does california have a data strategy?

VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 2 JUNE 2015

DOES CALIFORNIA HAVE A DATA STRATEGY?

Managing the Business Side of State Government

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TECHWIRE.NET

CONTENTSJUNE 2015

TECHWIRE // JUNE 2015 3

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

4 / Does California Have a Data Strategy?

6 / State of Open DataIt’s inevitable — data will transform the way California’s government operates. But how? And when?

FEATURE

12 / Getting There from Here with DataAmbitious dashboard project measures progress on California’s quality-of-life goals as the state marches toward a population of 50 million.

GUEST VOICES

14 / Data is the New BlackShining the light on government data.

GUEST VOICES

16 / Could Innovators Fix California’s Drought?Put big data in the hands of the state’s smartest businesspeople and we could see some real solutions.

18 / People Key staffing changes affecting California IT.

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18 / Why Big Data MattersMore than a buzzword, big data can drive more transparent, efficient and effective government.

Q&A 22 / Managing the Business Side of State GovernmentRebecca Skarr, CIO at the Department of General Services, talks about her department’s role in Fi$Cal, and other major projects on the horizon.

24 / News BriefsHighlights from TechWire’s daily online news service.

LEADERSHIP

27 / Key IndicatorsHow analytics could make state hospitals safer.

28 / Industry Data Points A look at state procurement activity related to IT.

COVER STORY

BUSINESS, POLICY, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Does California Have a Data Strategy?

Editor’s Message

Bill Maile, Editor

State Hospitals CIO Jamie Mangrum recently announced that his department is starting a program

using data analytics to better understand and hopefully prevent violent attacks on staff. By keeping track of data such as drugs prescribed, electronic health records, staff overtime hours and other key factors, officials hope to develop strategies that use analytics to solve problems and improve safety across the state’s eight hospital facilities.

In this issue of TechWire, our editorial team found examples of agencies like this that have developed complex data analytics programs aimed to drive decisions, optimize operations and serve Californians. That’s the good news. On the other hand, critics say the state lags behind when it comes to open data. A 2014 Center for Data Innovation study ranks us 11th among the 50 states for open data policies and portals.

With organizations like Code for America eager to hack data for the betterment of society, why are coders more often aiming their keyboards at local rather than state government? For example, last month Google launched its Government Innovation Labs in Alameda and Kern counties. When asked, state and local officials usually point to the decentralized, siloed nature of state government and misunderstandings about public versus personally identifiable information.

Former California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) CIO Shell Culp, who now serves as chief innovation officer for the Stewards of Change Institute, says open data is tricky in government because key areas of the public sector do not fully understand that open data by definition is not confidential or sensitive in nature.

Culp also points out that pending legislation would create a chief data officer, a new “C-level” position to

accelerate a data-driven culture in state government. Key to overcoming silos is having interoperable data, says Culp.

While culture may play a role, California’s sheer magnitude might be the biggest factor in how quickly the state adopts open data policies and practices across its more than 130 agencies. With former State Controller (now Treasurer) John Chiang’s public pay transparency website, the Department of Technology’s GIS portal and many other examples, the transformation appears to be under way.

At the highest levels of the executive branch, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research is creating an ambitious quality-of-life index. The dashboard will use 25 key indicators like land use, greenhouse gases, energy consumption, transportation and others to help California plan for the 50 million residents expected by 2050.

Perhaps the most impressive open data effort is being led by CHHS. In March, the agency partnered with the Stewards of Change Institute to hold the second annual Open Data Fest, a two-day seminar that included speakers from around the country and facilitated sessions on how to use the CHHS Open Data Portal that was first launched in 2014.

The CHHS portal is also at the heart of a grass-roots effort by the California Healthcare Foundation’s Free the Data initiative that is encouraging coders to utilize public health data to create tools like an interactive map of measles immunization rates for California kindergartners. Pilot programs are now running in Fresno, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

As California government works to modernize its data strategy, this issue of TechWire focuses on its progress.

