State CIO is at the Center of COVID Response

The ongoing response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly accelerated digital transformation within state governments on numerous fronts and placed the state chief information officer (CIO) at the center of much of this work, according to the 2021 State CIO Survey, Driving Digital Acceleration. The report examines key issues related to the impact of COVID-19 such as digital government, remote workforce models, cybersecurity and broadband networks.

“State CIOs are well positioned to effectively shepherd their states toward and through significant digital evolution on several levels,” says Doug Robinson, National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) executive director. “State leaders will continue to look to state CIOs to leverage and build on the progress made over the past year.”

The state CIO survey, which has been published annually for the last 12 years, includes responses from 49 state and territory CIOs. The survey is the product of a partnership between NASCIO, Grant Thornton LLC and CompTIA.

“For state CIOs, there is no returning to pre-pandemic business models,” said Graeme Finley, principal at Grant Thornton. “The pandemic highlighted the value of technology and how critical it is in the delivery of government services and to the productivity of state employees.”