As part of Industry Insider — California’s ongoing efforts to educate readers on state agencies, their IT plans and initiatives, here’s the latest in our periodic series of interviews with departmental IT leaders.
Gregory Pronovost is technology services director at the city of Bakersfield, a position he has held for five years — and under his leadership, the entity has grown from a division to a full department. He is a veteran city employee of 25 years, having joined Bakersfield in July 1997 as an accounting clerk. Must recently, Pronovost was assistant director of information technology, a post he held for more than two years before ascending to director. He also spent more than a decade in network systems roles.
Pronovost holds a bachelor’s of science in business administration – management information systems from California State University, Bakersfield, where he graduated magna cum laude.
Industry Insider — California: As technology services director at your organization, how do you describe your role; and how have the role and responsibilities of the director changed in recent years?
Pronovost: I view my role as the leader of the Technology Services Department, providing the vision and direction we need to take to be successful in our endeavors. To the rest of the organization, we are a consulting partner, collaboratively working toward a common goal in support of each department’s line of business. Over the last few years, I have seen collaboration increase. Departments are partnering more with Technology Services as technology itself becomes more ingrained in the day-to-day operations of the city. Technology is the catalyst of change, change is constant; as such, we as a department should lead and manage that change.
Industry Insider — California: How big a role do you personally play in writing your organization’s strategic plan?
Pronovost: Currently, the city does not have a strategic plan. We do have goals set forth by our City Council that all departments use as a guide in the implementation of initiatives. In the last couple of years, the senior management team has been working on developing a core set of principles or values in preparation of a larger comprehensive strategic initiative. As part of the senior management team, I as well as the other members are actively involved in the development of our organizational strategic planning.
Industry Insider — California: What big initiatives or projects are coming up? What sorts of RFPs should we be watching for in the next six to 12 months?
Pronovost: We have a couple of large modernization projects that will be coming to fruition within the year. The first is a regional public safety radio system in partnership with the county of Kern to better support our first responders. This new system will be a state-of-the-art digital trunked radio system with enhanced coverage and capabilities. The second is the replacement of our aged enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, with a modern ERP to better support core functionality. Moving forward, we will be going out to RFP for the ancillary systems in concert with the yet-to-be-determined ERP, the best-of-breed modules to support specific lines of business. Additionally, we are building up our Data Analytics team and will be going out to RFP to find a good partner to assist us with that process.
Industry Insider — California: What term or phrase do you use to refer to what many call “digital transformation”? How far along is your organization in that process and how will you know when it's finished?
Pronovost: I simply refer to digital transformation as modernization, because at its core it is the changing of processes and workflows to be more assessable and available in modern lines of communication that are used every day. We are expanding our services from the traditional dissemination of information in newspapers, bulletins and websites to new platforms such as smart devices, social media and (artificial intelligence) AI bots, as well as transitioning fully digitized workflows so that citizens can do business with the city 24/7 from the comfort of their living room or anywhere with mobile devices. This is what our residents expect from us as service providers. Currently, we are in the early stages of implementing these changes and we are excited to bring them forward. As far as knowing when we’re done, as I’ve mentioned before, change is constant, so we will never be finished.
Industry Insider — California: What is your estimated IT budget and how many employees do you have? What is the overall budget?
Pronovost: For the upcoming Fiscal Year 2023, the Technology Services Department is requesting a total budget of $16.2 million. Our department has an authorized compliment of 60 (full-time employees) FTEs. The city of Bakersfield’s estimated budget is $852.6 million.
Industry Insider — California: How do you prefer to be contacted by vendors, including via social media such as LinkedIn? How might vendors best educate themselves before meeting with you?
Pronovost: My preference is email; that way if the product or service is of interest to us, I can then forward to the team that will take a closer look. I’ll admit my LinkedIn game is weak. Balancing work and life leave little time to update social media platforms, although I do appreciate reading what others have posted. As with any new relationship, the vendor should get to know us. There is a lot of information that can be obtained from our website as well as various council or committee meetings. During the initial meet, find out what our pain points are, see where we might need assistance, familiarize yourself with our procurement process; being more flexible with yours could lead to a smoother transaction. Also, know that should you be successful in engaging us with your product or service, it isn’t a one-and-done transaction, we are wanting to partner with our solution providers, keeping abreast of enhancements, bug fixes, updates, and addressing our concerns.
Industry Insider — California: In your tenure in this position, which project or achievement are you most proud of?
Pronovost: Easily, it has to be the building up of the department and the improvements to our staff. Four years ago, the Technology Services Division, was a traditional IT support service entity with an authorized staff of 37 FTEs. Today, we are a full department within the organization, with an authorized staff of 60 and growing. As part of that growth, we structured our technical positions in a way that promotes agility and multiple avenues of job progression. Our staff are challenged to commit to continual process improvement and continued education. Most of all, we are positioning ourselves to partner with our fellow departments on the use of technology and best practices to better implement programs and initiatives that provide real, meaningful change to our citizens.
Industry Insider — California: If you could change one thing about IT procurement, what would it be?
Pronovost: In a word, simplify. Being a government organization, there is a bureaucracy to the procurement process that must be followed. That process almost always works against how technology and technology services are sold today. Each procurement is a little bit different in how the contract is written. We in Technology Services are working with our Finance and Legal Services departments on what we can do internally to streamline the process. We also ask our solution partners to do the same, so hopefully it doesn’t end up taking months to purchase goods and services.
Industry Insider — California: What do you read to stay abreast of developments in the govtech/SLED sector?
Pronovost: I subscribe to a number of email newsletters and paper publications covering the three levels of government, local, state and federal, with an emphasis in technology use, such as Government Technology*, as well as those put out by our solution providers. Additionally, I see what my fellow public-sector CIOs are doing through our membership with MISAC (Municipal Information Systems Association of California) and ICMA (International City/County Management Association). Finally, my staff and I attend multiple conferences and collaboration opportunities. I’m always pleasantly surprised in the unique ways existing technology is used to address new issues.
Industry Insider — California: What are your hobbies, and what do you enjoy reading?
Pronovost: I enjoy spending time with my family doing escape rooms, solving book/game puzzles and watching movies. Not too much into reading for pleasure (do a lot of reading for work), but do enjoy working with my hands, such as photography, electronics and playing retro arcade games and virtual (video) pinball (the stuff I grew up with in the ’80s).
*Government Technology magazine is a publication of e.Republic, which also produces Industry Insider — California.
Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for style and brevity.
Industry Insider One-on-One: Bakersfield Tech Chief on Data Analytics, Value of Simplicity