As always, I look forward to your feedback. l

4 TECHWIRE // JUNE 2015

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Tech Trends 2015: The fusion of business and IT — A public sector perspective

For more information, please contact:Jason SalzettiState of California Leader Deloitte Consulting LLP [email protected] Tel: +1 916 288 3902

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TECHWIRE // COVER STORY

State of Data


State of DataIt’s inevitable — data will transform the way California’s government operates. But how? And when?By Brooke Edwards Staggs

SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


otherwise didn’t communicate with one another means they’re able to spot abuse, such as citizens who do “emergency room shopping,” going to one ER for prescrip-tions one day and another a few days later.

“The idea is putting data in the hands of individuals so they can make better decisions,” said Scott Grego-ry, director of California’s Geospa-tial Information Systems (GIS).

Gregory’s team helped develop one of California’s open data success stories with its Geoportal, allowing users to easily discover and share geospatial resources. Such systems allow businesses to see where they can get tax credits for open-ing up a new operation, for example, streamlining the process to create jobs and get development dollars flowing.

The state’s GIS team is also work-ing on a drought dashboard, Gregory said, pulling water data from a variety of agencies to offer real-time informa-tion on the California drought.

When he was state controller, John Chiang spearheaded an effort to publish public employees’ salary, benefit and pension information online in the wake of the scandal over the city of Bell’s wildly overpaid leadership. He also set up a site to track how increased revenue from

Buzz over the promise and poten-tial pitfalls of data is flying fast and furious from all directions.

In the business world, compa-nies are looking at ways to harness big data and data analytics to capture customers and improve efficiency.

In the entertainment world, the movie Blackhat and music group Big Data offer dark views of what can happen when hackers and Big Broth-er use that data to overreach.

Then there’s government, called upon to serve a sometimes distrustful public while operating like a business.

Government agencies are required to collect an overwhelming volume of data on everything from public health to tax records to their own internal operations. But much of that data still lingers in PDFs in siloed legacy systems, inaccessible to those who might put it to use in meaningful ways.

“Without better access to the informa-tion throughout government, it’s difficult to know if we’re even asking the right questions, let alone making the right policy prescriptions,” said Robb Korinke with the think tank California Forward.

Facing pressure from the business world, service agencies and the public to

make that data accessible in a responsible way, insiders say it’s inevitable: Data will continue to transform the way California’s government operates. But how? And when?

“California is lagging behind,”

Korinke said, pointing to states like New York that have emerged at the fore. Given the state’s position as a technology leader, Korinke said, “I think that’s unacceptable.”

California ranked No. 11 among the 50 states for its open data policies and portals in an August study from the Center for Data Innovation. In an effort to jump toward the front of the pack, there are several bills now making

their way through the state Legisla-ture aimed at cataloging California’s open data, establishing leadership and creating strategies going forward.

The state has a number of challenges to overcome. But most are internal, experts say, and less about transforming technolo-gy than transforming habits and mindsets.

“Data is going to represent both a revelation and a rift at the same time,” predicts Alex Castro, CEO of M Corp. “There is going to have to be a significant cultural shift in how government gets run.”

SUCCESS STORIESAs local and state governments

make open data available, success stories continue to emerge that demon-strate how such sharing can make people’s lives easier, protect public health, reduce fraud and more.

Los Angeles made data sets available that helped the navigation app Waze direct users around city construction projects, said Abhi Nemani, the city’s chief data officer. And L.A. partnered with Pulse-Point to develop an app that notifies users who know CPR if someone nearby is in cardiac arrest, so they can potentially help save someone’s life in those critical minutes before first responders arrive.

The state of Washington created a data-sharing system that links its emer-gency rooms. Connecting hospitals that


John Chiang launched the Public Pay website when he was state controller.

Los Angeles Chief Data Officer Abhi Nemani

Robb Korinke, California Forward

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2012’s Proposition 30 tax hike was being used.

The California Health and Human Services Agency also created a portal to provide access to public health data. Since its August 2014 launch, the portal has helped resi-dents do things like track measles outbreaks, learn when they were at higher risk of asthma attacks and find where they can redeem vouchers from the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

“In California, there wasn’t a lot of momen-tum two years ago,” said Scott Christman, chief information officer at the Office of Statewide

Health Planning and Development. “I think we’ve made tremendous progress.”

Still, experts say there’s much more that can be done.

One example Korinke gives relates to business licenses. Records of who has applied for business licenses are typically kept in an internal system at the local city hall. If that information was instead available through an online portal, then business service groups, neighboring cities, the county and the state could easily access it to understand what types of businesses are coming to the area and which ones aren’t, in order to recognize trends in certain sectors.

