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Dean Gialamas, a familiar face in Southern California IT circles, has been tapped as the next IT bureau chief and CIO for the Los Angeles Police Department.
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Techwire is pleased to welcome Global CTI Group to the Techwire family. Global CTI, which has offices in Irvine and Bakersfield, describes itself as not just a technology company, but as “communications technology integrators.” Its offerings include business voice solutions, emergency notification technology, managed data solutions, business intelligence, networking, server and storage, security, managed services and support, contact centers and hosted voice. The company, founded by Bakersfield native David Kaiser in 2001, prides itself on its 97 percent customer retention rate. For more information, contact Kelly Fargo or visit gcti.com.
After retiring from a 30-year career with the California Highway Patrol, the law enforcement veteran now shows other police agencies across the West what his technology can do for public safety and situational awareness. "It's the perfect gig," he said.
California Department of Motor Vehicles executives connected virtually with hundreds of technology company representatives at DMV Vendor Day 2020, the department's second such event after an initial success last fall. Agency deputy directors discussed five areas across their enterprise where tech could make a positive difference.
The California Department of Technology's top five purchases of IT goods in August reflect state agencies' ongoing need to renew and update technology products and subscriptions.
The three-day virtual conference, Oct. 23-25, features a variety of topics related to data and technology, including data engineering; AI/machine learning and data science; emerging technologies; business intelligence and reporting; and data infrastructure and security.
“There’s buy-in to bring this in to help spur and drive innovation,” San Joaquin County Chief Information Officer Chris Cruz told Techwire. “It’s the data center of the future.”
Now that state lawmakers have wrapped a legislative session shortened and halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, here's a look at several tech bills headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a signature – and a piece of high-profile legislation that didn't make it.
“Can we get serious about the absolute disaster that is the EDD?” said state Sen. Melissa Melendez. “Millions of Californians are waiting for their state assistance and have not received anything or even spoken to real people. These kinds of actions are unacceptable.”
One big key to the progress, Brig. Gen. Robert Spano said, was getting his staff to the appropriate levels to do the work. This required reorganization of the California Military Department's procurement/finance section by retraining analysts into support roles and getting more accountants on board.
The California Automated Lobbyist and Campaign Contribution and Expenditure Search System (CAL-ACCESS) has, since its inception in the late 1990s, used a system driven by forms. The Cal-ACCESS Replacement System (CARS) project is intended to replace the forms with a data-driven system.
Andrew Hinkle, chief information officer at the California Department of State Hospitals, discusses his agency’s move to telework; how it has enabled televisitations for patients during the time of COVID; and technology projects on the horizon.
“Garbage in, garbage out,” said Dr. Bela Matyas, health officer for Solano County. “I have come to cynically believe that the only people who value models are modelers and politicians. People who work with disease on the streets just know how impossible it is to model what we see.”
The move, by one of the nation’s top public library systems by population served, comes as the county is still largely under COVID-19 lockdown and is aimed at addressing residents’ technology needs.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles will hold its second annual DMV Vendor Day -- a chance for the private sector to “learn firsthand about DMV’s modernization vision” and influence how it may deliver services going forward. Last year's event drew more than 350 people representing more than 200 vendors and yielded more than 200 ideas and potential solutions to four major problem statements.
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The legislation is designed to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure in underserved communities as well as create a new program within the California Energy Commission to fund school upgrades through electric ratepayer-funded energy efficiency efforts.
After a search lasting less than two weeks, state health and technology departments chose a health-care tech company to stand up a new COVID-19 data reporting system that would enhance an existing solution.
Three of the open recruitments are with a key state agency, and two positions are with a Silicon Valley city.
GovOps published what amounts to a case study, laying out the problems and challenges of quantifying and standardizing telework practices; citing the solutions, including specific vendors and products; and spelling out the benefits of shifting to the remote-work model.
The state technology agency, which frequently collaborates with other departments on tech initiatives, spent less than $1 million on IT services in August but made several purchases that could be crucial for state IT policy and architecture.
Contributed
Insights from Prodigy Consulting on preparing Microsoft 365 environments for Copilot through data governance, user training and change management.
Forrester just published The Forrester Wave — Cloud Native Application Protection Solutions, an independent evaluation of 14 vendors in the CNAPP market. Wiz was named the Leader and received the highest score!
Technological innovation in artificial intelligence has shifted. For the better part of a decade, AI operated within tightly bounded constraints: classifying images, generating text, and using these capabilities to surface recommendations. While these systems were powerful, they were fundamentally passive. They needed to receive a prompt in order to return a result. Once the result was achieved, the system stopped.
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