(We have broken the interview into two parts and edited for brevity. This is Part II. Read Part I here.)
Haisler: What are your top priorities? What's top of mind for you from a technology standpoint?
Acevedo: Making sense of all of this data and really consuming it and being able to consume it in a secure manner and getting it out to the people that need to have it. … Especially when we're coming up on a, potentially, a recession. Are we going to be viable? And to do that we have to make sure that technology is good, right? And we have the trust of the community that we serve, and that [for] your and our customers that we can make this happen both internally to the board and externally, and of course that we're not going to be compromised through cybersecurity. So that is always there.
Barron: One of the things that I've been working hard on since I started was establishing priorities. Unfortunately at the agency there was not a project prioritization … it was kind of the next shiny thing. Let's do the next shiny thing. … And it was creating a lot of churn for it, and quite frankly, turnover, and we've established priorities, and we have a vision and goal. We've identified activities that we need to do to prepare for that modernization project, that then there's kind of a “check this new thing” that comes up. Is it going to contribute to the modernization effort? Or is it something that maybe needs to be added as a function that's part of that effort and not done right now?
Haisler: What are some of those top challenges you're looking at trying to tackle as you look to the next 12 to 24 months? What are you struggling with? Maybe that you don't have answers for today and workforce, you know, there's not a silver bullet for that one, but it seems like everyone's struggling with that.
Barron: I'm running about a 25 percent vacancy rate. It's been that way since I've been at the agency. It's tough. … The one silver lining of the pandemic is that it pushed government to remote work and showed our leadership that, hey, agencies can work from home and sometimes they can do better with the remote workforce. … And I am using that as a recruitment tool.
Acevedo: So technology is fully remote. … And we’re onsite where we're needed to be in the field, which is really beneficial and recruiting insurance. We got a huge level of college-level opportunities, and so for specialized, we definitely go out and do apprenticeships and internships.
Haisler: Has this unprecedented funding environment created any new priorities for you? Is it driving new technology investments or are you seeing things like IIJA (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) and the American Rescue Plan Act influencing any of the projects that you have?
Acevedo: You have to make sure you've got decent grant writers and that you have the controls in place, that you're making sure that this is separate and it's going toward this grant or funding, and so that is really driving. Yes, we got it. We've got to spend it. And I know previous places that you had to spend it during a specific time. … And so that's what's driving with the technology, that a lot of times it will say for cybersecurity. … Those are the things that potentially will absolutely drive the technologies.
Barron: Now we have submitted some of our priorities through the process that DIR has for some of that funding. But you know, we're a revenue-generating department, which is, I like working for; it's a lot tougher. We identified some priorities that definitely would be eligible for that funding. We've submitted that, and if we get that, all the better. But we kind of got our vision and our, what we're working on, and we're figuring out how we do that.
Haisler: I want to now open it up also to questions from the group.
Claire Bailey, vice president of government affairs for Veracode (previously CTO for Arkansas): I come from a government background, now in private industry, and I was so excited for Industry Insider to come to Texas because it started in California. It's been an amazing spotlight on people like you two and how we can work together to grow Texas, and also a cyber person. … So we look across all these different, all of us who are members of Industry Insider, want to help both of your entities. And so when you're sitting here with this vendor, and the Industry partner community, what are those driving things you need from us? What are those areas where you feel like I really need. And I'll be selfish about this. I really need to make sure I'm using application security as I develop all these modernizations or in my new role want to know what are my software assets, things like that. Do you have gaps where you're looking? And for those of us who may not be serving, providing services or products to you, what is your favorite way to get to know about new things like metaverse?
Acevedo: Yes, new, innovative ways to do things are better, cheaper and make sense. They're not just something to like when he was saying the shiny objects that didn't really make sense. Come in, help us work with our guys and our gals and say try this out because we can't, we can only do so much right within our organization, and then as lobbyists. You meet our leaders, right? Tell them what a good job that we are doing and then say, “But you know you might want to try this stuff." It's OK to go off of your legacy system and you work in a partner; you work with it because there's a ton of work going around.
Member: My question is regarding continuity. You both mentioned, you know, changing of subject matter experts and turnover in attracting business, whether it's attracting talent by footage from colleges and/or from other agencies. How do we do what we can to be better prepared for these longer-term initiatives? … How do we have an environment that continues with the turnover?
Acevedo: I appreciate that, too. And especially if you're getting a barrier, the person has only dealt with AT&T, and you're like, come on, you know how you're going to do this over here. AT&T doesn't have coverage over here, and they didn't build this network, and you should have been going to 5G in years when I said go to 5G, and you're doing what you're at. You're still on your 3G network.
Barron: It's a struggle. It's an absolute struggle. And I've, I had a lot of turnover in key positions in the DMV, and I'm like, even to myself in my head and like for the love of God, how can we not because of the turnover and the churn? You know, one of the things that I've been trying to do is promote from within and really, because I think that's one thing as leaders in organizations that we overlook the staff that we have, and we underestimate their capabilities, and I think if you give people internally that opportunity to move up and advance that they will shine for you, and I mean every single one of my management positions.
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