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.
Charles Eckstrom is in his sixth year as chief information officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a consortium of 26 water agencies that together serve 40 percent of Californians. Before his current role with MWD, he was interim CIO for Orange County government from October 2015 to June 2017, his first role in the public sector. Before that, Eckstrom’s background in the private sector encompassed technology and management roles with companies including Deloitte Consulting, Countrywide, UnitedHealth Group, and Toshiba America Medical Systems.
Eckstrom, a resident of Tustin, earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his master’s in business administration from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He is a certified Project Management Professional through the Project Management Institute.
Industry Insider — California: As the chief information officer for MWD, how do you describe your role?
Eckstrom: In simple terms, I manage the day-to-day IT operations and technology project portfolio. However, my team does all the real work. I set the overall strategy and technology road map in collaboration with my management team. I ensure that we have the budget to do the “right” technology things for MWD. Also, a big part of my job is removing roadblocks so that my team can effectively do their job. I try to be a trusted partner to all our business areas, supporting them with solutions that will further our mission.
Industry Insider — California: How do you define “digital transformation?” How far along is MWD in that process, and how will you know when it’s finished?
Eckstrom: At MWD, we define digital transformation as the journey of deploying digital technologies throughout our enterprise — everything from automating manual processes, digital signatures and workflow to enhancing operational efficiencies through digital use cases. We are about halfway through our digital transformation journey. We have implemented electronic forms with digital workflow and signatures, and deployed numerous enterprise and business-specific systems that increase operational efficiency. However, there are many more use cases for digital transformation to be implemented across the enterprise. I’m not sure if the journey will reach a natural conclusion as I believe that we will always be looking at ways to make processes more efficient through technology. However, it will be a happy day when there are no more processes using paper.
Industry Insider — California: Does MWD have a strategic plan, and may we hyperlink to it? How big a role will you play in writing the next strategic plan?
Eckstrom: MWD currently has strategic priorities that were presented to the Board of Directors in August. All executive-level staff have input into developing the strategic priorities at MWD. Some technology strategic priorities as included in the plan are implementing our cybersecurity strategy, completing our data center modernization effort, upgrading our control systems and implementing enterprise content management. We also have developed a more detailed technology road map that is updated biannually within IT.
Industry Insider — California: Metropolitan Water District serves 26 public water agencies. In a time of increasing cyber attacks and ransomware campaigns targeting public agencies, how do you maintain security protocols with all those partner agencies?
Eckstrom: Cybersecurity is a significant area of focus for MWD. As a water agency that delivers water to half of the population of California, the risk from foreign cyber attacks to disrupt our critical infrastructure is rising daily. We are continually upgrading cybersecurity systems and processes to mitigate this rising risk. We work closely with our Board of Directors to keep them updated on new risks, mitigation strategies, and cyber initiatives. Our Board is comprised of members from the 26 water agencies that we serve.
Industry Insider — California: Your professional background is in both the public private sectors. From your perspective, what’s one thing the public sector does better than the private sector; and what’s one thing that the private sector does better than the public sector?
Eckstrom: This is a great question, as I have given this considerable thought over the years. Private-sector companies are much more nimble and can change direction very fast in order to increase revenues, enhance margins, or lower operating costs. As a CIO, it is easier to get funding for new initiatives, and the procurement process can be rapid. The private sector is typically more cutting-edge with new technologies. On the other hand, public-sector agencies can focus on their mission rather than quarterly profits. They tend to be more stable, which results in a better work/life balance. More importantly, IT teams are more stable because turnover is low and a reduction in force is very rare.
Industry Insider — California: What big initiatives or projects are coming up for MWD? What sorts of developing opportunities and RFPs should vendors be watching for in the next six to 12 months?
Eckstrom: We currently have about 50 active large capital and O&M (operations and maintenance) projects in various stages. A few significant RFP opportunities that vendors should keep an eye out for are: 1) migrating Oracle EBS to Oracle Cloud; 2) implementing PeopleSoft time reporting; 3) Cyber Security Operations Center managed services; 4) development of enterprise data analytics; and 5) fiber installation to each pumping plant in the MWD desert region. Interested vendors should register in the MWD vendor portal on mwdh2o.com to receive RFP notifications.
Industry Insider — California: What is your estimated IT budget, and how many employees does MWD’s IT team have? What is the district’s overall budget?
Eckstrom: MWD’s operating budget for Fiscal Year 2022/23 is $1.5 billion, and the Capital Investment budget is $300 million. The IT operating budget for FY 2022/23 is $49 million, and the Capital Investment budget is approximately $24 million. We have 131 full-time IT staff, as well as temporary staff and contractors.
Industry Insider — California: In your tenure with MWD, which project (or projects) gave you the greatest satisfaction?
Eckstrom: Although there are many accomplishments that I am proud of during my time at MWD, I get the greatest satisfaction from the Data Center Relocation project. This effort included moving over 500 servers and storage from two existing MWD-owned data centers to a primary out-of-region colocation data center and a secondary in-region colocation data center. This migration has significantly improved the resiliency of MWD’s systems and the ability to provide water to over 19 million California residents. In the event of a disaster in Southern California, MWD’s critical systems necessary for business continuity will be up and running at the out-of-region location.
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?
Eckstrom: To be honest, I am not a heavy user of LinkedIn due to time constraints. The best method for vendors to begin their relationship with MWD is to compete for the on-call services RFQ, which is released every three years. This RFQ establishes a bench of vendors across all IT services. It is best for vendors to familiarize themselves with MWD’s mission, history, and business model, all of which can be found at mwdh2o.com.
Industry Insider — California: If you could change one thing about IT procurement, what would it be?
Eckstrom: This is an easy question to answer. The IT procurement process is slow because of the many procurement rules that we must follow. We need to revisit these rules and determine methods for streamlining procurements where possible to allow for greater flexibility, speed and efficiency.
Industry Insider — California: What do you read to stay abreast of developments in the gov tech/SLED sector?
Eckstrom: I stay up to date on new technology, trends and innovation through several forums. I am a member of the Southern California Society of Information Management, in which we get together quarterly to discuss trends in technology. I am also a member of a CIO Community of Practice that meets monthly to confer about technology, issues and new solutions. For government-specific information, I look to publications from GovTech* as well as industry-specific articles and white papers from Gartner. Finally, we are consistently receiving demos of new cybersecurity products since the cyber technology landscape changes much more rapidly as compared to more traditional technologies.
Industry Insider — California: What are your hobbies, and what do you enjoy reading?
Eckstrom: I enjoy restoring old motorcycles and cars. I am currently working on a 1976 BMW 2002, which I consider to be an iconic model (and one I wish I’d had in high school instead of my beat-up 1979 Mazda GLC). I enjoy reading mostly fiction and am currently reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
*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.
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