Another area where Korinke sees “transformative” potential is in connecting campaign donations to potential conflicts of interest. Both sets of data are collect-ed now, but they aren’t linked through a publicly accessible system that would enable taxpayers or watchdog groups to easily discover possible corruption.

OBSTACLESEven as the benefits become more

and more evident, a number of obsta-cles are preventing the state from fully embracing the potential of open data.

The good news? It’s not about those legacy systems, experts say — a relief to those still smarting from the 21st Century Project, a payroll moderniza-tion effort that was canceled in 2013 and cost the state millions of dollars.

“Big data is not a technology challenge, because the technology has existed for a very long time,” Castro said. “It is a culture challenge, and it may become an ethical chal-lenge. But it’s not a technology challenge.”

Leaders have to first help the public and state workers understand what open data is and why it should be widely available, said Shell Culp, chief innovation officer for the Stewards of Change Institute, who oversaw some of California’s largest IT projects during her 20 years as a state employee.

When Culp first proposed the idea of an open data portal for Health and Human Services, she wasn’t met with much enthusiasm.

“I could see the fear that struck in their eyes. They were thinking, ‘Have you lost your mind?’” Culp recalled. “There are still even now people who don’t quite under-stand it. There are still people in the state Department of Technology that do not understand the concept of open source and open license and how it is applied to data.”

Open data isn’t about having govern-ments go out and start collecting new information, or dumping that infor-mation on the public with personal identities attached to it. But the public sector has become so risk-averse, Culp said, fearful that one bad move could destroy their careers. They tend to err

on the side of caution and interpret policies more strictly than necessary.

“Open data is stuff that is already publicly available through the Public Records Act,” Culp said.

The difficulty is that act was creat-ed nearly 50 years ago, Korinke pointed out. While it requires the government to keep certain data and make it available on request, people have to know the records exist and where to go to get them. They also must be willing to potentially pay thousands of dollars for photocopies and staff time to dig up those records. Then, when they get the records, they’re often in formats that don’t lend themselves to analysis.

At the simplest level, making open data accessible means releasing infor-mation in a spreadsheet rather than a PDF. But for the public to really be able to use the information, Nemani said, it first takes quite a bit of work on the back end to extract the data and give it context so that it makes sense for users.

“Open data is less of a technology problem and more of a process and human problem,” Nemani said, adding that it requires leadership that’s will-ing to dedicate staff to go through that time-consuming process.

One challenge in gathering the data needed to present an accurate picture is that it often requires pulling information from a variety of government agencies.

“Our government is set up to be very decentralized,” Korinke said. “These agencies, whether state or local, they do operate in a very siloed way.”

Each agency has a different mission and philosophy, with different tools, technologies and vendor relationships in place to help achieve those missions.

Trying to merge data from differ-ent departments has sparked discus-sions about having more dialogue and consistency in the state’s information systems as they refresh things going forward, Christman said. “It is serving to break down those silos,” he said.

To help further bridge those gaps, state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, has proposed Senate Bill 573. The bill would overhaul California’s open data portal and create a chief data officer to lead the effort.

“It starts to really produce

a lot of fact-based accountability around the work that’s being done. And I’m not really sure if the state of California is ready to do that.”


state. That will be particularly import-ant, advocates say, as they try to take strategies that have worked at the local level and scale them up to the state, which is larger than many countries.

“Civic groups can actually use the data to address problems we can’t even imagine,” Christman said. “It really has provided a platform for collab-oration at the community level.”

Much of the open data discussion revolves around opening up data sets that can help the public. However, the shift will also allow the state to shine a light back on itself, using data to drive decision-mak-ing about budgets and programming.

“To a lot of people, that’s terrifying,” Castro said, since it could reveal perceived waste or lead to programs and jobs being cut. “It starts to really produce a lot of fact-based accountability around the work that’s being done. And I’m not really sure if the state of California is ready to do that.”

While some workers might feel that system takes away their control, Castro argues that it actually gives them more control. Rather than program funding being based entirely on a legislator’s whim or what’s trending at the time, those who are part of that program have the chance to work to make it more effective.

