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In Los Angeles, Tech Is All About the Customer

In leading the IT organization for California's largest city, CIO Ted Ross makes sure development efforts are focused on delivering value to customers.

Los Angeles CIO Ted Ross
Los Angeles CIO Ted Ross
Embracing technology for technology's sake is missing the point. While it's easy to get swept up in the excitement of the latest feature release in a piece of software, forward-thinking tech leaders in the public sector are grounded by the business need that technology is aimed at solving. 

At the Los Angeles Digital Government Summit last month, CIO Ted Ross described the way the tech agency is now organized, with separate bureaus for applications, infrastructure and customer engagement — which is responsible for delivering value to both internal and external constituencies. 

"We need to focus on our customers, have a great understanding of who they are and what they need," Ross said, "and deliver the maximum value to them using technology."

Noelle Knell is the executive editor for e.Republic, responsible for setting the overall direction for e.Republic’s editorial platforms, including Government Technology, Governing, Industry Insider, Emergency Management and the Center for Digital Education. She has been with e.Republic since 2011, and has decades of writing, editing and leadership experience. A California native, Noelle has worked in both state and local government, and is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with majors in political science and American history.