At the annual National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) conference last month in San Diego, we asked state technology leaders which transformation efforts most often run into trouble. In other words, what's the most difficult thing to modernize in state IT?
Colorado CTO David McCurdy said it's difficult to get the workforce to understand that technology enables an overhaul of process too, and that the end result is a net positive.
"The hardest thing is getting people out of that mindset that we must reproduce this thing one for one when technology allows them to completely wipe out or change for the betterment of the whole interaction or the process," he said.
California CIO Amy Tong said modernizing technology is "more straightforward" than updating business processes. And while she feels the effort to update processes is well worth it, moving the organization and its people toward transformation is cumbersome and time-consuming.
"It's a must do, in my mind," she said.