However, critics argue that such strict data-driven decision-making doesn’t take into account potentially important intangibles.

A high-profile example is the ongoing debate about how students’ test scores should impact school funding and teacher pay. Supporters say it holds educators accountable, while detractors say it fails to account for a slew of outside factors that might drag test scores down.

Nemani said he was surprised to find that public employees in L.A. have been very receptive to the idea of shar-ing data and finding new ways to use it. And Christman has found the same thing at the state level, he said, with staff “tremendously interested” in finding more ways to use open data to improve the way California serves its residents.

“It’s a change in doing business,” Korinke said. “But the opportuni-ties outweigh the challenges.” l

If it becomes law, the governor would have to name a chief data officer by Jan. 1, and at least 150 data sets would have to be published on the statewide open data portal by 2017, with all data inventoried by a state agency published by 2022.

To address the issue at the local level, Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, proposed Senate Bill 272. The bill would require every local agency to take an inven-tory of the data sets it collects and then make that information publicly available.

Both bills are making their way through committees in hopes of land-ing on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.

These bills will do much to ensure the data is gathered, cleaned up and presented in a searchable way, though the dense information is still not always easily accessible to the public. So the next challenge becomes finding ways to make it meaningful through user-friendly apps and platforms.

The state has done some of that through GIS, Gregory said, which takes highly complex relationships and patterns and depicts them visually so it’s easy for people to understand.

“It’s their data,” Gregory said. “We want to make it available to them.”

But rather than sink taxpayer dollars into building apps, many open data advocates agree governments should focus on being stewards of that infor-mation rather than communicators.

“I think really what we’re pushing for is government to manage this data in a way that’s more accessible and interoperable, that will then allow others to take that information and apply it,” Korinke said.

Bridging the gap is where service agencies and businesses come into play,

Culp said, predicting more public-private partnerships down the road.

L.A. saw success in its partnerships with Waze and PulsePoint, and in its monthly Hack for L.A. events. Code for America has partnered with local governments to help spark some impres-sive projects using government data. And in December, the state controller’s office launched its first contest to build a user-friendly interface, with everyone from financial news outlets to nonprofits invited to participate in the Build-a-thon.

Whether it’s a graduate student or a professional programmer, Gregory says he’d also like to see more civic engage-ment with data, putting it to use in ways that can transform lives for people in the


Senator Richard Pan, D-Sacramento


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Policy Report drafted in 2013 by the OPR. That report detailed five major goals for California:• Decarbonize the state’s energy and

transportation systems• Preserve and steward state lands and

natural resources• Build sustainable regions that support

healthy and livable communities• Build climate resilience and

preparedness into all policies• Improve cross-agency coordination

and data availabilityOver the next few months, the dash-

board will be populated with as many

In California data on everything from crime to greenhouse gas emissions to health-care access is abundant. But

pulling together disparate data sets to capture a larger perspective and measure progress on statewide goals in key areas is a vision that is hard to realize.

The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) has embarked on an ambitious project to create a public quality-of-life dashboard to do just that. The effort, California @ 50 Million: Indicators for the Future (CA50M), was envisioned by OPR direc-tor Ken Alex and is being spearheaded

by OPR Deputy Director Louise Bedsworth.

“We can think about air quality, water quality, lack of water abundance, and the quality of land and land use, but we are also very interested in health impacts and measurements of public health, educa-tion, poverty and crime, which have a relationship to the environment,” Alex said. “We have been collecting differ-ent measures of these for the past two years to paint an interesting picture of the environment overall in the state.”

The dashboard is an outgrowth of the Governor’s Environmental Goals and


GETTING THERE FROM HERE WITH DATAAmbitious dashboard project measures progress on California’s quality-of-life goals as the state marches toward a population of 50 million.

By Dorsey Griffith

as 25 key indicators for tracking prog-ress toward the goals within the context of demographic and climate projec-tions over the next several decades.

“By 2050 we will have 50 million people in California,” said Bedsworth. “We are thinking how do we protect the environment, grow the econo-my and maintain healthy, safe plac-es for people to live? What are the things we need to track along that path? What should we be looking at to make sure we are achieving a healthy California for 50 million people?”

