The state must continue to modernize its IT culture and processes to give residents the services they want and need in the most appropriate format, tech leaders from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said this week.
In a discussion of “Innovation in California” on Monday at Techwire's State of Technology - California Industry Forum in Sacramento, Michael Wilkening, special adviser on Innovation and Digital Services in the Office of the Governor, said the state’s new Office of Digital Innovation (ODI), which is under the California Government Operations Agency, will play a major part in this ongoing work. Among the takeaways:
• Digitizing a service doesn’t mean just moving it off paper but potentially rethinking what it should look like and how it should be conveyed, Wilkening said. This, he said, will be a focus for ODI — “a user-centered process and process re-engineering.”
Scott Howland, chief information officer for the CHP, said “it’s really about how do we change our process,” adding that that sometimes happens from the bottom up.
“We’ve got demand from our front-line folks saying, ‘Hey, is there a better way to do this?' We also, on the IT side when we’re delivering projects, we look at it from the standpoint of, ‘Hey, is this the best process?'” Howland said.
• Everything at ODI will be a partnership, Wilkening told Techwire in an interview. The agency won’t take in IT projects from other departments — but will work with them to provide needed expertise while ensuring agency ownership.
He “firmly” believes in a federated approach, the special adviser said, noting that ODI “can’t be the answer for everything,” and pointing out that his former department, the California Health & Human Services Agency, now has its own Office of Innovation.
“I think that the role of ODI is going to be to really highlight those, to really create that community of practice and then also be a practitioner itself. What’s happening out there, that’s successful, what can we scale, what can we learn from? And honestly, what hasn’t worked,” Wilkening said.
• Moving toward smaller, more modular and agile, user-centered developments may help governments become less risk-averse, Wilkening said, emphasizing that if agencies aren’t willing to fail in order to succeed, “you’re never going to innovate.”
“It’s not really about technology; it really is about a culture change. It’s about changing your focus,” Wilkening said, reviewing the conceptual advantages in failing small.
Howland cautioned the roughly 170 attendees to focus on outcomes instead of process, in order to streamline rather than just replicate a service digitally.
“Sometimes, we’re so focused on our process that we miss the fact that ‘Hey, we’re trying to deliver this service,’” Howland said.
• After two legislative sessions in development, the California Consumer Privacy Act will finally take effect Jan. 1. But in response to a question from moderator Alan Cox, e.Republic executive vice president,* the officials cautioned those present against letting it give them feet of clay — or assuming the law is a finished document.
Wilkening described the issue of how to balance residents’ need for privacy with the state’s desire for data as “one of the major questions that we’re going to have to deal with over the next couple of years.”
That data must be kept secure, Howland said — but he urged agencies not to wait for perfection in calibrating data sharing agreements, but rather to “start somewhere.”
• CHP is working on updating its communications platforms, the CIO said, describing its land-mobile radios as “the backbone of all our communications in our patrol cars.” The agency has placed its first order for Kenwood radios and for repeaters from Pyramid Communications, devices that typically interface between high-power mobile radios and lower-power handhelds. The agency also continues to work on developing prototype patrol vehicles.
*e.Republic is Techwire’s parent company.
