Techwire is pleased to welcome Innovative Strategies LLC to the Techwire family. Innovative Strategies helps organizations begin or grow their work with the public sector and build the foundation they need to do business with state and local government. Its services include state and local government contract acquisition, advising on proposal compliance and win strategies; government initiatives; and channel and alliance partner strategies. For information, visit innovativestrat.net or contact Sherri Stanfill.
Chaeny Emanavin, director of the Office of Innovation at the California Health and Human Services Agency, discusses the merger of his office into a new entity, with an enhanced emphasis on data-driven decision-making, better service delivery and looking ahead.
Techwire is pleased to welcome Global CTI Group to the Techwire family. Global CTI, which has offices in Irvine and Bakersfield, describes itself as not just a technology company, but as “communications technology integrators.” Its offerings include business voice solutions, emergency notification technology, managed data solutions, business intelligence, networking, server and storage, security, managed services and support, contact centers and hosted voice. The company, founded by Bakersfield native David Kaiser in 2001, prides itself on its 97 percent customer retention rate. For more information, contact Kelly Fargo or visit gcti.com.
Andrew Hinkle, chief information officer at the California Department of State Hospitals, discusses his agency’s move to telework; how it has enabled televisitations for patients during the time of COVID; and technology projects on the horizon.
Techwire will observe Labor Day on Monday and will not be publishing a newsletter. The daily update will resume Tuesday. The staff of Techwire wishes our readers and friends a safe and meaningful holiday.
Nine of California's 58 counties were winners this year in the 18th Annual Digital Counties Survey, conducted by the Center for Digital Government and published annually by Government Technology magazine. Generally, they exhibited a focus on planning and were underway on initiatives that proved vital when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
Techwire is pleased to welcome Prodigy Consulting LLC to the Techwire family. Prodigy Consulting was founded on 16 years of collective experience assisting California state and local governments in adopting cloud technologies. The company is a certified Small Business with the California Department of General Services and is a supplier on the California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS) and in the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) Spring-Fed Pool. Prodigy offers the latest solutions to cloud and on-prem challenges, whether in automation, security, architecture, governance, operations, or project management. For information visit consult-prodigy.com or contact Daniel Bender.
Ahsan Baig, chief information officer at Alameda-Contra Costa County Transit, has a full agenda – and some developing vendor opportunities: "We are in the middle of ERP cloud hosting, big data analytics, and a couple of cybersecurity initiatives. In coming years, we will be looking for more cybersecurity projects, IT modernization, cloud expansion, data center integration, mobile app, big data, ML/AI platforms, etc."
The awards recognize California state and local government and education organizations for their contributions in IT. All government and education officials, executives and staff in California are invited to submit nominations.
Jason Piccione, chief information officer and deputy director of the Office of Information Services at the California Department of Consumer Affairs, discusses business modernizations in a time of reduced budgets, and positive changes to procurement.
Techwire is pleased to welcome Robert Half to the Techwire family. A specialized staffing company with operations in more than 400 locations around the world, Robert Half deploys contractors to support state and local government and their partners. Through Protiviti, its consulting practice, Robert Half offers subject matter expertise in areas that include tech, business process improvement, risk and compliance, analytics and internal audits. Founded in 1948, its $5 billion enterprise is considered to be the first and largest in specialized staffing; its unique managed solutions are informed by its consulting expertise and staffing size. For information,contact Dustin McQuaide or Jack Batchelor or visit roberthalf.com.
Gary Renslo, chief information officer at the California Department of General Services, explains how his role has evolved with the department and discusses DGS' embrace of automation and e-signature among other initiatives; and its ongoing move to cloud.
The California Highway Patrol has been upgrading its communications capabilities this year, including new dispatch console equipment, video and audio recording gear, and antennas.
Techwire is pleased to welcome Adobe to the Techwire family. Adobe aims to change the world via digital experiences. It offers public-sector agencies the solutions they need to deliver services efficiently, improve citizen engagement and modernize their customers’ digital experience. In July, Adobe was named a Leader by Gartner Inc., in the “Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines.” The company also has been working with IBM and Red Hat to help enterprises speed up their digital transformations and strengthen real-time data security. For more information, visit adobe.com or contact Meenu Thind.
