State CIO envisions shared IT services for departments

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota is grappling with an issue familiar to many states: the challenge of yielding greater performance from decentralized, autonomous IT groups scattered throughout government agencies and departments.

In the land of 10,000 lakes, a new CIO is spearheading a campaign to restructure IT departments and processes statewide. There's an opportunity to get rid of the silos and adopt a model that balances centralized governance and shared services with some deliberately distributed functions, said Gopal Khanna, who in August was appointed Minnesota's first cabinet-level CIO.

Key to Khanna's plan, which is backed by state legislators, is the newly established Office of Enterprise Technology (OET). This central organization will provide Minnesota agencies with IT services, including strategic planning, project management and technology procurement.

Already OET operates Minnesota's Network for Enterprise Telecommunications (MNET), a statewide WAN for education, local government and state agencies. MNET offers data, voice and video services, including hosted IP telephony services for agencies interested in rolling out VoIP .

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ST. PAUL, Minn. - Minnesota is grappling with an issue familiar to many states: the challenge of yielding greater performance from decentralized, autonomous IT groups scattered throughout government agencies and departments.

In the land of 10,000 lakes, a new CIO is spearheading a campaign to restructure IT departments and processes statewide. There's an opportunity to get rid of the silos and adopt a model that balances centralized governance and shared services with some deliberately distributed functions, said Gopal Khanna, who in August was appointed Minnesota's first cabinet-level CIO.

Key to Khanna's plan, which is backed by state legislators, is the newly established Office of Enterprise Technology (OET). This central organization will provide Minnesota agencies with IT services, including strategic planning, project management and technology procurement.

Already OET operates Minnesota's Network for Enterprise Telecommunications (MNET), a statewide WAN for education, local government and state agencies. MNET offers data, voice and video services, including hosted IP telephony services for agencies interested in rolling out VoIP .

Now the state wants to see more functions centralized in a similar fashion. One driver is the shrinking employee population - nearly half of Minnesota government employees will be eligible for retirement in eight years. "That's a huge, huge driver for change," Khanna said in a keynote address to 950 attendees at the annual Minnesota Government IT Symposium, held last week in St. Paul.

Since assuming the CIO post, Khanna and OET have launched more than 20 projects to improve processes in areas such as IT governance, security, infrastructure and services-oriented architecture. The project teams consist of IT staff from 25 agencies, and decision making is on the fast track, Khanna said.

Initial worries

The idea of launching so many major IT initiatives at once didn't immediately sit well with everyone involved, including Steve Stedman, OET's new CTO. Stedman told attendees he worried about having too many project teams going in too many directions without a formal governance process.

But there's merit in forming "self-selecting" teams, whereby people who are truly interested in the IT topic - and not just there to protect their turf - are empowered to make decisions, Stedman said. Long term, a more formal governance process will be required, but for the short term it's not necessary. "We have to go at lightning speed," he said.

Khanna agrees. Government is a decade behind corporate America in investing in technology to support business-process improvement, he said. The good news is that the cost of technology has dropped, putting the state in a better position to leverage technology.

Key to the new plan is standardization - from desktops and applications to networks and data centers. For example, by standardizing IT procurement and leveraging statewide IT buying power, agencies will be able to save 28% to 44% on desktops and laptops, he said.