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Panel Discusses Infrastructure, Globalization, Other Concerns

Only a handful of people know how to deal with the old systems and they are nearing retirement

Following Secretary Thompson's keynote at the Monday C-Level Summit in Sacramento, he joined a panel of public- and private-sector experts who tackled subjects of concern to the audience, including globalization, offshoring and converging technology, and their effects on government and IT.

Several presenters cited The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman as a recognition of the changes driven by globalization. Thompson said that other countries are having difficulties with it as well -- and that because of globalization "everyone but the French" are learning English. Globalization demands change, he said, and it's not federal governments but state governments that are best prepared to deal with it.

George Valverde, director of California's DMV, said infrastructure is a priority to his department. "The IT infrastructure dates back to the 1960's," he said. The DMV tried to implement a system in the late 80s or early 90s and failed, said Valverde, "and because of that, there is a sense that we shouldn't pursue updating our infrastructure." However, he explained, only a handful of people know how to deal with the old systems and they are nearing retirement. So the DMV is beginning a multi-year upgrade.

Data integration and reduction of duplicate records were also a priority. Aldona Valicente said that she had visited 30 states recently, and that integrating data on the back end not only provides significant savings, but better service as well.

The C-Level Summit was sponsored by Deloitte, ACS, Dell, Hansen, Natoma, Northrop Grumman, Oracle and SAS.
Wayne E. Hanson served as a writer and editor with e.Republic from 1989 to 2013, having worked for several business units including Government Technology magazine, the Center for Digital Government, Governing, and Digital Communities. Hanson was a juror from 1999 to 2004 with the Stockholm Challenge and Global Junior Challenge competitions in information technology and education.