Russ Nichols, chief information officer and director of Enterprise Information Services at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, discusses how the role of CIO at his department has transformed to that of a business leader, and looks at tech's potential for positive change within the agency.
Evolv, which has worked with Oakland International Airport and a transit authority in Southern California, has started offering technology to screen people for elevated temperatures associated with COVID-19.
The judging panel is composed of top government IT officials selected from state agencies, local government and higher education. The judges will consider a variety of aspects when evaluating entries, including Productivity/Performance, Innovation (Wow Factor), Functionality, Savings/Value Add and Usage Rate.
Techwire is pleased to welcome Informatica Corp. to the Techwire family. Informatica, a global leader in enterprise cloud data management, helps the public and private sectors accelerate data-driven digital transformation. The Informatica Intelligent Data Platform offers departments a comprehensive, versatile data platform capable of powering current apps, analytics and AI with intelligent automation and governance; its next-gen analytics solutions help governments wield big data, cloud, and visualizations for instant answers. For more information, visit informatica.com or contact Scott Reilly, whose focus is state departments and agencies; or Clayton Lewis, whose focus is statewide local government and education.
Rico Rubiono, chief information officer for the California Department of Motor Vehicles and deputy director of its Information Services Division, discusses the department's ongoing tech modernization, how his role has changed, his favorite projects and how procurement might be improved.
Techwire is pleased to welcome Couchbase to the Techwire family. Couchbase is an award-winning, distributed NoSQL cloud database that offers scalability, performance and value in on-prem, cloud and hybrid deployments. The company provides an enterprise-class, multicloud to edge database with the robust capabilities needed to run business-critical applications. As a distributed cloud-native database, Couchbase is at home in customer or managed-as-as-service cloud environments. Built on open standards, it blends key attributes from NoSQL and SQL, simplifying transitions from mainframe and other architectures. Clients include such household names as Comcast/Sky, United Airlines, Verizon and hundreds of others. For more information, visit couchbase.com or contact Curt Phare.
Al Wanger, chief information officer at the California Coastal Commission, discusses his role, going digital at an agency that leaned heavily on paper, and a key systems integration project.
Today's briefing will cover what’s included in the state budget, how much will go to technology spending, what technologies the state plans to invest in, and how the decreased budget will affect IT spending. It starts at 11 a.m.
Michael Berman, chief information officer for the California State University system, explains how his role as a system CIO differs from that of CIO at one of 23 CSU campuses, and discusses how officials plan to evaluate potential strategies for an IT services consolidation.
According to Google Cloud’s blog, the Assured Workloads for Government service is being privately beta tested now and is planned for general release at an unspecified date this fall. The basic pitch is that the service will help governments move their workloads to the cloud in a way that meets compliance requirements without sacrificing functionality.
The controversial company hasn't said much about its contracts with agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department and Immigration and the San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center. If it goes public, it will need to reveal more.
Techwire is pleased to welcome Tableau Software to the Techwire family. Tableau finds and creates opportunities to improve people’s lives by making better use of data from disease research, education patterns, industrial efficiency, patient care and government spending, among many other disciplines. Tableau does this by fusing graphics and data bases, studying “the cycle of visual analysis,” and implementing “the principles of visual understanding.” The Seattle-based company’s products include Tableau Desktop, Server, Online, Prep and Public, and its solutions encompass education, government, IT, marketing, insurance, high technology, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Maps. For more information, visit tableau.com or contact Lawrence M. Butler.
COPLINK Connect is described as like LinkedIn, Nextdoor and Facebook: a way for NCRIC member officers, deputies, agents and analysts to communicate in real time across jurisdictions, agencies and shifts.
Jay Song, chief information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, talks about his role at CAL FIRE, the opportunities and challenges of technology today and an important project implementation getting underway.
