As part of Industry Insider — Texas’ ongoing efforts to educate readers on state agencies, their IT plans and initiatives, here’s the latest in our periodic series of interviews with departmental IT leaders.
Amanda Crawford is Texas’ chief information officer and executive director of the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR). Crawford worked in the Texas Attorney General’s Office as an attorney; deputy division chief and division chief in the Open Records Division; general counsel; associate deputy attorney general for legal counsel and general counsel; and deputy attorney general for administrative and general counsel. She joined the Attorney General’s Office in 1999 as an attorney. She was promoted to executive director of DIR in February 2019. Crawford attained a JD in law from the University of Houston Law Center and a BA in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin. She also attended the Universidad de Salamanca and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Industry Insider — Texas: As CIO of your organization, how do you describe your role? How have the role and responsibilities of the CIO changed in recent years?
Crawford: The CIO role has so many facets. In the federated structure of Texas, I feel the role of the CIO is to encourage innovation, enable the technology evolutions and support the direction of the Legislature. In recent years the focus on cybersecurity has become a key component of my efforts, not only in escalating the protection of Texas’ public assets but also in the education and response to the evolving threats.
Industry Insider — Texas: Does your organization have a strategic plan, and may we hyperlink to it? How big a role do you personally play in writing that strategic plan?
Crawford: The Information Resources Management Act (Texas Government Code, Sections 2054.091 - .094) requires the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) to prepare a state strategic plan for information resources management each biennium. The plan identifies technology goals for state government over the next five years and guides agencies as they develop their agency strategic plans. The statute requires the executive director to appoint an advisory committee. I am part of the committee that oversees the plan’s preparation and develops the plan's goals.
Industry Insider — Texas: How often do you update your organization’s enterprise catalog?
Crawford: Continuously. DIR offers thousands of technology products and services. A lot of focus is on our Cooperative Contracts program, which reviews and updates procurements on a very formal timeline. In addition, we have recently updated our telecommunications services as well as introduced the Texas by Texas (TxT) platform to support agencies in their digital transformations. Finally, we have reimagined the shared services we offer to bring best-in-class private and public clouds, security services and application services to ensure we provide a broad portfolio of enabling technology to our customer government agencies.
Industry Insider — Texas: What big initiatives or projects are coming up? What sorts of developing opportunities and RFPs should we be watching for in the next six to 12 months?
Crawford: Each September, DIR updates the procurement schedule of solicitations of all planned procurements for the coming fiscal year. We post all our procurements from the planning phase through the contract negotiation phase on our website.
Industry Insider — Texas: How do you define “digital transformation?” How far along is your organization in that process, and how will you know when it's finished?
Crawford: DIR is required by Section 2054.069 of the Texas Government Code to prepare a digital transformation guide that is on our website which assists agencies with modernizing agency operations and services to incorporate electronic data and convert existing agency information into electronic data. In that guide, we define “digital transformation” as a strategic approach to the adoption of digital technologies to create new or improve existing processes, services and customer experiences. It’s about integrating technology into all areas of a business (the people, processes and tools). We have also created a new department here at DIR, Strategic Digital Services, that will help agencies adopt digital technology to transform manual processes, replace legacy technology with modern technology and shift from a task workforce to a knowledge workforce. Digital transformation is a journey, not a destination. While an organization might reach digital maturity, there is always a need for innovation and the ability to rapidly respond to change. As we support agencies in their digital transformation journeys, we recommend they measure their success with strategic impact, operational impact and cost impact metrics.
Industry Insider — Texas: What is your estimated IT budget, and how many employees do you have? What is the overall budget?
Crawford: Calculating the total IT budget for the state is complicated because Texas has a federated IT model. Each agency is appropriated distinct IT budgets. DIR is also appropriated funds from the state budget for purchases on behalf of all agencies through the Shared Technology Services (STS) program, which provides security and other enterprise enhancements. Coupled with DIR’s non-STS IT budget and $200 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the 2022-2023 state budget provides DIR nearly $280 million for IT spending. DIR has 228 full-time employees.
Industry Insider — Texas: How do you prefer to be contacted by vendors, including via social media such as LinkedIn? How might vendors best educate themselves before meeting with you?
Crawford: Read the State Strategic Plan and our agency strategic plan. Look at our website to understand our services, what we offer agencies and our model here in Texas. If you have solutions which support those efforts and you’d like to discuss, please reach out. Email is easiest for me. I frequently check LinkedIn and other social media to learn about what others in the public sector are achieving, but it is challenging to keep up with the direct messages on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Industry Insider — Texas: In your tenure in this position, which project or achievement are you most proud of?
Crawford: The dedicated public servants at DIR make me proud every day, and there are myriad accomplishments they’ve achieved that I could choose to highlight. But being named a “Top Place to Work” in the Greater Austin Area 2021 by the Austin American-Statesman and being recognized as a top place to work in the USA are two of the recognitions that resonate with me the most. These designations are based on an analysis of DIR’s employees’ anonymous answers to a third-party administered survey, and it shows that DIR’s No. 1 asset — our team members — are invested, engaged and fulfilled by our culture. At the end of the day, we may be a technology agency, but we are powered by humans.
Industry Insider — Texas: If you could change one thing about IT procurement, what would it be?
Crawford: IT procurements tend to be complex, and for many agencies, infrequent. Additionally, the nature of technology products and service offerings is ever changing, and the terminology can be confusing and overly difficult to understand. Cloud services vendors, for example, have distinctly different service offering models, terminology, revenue models and go-to-market strategies. This can be overwhelming for public-sector buyers. If I could change one thing, it would be for those in the industry to have a better understanding of the customer’s needs and challenges, as well as the procurement statutes and rules to standardize their communications accordingly.
Industry Insider — Texas: What do you read to stay abreast of developments in the govtech/SLED sector?
Crawford: I read a variety of online newspapers and tech-focused publications. I also follow the social media accounts of my peers in the public sector to hear about the great projects they’re working on.
Industry Insider — Texas: What are your hobbies, and what do you enjoy reading?
Crawford: I enjoy traveling and attending live concerts (comedy and music) with my family. I love to fish on Texas’ lower Laguna Madre. I have a giant stack of books on my bedside table that I never seem to have enough time to read. I have eclectic tastes and enjoy reading all genres, but I can guarantee that there will always be a book by David Sedaris or Erik Larson in that stack.
Industry Insider One-on-One: Texas CIO Amanda Crawford
