials have been discussing the group for the “last few months,” he told Techwire afterward, and will send a report about it to the board around the end of the first quarter of 2019.

• The county’s Strategic Advisory Council has not debuted yet but will likely launch later in 2019. It will include IT leaders from other government jurisdictions and industry to advise and help the agency shape its IT strategic goals and direction. Kehoe highlighted a potential focus on IT governance and told the room: “Any of you in the IT governance business, come see me.”

“The Strategic Advisory Council will be later on, after we figure out what our innovation and emerging-technologies program looks like, so we’re not overlapping and we can complement that program,” Kehoe said in an interview.

• Another nascent group, the Business Management Council, will begin its work during the first quarter of 2019 and will convene internal leaders to hear their technology needs and pain points and consider how the CIO’s office can help them move forward and transform their services.

• The county has also launched a Technology Management Council that convenes all its CIOs and IT leaders to consider issues like identity and access management, unified communications and enterprise architecture as well as standards-setting.

Kehoe touched briefly on the question of whether the state CIO should be elevated to a seat on the governor’s Cabinet in the incoming Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom administration. He called it “absolutely necessary, in my opinion” to have the CIO be a strategic partner at the executive level and indicated one of his initiatives as CIO of about 15 months is to increase the visibility of the CIO at the department level.

“We can’t have good business strategy without IT at the table," Kehoe said. "It just doesn’t work. Automation and digital transformation is at the forefront of everything we’re doing now. And the CIOs need to be there."

The tech leader also shared his agency’s enterprise IT strategic goals, indicating he’s eager to move from “product discussions” with vendors to discussions about services and products “that actually help us with an overall architecture perspective,” to move forward with board and department priorities.

The goals include:

  • Mobility — crucial for employees in a 4,084-square-mile county where commutes eat up hours;
  • Data as a utility — de-siloing and integrating data after creating a framework for that process and establishing data governance;
  • Digital civic engagement — key in a far-flung jurisdiction where reaching people online can be more efficient;
  • Workforce empowerment — a necessity in an age when baby boomers continue to swell the ranks of retirees; and
  • Transform procurement — aimed at making RFIs and RFPs an easier and quicker process.
“It’s not easy for you. You’re trying to make it work, and I appreciate that,” he told the vendors. “But believe me, we are on this and we are going to innovate around this as much as we can. We are going to streamline this and make it easier for you to engage with us.” 

Theo Douglas is Assistant Managing Editor of Industry Insider — California.