With one of the largest IT programs in state government, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has a technology budget of nearly $120 million and more than 600 staff members dedicated to keeping 138 systems and applications running.
The California Broadband Council will meet on Monday, August 12 from 1 pm to 3 pm in Sacramento. The meeting will be held in the Legislative Office Building at 1020 N Street, Room 100, across the street from the State Capitol. See the agenda here.
Department of Technology Chief Deputy Director Anna Brannen sat down with Christina Gagnier to discuss her more than 30 years of state service. She talked about lessons learned in project management, recent tech policies issued by the department, and offered career advice for up-and-coming technology leaders. Brannen will retire from state service at the end of August.
BJ Daisey has been appointed as the Area Vice President for Comcast California’s Sacramento Valley Area, according to a press announcement from the company.
On July 24, Adrian Farley gave a presentation to an audience of nearly 100 public sector IT professionals about the California Department of Justice’s technology initiatives and agenda.
This week, California High Speed Rail Authority CIO Jeff Vargas sat down with Christina Gagnier to talk about his first six weeks on the job and the challenges ahead as California starts construction on the nation’s first high speed rail system.
While East Coast counties appear to have made a clean sweep, winning first place in all categories of this year’s technology survey of counties across the nation, three California jurisdictions ranked within the top ten, according to Government Technology. Nevada, Sacramento and San Diego counties were all recognized for their advanced use of technology to serve their citizens, streamline operations and achieve measurable benefits.
Department of Technology Chief Deputy Director Paul Benedetto said today that after 30 years of state service, he’s ready to step aside and let the next generation of IT professionals take charge.
Once again, it’s been pointed out to us on Twitter that @CGI_CA (also known as CGI, the global IT firm and one of our longtime sponsors) is giving back to the community, this time in the form of grants for nonprofits in need of technology support. Local Sacramento-area organizations can receive up to $5,000 by applying for a grant through Twitter or via Facebook.
Russ Guarna, longtime DGS executive and former assistant secretary for the Telecommunications Procurement Division within the California Technology Agency, will serve as deputy director of the newly created Statewide Technology Procurement Division. The unit is part of the Department of Technology which started today under last year’s Governor’s Reorganization Plan (GRP) that placed it under the Government Operations Agency.
The Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal) has officially been launched with seven state entities going live in a “pre-wave” to use the system for requisitions, purchase orders and receiving.
The Office of Technology Services today released an Invitation for Bid (IFB) for the private sector to compete to provide cloud networking services to state and local agencies through the state data center. The initiative is being called “CalCloud.”
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation posted 8 Staff Information Systems Analyst job openings for the Managed Access Project. See more details here.
The Sacramento chapter of Women in Technology International (WITI) is partnering with non-profit Next-Ed with a goal toward aligning K-12 curriculum to increase student awareness and to align curriculum with the job market, better known as "STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math). Through this program, the Sacramento region is leading the way to a better future for our children. NextEd has more than 50 area companies, schools and universities on its board and can be found at Next-Ed.org.
Veteran California IT executive Anna Brannen will retire from state service at the end of August, according to her boss, Technology Agency Secretary Carlos Ramos.
Sacramento County has been recognized by the Public Technology Institute for its use of technology to solve problems and improve services and operations in government, according to a press announcement.
The State of California has awarded a $1.2 million contract to HP Enterprise Services to provide IT consulting services to the California Technology Agency, according to state purchasing records.
On Tuesday, June 18, the Department of Motor Vehicles will hold its second public workshop for stakeholders to participate in the development of regulations related to the testing and use of autonomous vehicles in California.
On May 31, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) unveiled its enterprise architecture plan, a technology blueprint to make progress on it’s nearly $1 billion project portfolio and help implement the Affordable Care Act in California. In a presentation led by DHCS CIO and Deputy Director Chris Cruz, Enterprise Architect Ben Word and Chief Medical Information Officer Dr. Linette Scott, the department laid out it’s guiding principles and detailed plans including business, information and technical architectures.
The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) today unveiled its enterprise architecture plan, a technology blueprint to make progress on it’s nearly $1 billion project portfolio and help implement the Affordable Care Act in California. In a presentation led by DHCS CIO and Deputy Director Chris Cruz, Enterprise Architect Ben Word and Chief Medical Information Officer Dr. Linette Scott, the department laid out it’s guiding principles and detailed plans including business, information and technical architectures.
Sacramento-based consulting firm M Corp has completed a major project for CalPERS that includes migrating 500 million records of data from a legacy mainframe system to a new database, the firm announced.
Here’s a short video posted on Friday by the Board of Equalization that gives an update on the agency’s Centralized Revenue Opportunity System. Project Director Eric Steen says an RFP will be out soon.
Below is video from yesterday’s hearing of the Senate Budget Subcommittee #4 which heard the governor’s revised budget proposal on how to move forward after the State Controller’s Office in February canceled the contract with SAP, the vendor that was in charge of the MyCalPays project. For more background starting from the Legislative Analyst Office’s (LAO) recommendations published at the start of the week, see Wednesday’s article posted here.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen has decided to post campaign finance data online in a raw, downloadable format after being lobbied by a coalition of research, advocacy and news organizations. Initially, she declined the group’s request last month saying it was not feasible to redact personal information, such as the home addresses of campaign contributors, in data to be posted daily, according to an Associated Press report.
The TechAmerica Foundation this week released its annual edition of Cyberstates, a state-by-state comparison of private-sector tech employment, wages and other economic indicators.
California State Controller John Chiang sat down with Michelle Kennedy this week to discuss his government transparency initiatives and the Task Force on Reengineering IT Procurement for Success, a high-profile group that was announced by his office earlier this year. Chiang, whose office has been working with the Brown Administration, said the group may soon have recommendations on how to update the state’s practices related to the use of technology in California.
The purpose of this Information Technology (IT) Request for Quote (RFQ) is to obtain a Contractor to consolidate the functionality of three Department of Justice Law Enforcement Systems Branch photo image solutions into one system that also provides a facial recognition biometric identification.
Per AB 1498 (Buchanan) signed last year that required the state to update the way it purchases technology-related goods and services, the Brown Administration has has submitted a plan to transfer IT procurement authority from the Department of General Services to the new Department of Technology. The details are included in a recent Finance Letter submitted by the Department of Finance as part of this year’s budget process.