The CA50M Web page already has developed content to describe progress toward the goal of decarbonizing the state’s energy and transportation systems. For example, it cites data for five of eight indicators, including greenhouse gas emissions, renewable

energy generation, vehicle miles traveled, air quality and energy demand.

In the area of greenhouse gas emis-sions, for example, it cites emissions goals for 2020 and briefly explains how emissions, particularly carbon diox-ide, lead to climate change. It includes several graphs that detail specific emis-sions sources, compares California to the U.S., China and the European Union, and tracks incremental progress to-ward state emissions-reduction goals.

“Our goal is to make information available about the progress Califor-nia has made and will continue to make over the next several decades and do that in a way that is accessible and easy to understand,” Bedsworth said. “We want to reach an interested public au-dience and point to additional resourc-es for those who want to go deeper.”

The page also links to other data-rich websites, including the state Air Resourc-

es Board, which maintains an emissions inventory, as well as national and interna-tional emissions data collection resourc-es. Other dashboard indicators will link to the California Energy Commission for additional data on energy consump-tion and renewables development, the

State Water Resources Control Board for drought and water conservation infor-mation, and the Office of Environmen-tal Health Hazard Assessment, which tracks climate change indicators.

Bedsworth said the OPR is working with the state Office of Technology to make the dashboard more user-friendly and attractive. That work will include making the dashboard easier to find on the OPR’s website.

Alex said the dashboard is not part of the state “geoportal,” which provides open access to geographic resourc-es developed by various governmen-tal agencies, but it may direct users to the portal for additional information.

The CA50M effort has no data collection requirements, but will synthesize existing materials and make them more meaningful. In addition to governmental agencies, the OPR will use and cite nongovernmental resources in developing dashboard content. Alex noted, for example, the nonprofit Next 10, which creates tools and provides

information to encourage discussion on issues that connect the state’s economy, environment and quality of life. l

Getting There from Here with Data // TECHWIRE


Officials hope to supplement government data with information from outside sources like the nonprofit research group Next 10.

OPR Deputy Director Louise Bedsworth is lead-ing the data dashboard effort.

“Our goal is to make information available about the progress California has made

and will continue to make over the next several decades and do that in a way that is accessible and easy to understand.


the open data movement a timely and welcome addition to the data dialog.

Coinciding with Sunshine Week, another bill (AB 1215, Ting, D-San Fran-cisco) was introduced in the California Assembly, piling onto a bill previously introduced in the Senate (SB 573, Pan, D-Sacramento) that calls for establish-ing a chief data officer (CDO) for the state — a popular new “C-level” posi-tion to accelerate creating a data-driv-en culture in state government. While it adds to the overhead, a CDO would help evangelize for principles of working

Sunshine Week (March 15-21) has come and gone, having provid-ed a taste of the open data body

of knowledge for the uninitiated and a pulpit for pontification by the open-data-razzi. The idea of “open data” comports to the Sunlight Foundation’s commit-ment to open government, reflected in this year’s tagline “Open Government Is Good Government.” Across the coun-try, open data efforts were featured prominently during the week. By any definition, open data is big news, and growing by leaps and bounds.

A seemingly unlikely disruptive technology, data has a lot of logi-cal appeal. Who would disagree that government must make decisions with good analysis resting firmly on a sound data foundation? Yet over and over (outlying pockets of inno-vative, data-driven analysis notwith-standing), the reflection in the mirror held up to the public sector reveals that we are nowhere near that ideal of data-driven decisions. That data is still not widely considered an enter-prise asset in the public sector makes

Guest Voices

Shell Culp, former Agency Information Officer for the California Health and Human Services Agency, is the Chief Innovation Officer for the Stewards of Change Institute.

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Data Is the New Black

By Shell Culp

Shining the light on government data.


with data and can help move government toward recognizing data as the enter-prise asset it is, as well as provide direc-tion to state government departments.

The fuel to the open data fire is shared to a large extent between the media and the civic technology move-ment. As a watchdog of the public sector, the media has an insatiable appetite for data, and the growth of open data provides tasty meals on an increasing-ly constant basis. Comrades-in-arms to the media, with whom they are often in accord, the civic technology movement has firmly established its seat at the table and added its orders for more data.

