Shutterstock
Sessions at the one-day summit covered topics including cybersecurity, automation, working from home, the growing importance of data, and more. Industry Insider — Texas will report on many of those breakout sessions in the coming days.
State CIO Amanda Crawford set the stage Wednesday with her opening remarks. A major theme was collaboration.
“One of the great things about this summit and today’s lineup is that it does include IT leaders from the state government, city government, private sector, really all over,” Crawford said, “And while we’re often siloed by our sectors or jurisdictions, those silos of excellence that we have in the public and private sector, whether it’s state and local government, the reality is, is that we really do share the same challenges.
“All of us in the IT world are seeking to leverage technology to make our organizations more efficient, cost effective and secure, as well as to improve our customer and constituent service and experience. I think we must work together, whether you’re from a state agency or a city or an IT company, to confront the challenges we face and incentivize progress.
“The more we work together, the better our outcomes will be. And if we think about it from our constituent perspective, isn’t that the way that it should be? Government at all levels working together?”
Crawford also addressed the sometimes intimidating process for the private sector to access public information.
“Navigating government is not for the faint of heart. And it shouldn’t be up to the constituents that we serve to try to figure out who to go to for what service,” she said.
“At the end of the day, customer service is really the product that all of us in government are called to; to deliver at DIR, we’re fortunate to get to work with so many of you from different organizations on a regular basis.
“And that’s because our role as a state’s technology agency is to ensure that government entities including state agencies, county and municipal organizations, public colleges, universities and K-12 can find and implement the most secure, powerful and cost-effective technology available.
Moving forward, Crawford expressed enthusiasm for the Texas by Texas (TxT) digital assistant and it’s potential to evolve while serving the public.
“TxT is a new mobile-first digital government experience that offers an easy, secure way for constituents to take care of their government business,” she said. “We’re currently partnering with the Department of Licensing and Regulation, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Public Safety.
“But our hope is to bring more services to the app soon. And we’d love to add local government services as well in the future. So if you haven’t already, please download the app now in your Apple and Google stores. Then you can do things like change the address on your driver’s license or renew your driver’s license or vehicle registration.”
