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IT Leaders, State Projects Recognized as ‘Best of California’ for 2024

The Best of California Awards, presented during the California Government Innovation Summit, acknowledge high-achieving state IT officials and significant recent IT projects.

The main entrance to the California Capitol building.
Recognizing outstanding achievement in technology is a key part of the annual California Government Innovation Summit, via the Best of California Awards event.

State entities and IT leaders were recognized Tuesday by Government Technology,* the summit host, for projects and solutions aimed at keeping residents safe, improving their online government experience and making state IT more efficient and effective. The categories, projects and winners are:

INNOVATION SERVING AN AGENCY’S BUSINESS NEEDS


California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES): EMPOWER: Human Capital Management Legacy Replacement

Department of Rehabilitation (DOR): Transition to FI$Cal, the statewide financial system

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR): Automated Restricted Housing Unit; Correctional Officer Application System Tracking

California Department of Transportation (Caltrans): AirWatch Mobile Device Management to Microsoft Intune Migration

Employment Development Department: EDDNext, myEDD Customer Portal

Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC): Digital Transformation of Financial Exam and Health Quality Survey Scheduling; Enterprise Data Analytic and Reporting Modernization

California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA): Implementation of Amazon Connect Contact Center Solution

Department of Social Services: Governance and Process Improvement

Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV): Driver Safety System Modernization

INNOVATION SERVING THE PUBLIC


California Department of Technology (CDT): State of California Department Website Emergency Alerts

Cal OES: Grants Central System

Office of Tax Appeals: Pro Bono Program

EDD: Language Access

CDTFA: Implementation of Amazon Connect Contact Center Solution

CDCR: California Model — Enhanced Public Visiting Experience; California Incarcerated Records and Information Search (CIRIS)

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC): Broadband Grant Portal

DMV: DMV Wallet and mobile driver’s licenses (mDL)

Covered California: Quick, Easy, Covered: California Accelerates and Simplifies Health Insurance

INNOVATIVE USE OF DATA ANALYTICS


CDCR: RJU Data Project

Cal OES: Wildfire Forecast and Threat Intelligence Integration Center

Division of Drinking Water (DDW): : Forecasting community water system outages

EDD: Fraud Analytics

DMHC: NetMap — An Automated, Data-Centric GIS Tool for Health Care Provider Network Adequacy Analysis

DMV: Environmental License Plate

California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS): Cloud IVR Solution With Sentiment Analysis

CalSTRS: Predictive analytics to forecast staff workload, business intelligence and data warehouse implementation project

BEST COLLABORATION


CDT: Governor’s Office website redesign

Cal OES: LEMA Fund Online Portal; LEMA Portal

EDD: ACH Direct Deposit

Caltrans: Cybersecurity Business Liaisons Project

DMV: DMV Homeless Connect

California Health and Human Services (CHHS): Homeless Data Integration

California Cradle-to-Career Data System: Cradle-to-Career Data System

BEST WORKFORCE INITIATIVE


Caltrans: Resource Capacity Management Planning Project

EDD: Apprenticeship Program

DMV: Automation Creates Efficiencies for the DMV Team

EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE


Cal OES: Priya Santhanam; Ravi Bhadana

CDCR: Rakhee Tiwari; Kyle Clark; Azadeh Gargiulo; Analee Farley-Coen

Caltrans: Quoc Vu

EDD: Nathan Gillie; Paulette Matthews; Brandon Hooker; Kyle Montero; Elizabeth Nobriga; Stefanie Walker; Customer Experience Team, Public Affairs Branch; Contact Center Modernization Initiative; Mathavan Mohan; Cosmin Negrea

DMV: Steve Gordon

CalSTRS: David Liao

CALIFORNIA INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR


Matthew Morgan, DOR

*Government Technology is Industry Insider — California’s sister publication.

This article has been updated to correct the spelling of a name and to credit the Division of Drinking Water (DDW) and Covered California for their projects.
Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.