As part of Industry Insider — Texas’ ongoing efforts to educate readers on state and local government, their IT plans and initiatives, here’s the latest in our periodic series of interviews with departmental IT leaders.
Casey Kennedy has served as director of information services for the Office of Court Administration (OCA) for almost 14 years. Prior to joining OCA, Kennedy spent nearly 14 years at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, serving as director of web services and director of application development services, respectively.
Industry Insider — Texas: As director of information services for your organization, how do you describe your role? How have the role and responsibilities changed in recent years?
Kennedy: My role is to provide efficient and secure technology to the courts we support as well as to provide a strategic vision on how we can make the judicial branch more efficient using technology. Over the years, my overarching role of being a seller of technology to the courts has not changed. However, the tools in my toolbox have definitely changed. Instead of standing up new servers and data centers, we’re more focused on engaging vendors to provide turnkey solutions. The switch from a technical expert over to a contract manager/vendor relationship manager is the biggest change.
IITX: In your tenure in this position, which project or achievement are you most proud of?
Kennedy: It’s hard to pick. This year, we reached the 10th anniversary of our electronic filing system used statewide for the courts. The system is now mandatory for all district, county, and appellate courts across the state and handles roughly 45,000 documents each day. Texas has a decentralized system (local control is pervasive through Texas history) — so those 45,000 documents are travelling to one of about 460 different computer systems that we don’t control. The second, and most recent, was our pivot to virtual hearings. I remember sitting in Galveston on spring break when our administrative director called and asked if Zoom was on DIR contract (thankfully it was). After talking with my security team, we bought enough licenses for each judge in the state and, within a week, had any judge needing to be set up with an account up and running.
IITX: 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?
Kennedy: Any vendor can see this in our legislative appropriation request. This cycle we have a computer refresh, a network refresh, a data warehouse to replace a legacy system and a court reminder system.
IITX: How do you define “digital transformation?” How far along is your organization in that process, and how will you know when it’s finished?
Kennedy: I define digital transformation as enabling those whom we support to have the ability to do their jobs from any location with a secure Internet connection. I know it will be finished when our current data center gets converted into a storage closet.
IITX: How often do you update your organization’s enterprise catalog?
Kennedy: All. The. Time. For the state courts, we love using new tools that better fit our needs or our budget. As all organizations do, we have our “tech evangelicals” that are happy to test out the new shiny stuff. We also have our fair share of late-tech bloomers that are happy with older technology.
IITX: What is your estimated IT budget, and how many employees do you have? What is the overall budget?
Kennedy: On average, it’s around $23 million annually, with about $21 million supporting existing contracts and software that is in place. Our IT shop has about 25 when fully staffed. We provide IT to all the 200 series state agencies, other than the State Bar (202) and the Comptroller – Judiciary Section (241).
IITX: What do you read to stay abreast of developments in the government technology/SLED sector?
Kennedy: We interact with DIR, TASSCC and the National Center for State Courts. Among those groups, we stay engaged with the developments both locally in Texas and nationally across the U.S.
IITX: What do you think is the greatest technology challenge in Texas?
Kennedy: I feel that continuing vigilance for cybersecurity is the biggest challenge for the state.
IITX: What advice would you give to someone who would like to lead an IT department?
Kennedy: Don’t neglect your mental health, don’t neglect your family. Strive to not have “lead an IT department” be the main topic of your obituary. I feel like one of my strengths is my natural calmness — I don’t take it personally and I unplug in the evenings and weekends when possible and encourage the team to do the same. At the end of the day, my wife and children are way more important than whatever is going on in IT.
IITX: If you could change one thing about IT procurement, what would it be?
Kennedy: I would love it if the procurement vehicles were more subscription friendly. Everything we have today seems to be geared more towards the old-school days where we’d buy software once and have it forever (like going to Best Buy and buying a copy of Word). Most of our software purchases are now subscription based.
IITX: How do you prefer to be contacted by vendors, including via social media such as LinkedIn?
Kennedy: I prefer email — and I hope that no response is taken as “I’m not currently interested” rather than “I don’t like vendors.” Calling me on the phone doesn’t work well — calling or emailing my executive director or other business colleagues can be frustrating too.
IITX: How might vendors best educate themselves before meeting with you?
Kennedy: The easiest way is to do some quick research about the court system in Texas. In my role, we support the two highest courts and the intermediate appellate courts, and judicial branch state agencies. We do not provide direct IT support to the county-supported and municipal-supported courts. At the court level that we support, they do not have trials like what one would see on Law and Order. In fact, even at the trial court level, it doesn’t work like Law and Order.
IITX: What professional or affinity groups do you belong to?
Kennedy: Professionally, I am currently the president of the Court Information Technology Officer Consortium — that group is the “me” across all 50 states along with CIOs at the local trial court level as well.
IITX: What conferences do you attend?
Kennedy: You can regularly find me at the TASSCC annual conference. You’ll also see me at eCourt and the Court Technology Conference. On occasion, I also go to the National Association for Court Management’s conference as well.
IITX: What are you reading or listening to for fun? What do you do to unplug in your downtime?
Kennedy: For downtime, I like to have fun. Fun — all the time. Demolition derbies, airshows, hot air balloon shows, hiking with my wife, going out to visit the kids, long weekends in Cancun. If you’re ever at Lake Georgetown, and you see a teeny tiny sailboat, that’s me and my wife. Luckily the technology is set to where I can do this on weekends and still check in or handle emergencies at work!
I generally don’t read books — I do think in the first years of marriage and kids, my wife thought I was illiterate! I do listen to lots of different music. I’d say that my YouTube music app is generally always in a confused state. Depending on the mood, it could be Ottmar Liebert, or the latest EDM, or classic 60s, disco 70s, happy-go-lucky 80s, sad old 90s, country or just about anything!
Office of Court Administration Information Services Director: Improving Efficiency Through Technology
