Techwire’s editorial team brings readers in gov tech and the technology industry the latest news on California state, county and local government IT and innovation every day. As part of our ongoing efforts to educate readers on state of California agencies, their IT plans and initiatives, we’re periodically presenting a series of interviews with departmental IT leaders.
Bill Glaholt is chief information officer at the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), which is under the umbrella of the state Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. It's a role he has held since August 2014. Glaholt’s state career, however, spans 25 years: He first joined the state in 1995 as a COBOL programmer at the California Department of Social Services. In a 2018 interview with Government Technology magazine,* he discussed the benefits of a multi-generational workforce.
Techwire: As CIO of your organization, how do you describe your role — and how have the role and responsibilities of the CIO changed in recent years?
Glaholt: The role has not particularly changed since I started here six years ago. The roles of the CIO are and always shall be:
• To learn the organization’s business from top to bottom so that you may effectively deploy technology to support it.
• To understand the political situations of the organization, analyze them, and design contingent strategies for them based on possible impacts.
• To support the strategy of the organization’s executive team by deploying architecture, policies, and resources that are flexible enough to change with new strategies.
Techwire: How big a role do you personally play in writing your organization’s strategic plan?
Glaholt: Not as big as I would like; however, as we have a brand-new pair of executives, I have requested that I be a part of their strategic planning efforts.
Techwire: What big initiatives or projects are coming in 2020? What sorts of RFPs should we be watching for in the next six to 12 months?
Glaholt: We are in the midst of migrating our enterprise-wide business rule support system from a mainframe-based system into PeopleSoft. We completed the Licensing module last year and are working on the Case and Ruling management module right now, hoping to be complete by mid-fall. We won’t be putting out any RFPs, because we are implementing it fully in-house with just two developers. It’s a proof-of-concept that I am hoping will be an example of what can be done in an in-house, “garage-band” style of development.
Techwire: How do you define “digital transformation,” and how far along is your organization in that process? How will you know when it's finished?
Glaholt: We are right at the front line of digital transformation. Just in the last six months, we have:
• Had zero loss of industry-related efforts during the (novel coronavirus) COVID-19 pandemic due to an infrastructure supporting telework for all our staff.
• Implemented digital signatures for internal processes throughout the organization.
• Taken advantage of a slow period in the industry to digitize/scan old paper licenses and documentation and integrate them into our new Licensing system.
• Performed various data consolidation efforts and integrated them with our website for business intelligence, public data access, and transparency.
As digital transformation is a continuously ongoing effort, I do not believe it will ever be “finished.” There is a point where we will experience diminishing returns for automation efforts and cease them; we are still determining the metrics for such a situation.
Techwire: What is your estimated IT budget and how many employees do you have? What is the overall budget?
Glaholt: The organization’s budget is approximately $14.5 million, of which I am authorized to spend about $1 million (although I try to spend as little as I can). CHRB has 53 California state staff employees (of which five are IT) and 47 contractors for 100 individuals.
Techwire: How do you prefer to be contacted by vendors? Are there any particular social media contact points you'd like to highlight? How might vendors best educate themselves before meeting with you?
Glaholt: I appreciate vendors who do a little homework before contacting me. I am leery of “cold-calls,” especially when it is obvious that they know absolutely nothing of my industry or what my organization does (and therefore, how IT supports it). “Homework,” in our case, can simply be as little as taking 10 to 15 minutes to peruse our website. There is enough information there to understand information technology’s role in our organization and make a concerted effort to determine where their products or services may be of benefit.
Editor's note: Glaholt told Techwire that with respect to social media, he is a LinkedIn member but joined primarily to remain connected with former colleagues and share ideas in his profession. He reiterated his wish that vendors do their homework before reaching out.
Techwire: In your tenure, which project or achievement are you most proud of?
Glaholt: Difficult question to answer. I’m proud to say I have moved the organization into the 21st century. It encompasses several parts:
• We are developing a flexible cloud-based enterprise application using the same technology as (the Financial Information System for California) FI$Cal and utilizing minimal contractor work and only one full-time developer (away from a 35-year-old mainframe program) — the licensing module is now 100 percent used as our sole source of licensing data.
• I built a solid backbone network across the state and five remote offices (away from an ancient T-1 line to a high-capacity ASE backbone).
• I fully virtualized our entire data center (away from 10-year-old physical servers all running Windows Server 2003).
• Our department utilized no Administrative Time Off during the COVID-19 quarantine due to a solid 100 percent telework-capable infrastructure (due to an effort to phase away from desktops and move to all laptops and have the secure two-factor VPN infrastructure capable of supporting them all, along with a move to tether-capable mobile phones with unlimited data plans).
• I integrated multiple disparate data sources for increased business intelligence capabilities and then implemented some of those capabilities onto our public website.
• Many other accomplishments of lesser impact, but all important.
Techwire: If you could change one thing about IT procurement, what would it be?
Glaholt: I’m sorry, I don’t have a good answer for you. I know what I can change in our own organization, but I doubt they are the same issues other departments are facing.
Techwire: What do you read to stay abreast of developments in the gov tech sector?
Glaholt: I’m a big Redditor. I’m on several technology, industry, and government “subreddits” that provide excellent news and/or technological advances that might impact our industry.
Techwire: What are your hobbies, and what do you enjoy reading?
Glaholt: I am an accomplished keyboardist and backup vocalist and have been in multiple Sacramento-area cover bands — mostly pop and rock, but some blues. I dabble in electronics and do some of what I call “recreational programming.” I play basketball at the YMCA in the mornings, although a combination of injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic have limited my playtime recently. When I read, I like comedy and fantasy/sci-fi such as the works of Douglas Adams, Jim Butcher, and Robert Asprin.
*Government Technology magazine is a publication of e.Republic, which also produces Techwire.
