Tanya Acevedo is the chief information officer and senior vice president for Capital Metro, the public transit provider for the city of Austin.Acevedo has served as CIO for almost two years. Her 20-plus years of experience in the public sector include positions as CIO for Travis County, chief technology officer for the Houston Airport System and CIO for Miami-Dade College.
Industry Insider — Texas: As CIO of your organization, how do you describe your role?
Tanya Acevedo: I direct the development and implementation of the IT strategic plan, ensuring the proper tech budget and resources are aligned with the overall CapMetro strategic plan. I also ensure the day-to-day production-related technology systems are up and running and our business partners are supporting our service level agreements both strategically and operationally.
IITX: How have the role and responsibilities of the CIO changed in recent years?
Acevedo: Like many other agencies, the CIO has evolved to a strategic, mission-critical role. Technology budgets have increased and the reliance on technology directly relates to the strategic success of any organization ... critical and long-term system sustainability and resilience continues to increase the importance of the CIO and also the CISO.
IITX: What projects will you be looking to fund in this budget cycle?
Acevedo: It would be nice to focus on system configuration improvements that focus on better business processes and efficiencies this year along with advancing our data platform to really begin identifying where machine learning and AI can benefit CapMetro and the customers we serve. We have incorporated our best-of-breed enterprise platforms and have an amazing platform foundation consisting of Salesforce, Oracle, Hexagon, [Microsoft], ServiceNow, and transit-related solutions Trapeze, Swiftly and Umo.
IITX: What big initiatives or projects are coming up?
Acevedo: We’re focusing on an expansion of our account-based systems to support the customer journey.
IITX: How often is the organization’s enterprise catalog updated?
Acevedo: We update our catalog yearly.
IITX: What do you think is the greatest technology challenge in Texas?
Acevedo: Staying abreast of AI and related data concerns. Texas state and local government CIOs are pretty close, I feel like I have grown up with the CIOs and we have watched our kids and parents get older — not us though!
IITX: If you could change one thing about IT procurement, what would it be?
Acevedo: I love CapMetro’s procurement department and they stay ahead of the trends and aligned with the business needs.
IITX: How might vendors best educate themselves before meeting with you?
Acevedo: My LinkedIn posts usually talk about what is important to CapMetro and our customers. It’s better if they reach out on LinkedIn to easily see what their services are.
IITX: What do you read to stay abreast of developments in the government technology/SLED sector?
Acevedo: Government Technology*, of course, also [the National Association of State CIOs] and [the Texas Department of Information Resources] and other state agencies' white papers. I also follow industry leaders on LinkedIn.
IITX: What conferences do you attend?
Acevedo: I attend events by InnoTech and e.Republic* events, as well as industry-specific conferences.
IITX: What are you reading or listening to for fun? What do you do to unplug in your downtime?
Acevedo: I enjoy audiobooks and travel.
*Note: Industry Insider — Texas and Government Technology are both part of e.Republic.