The notion of “open” is tricky in government. Key areas of the public sector still do not understand that open data is information that by definition is not confidential, sensitive or personally identifying. If the level of understanding regarding open data is any sort of indi-cator, we still have a lot work to do to help people understand basic concepts around the perception of “open license.”

Big data, on the other hand, seems to have run smack into the “We don’t get it. Does this affect us?” wall of misun-derstanding, a problem that the data warehouse concept encountered a decade and a half ago. With the ever-in-creasing variety, volume and veloci-ty of big data, the giant oceans of the stuff are metaphorically morphing into lakes and ponds, toward smaller, more descriptive ways to understand charac-teristics and features, and ostensibly to understand how organizations can use them. These seem conceptually similar to the data marts of the late 1990s that continued well into the next decade.

Vendors are betting that they can make big data appealing, easy and useful with sophisticated tools that will unlock secret weapons you didn’t know you had. Information Management newsletter suggests that companies “are looking to big data to transform their operations, to foster innovation and create new prod-ucts, and to boost their competitive edge.”

But the “transform, create, inno-vate” tack won’t likely resonate with

government for several years, if ever. The big data vendor community look-ing to tap the public (and NGO) sectors should recognize that open source will still be a problem and that making use of massive computing power across networks, the fundamental concepts of big data building blocks, like MapReduce and its cousin Hadoop, are not palatable in these mostly risk-averse settings.

The Other DataNot surprisingly, the public sector

is still trying to figure out exactly what data it has, where it should live, how it should be shared and with whom, and what they can do with it — all crucial steps in moving to a “data-driv-en” approach to decision-making. But who cares about big data in the public sector? What we need to care about is intelligent sharing of data.

Most of the public sector’s data exists in stand-alone databases, now casually known as “silos.” While some good progress has been made around intelligent data sharing in the public safety space, much work remains to be done to realize the benefit of the public sector’s data, and the knowl-edge and wisdom it can create when it is liberated from silos and becomes interoperable with other programs.

An example closer to home is your own need for interoperable data. Your primary care physician should know what your dermatologist is prescribing, but unless you have a health-care plan with an electronic health record system, it’s likely they don’t. And when you add in the social services arena, it’s not likely that physicians prescribing medication to homeless veterans know what hous-

ing and nutrition services those veter-ans could qualify for so that their health could be managed more effectively.

I don’t lose sleep over it, but I do worry that we won’t be able (in California) to do what needs to be done to achieve interoperability between program data, especially in health and human services programs, an increasingly important pillar of our economy. I could argue this

thesis on strictly logical grounds, and I believe the case is a very good one. And even though there is tremendously posi-tive feedback with the more emotional appeals regarding intelligently sharing human services data with health and health care, and vice-versa, little prog-ress is made. And why? Who could refuse the case of a foster child who has been immunized a dozen times for the same disease or whose medical and behavioral profile is not available to the judge who must authorize the prescrip-tion for psychotropic medications?

This isn’t rocket science. What we’re talking about here is painting a picture that is big enough for all pieces of a puzzle to be seen. The thinking is that we are better able to assess, prescribe and treat, and avert danger when we have more data, more information. We can make better decisions when we have more knowledge. With all the open data available, big data tools and interoperable data appeal, it’s clear that the technology exists to deliver a more robust picture. A CDO could help, I think, if we let them.

I am reminded of a very old joke: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

None. The light bulb has to want to change. l

“Key areas of the public sector still do not understand that open data is information

that by definition is not confidential, sensitive or personally identifying.

Could Innovators Fix California’s Drought?

By Mike Montgomery

Guest Voices

Mike Montgomery is the executive director for CALinnovates.

Put big data in the hands of the state’s smartest businesspeople and we could see some real solutions.

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motivate towns and cities to finally fix some of our leaky infrastructure.”

War Room for Water Innovation“Real-time water use data from across

the state would be extremely useful — as would marketplaces where water prior-ities can be transparently determined,” said Bart Myers, founder and CEO of Countable, a platform that gives voters information about key legislation and tools for being heard in government.

He suggests a virtual platform where experts and residents can share their best ideas and practices along with the latest data and progress updates. “Imag-ine a kind of issue-based war room,” he said. “All Californians could access it, and most could contribute to it.”

Hackathon StateCarrie Norton, founder and president

of Green Business BASE CAMP, believes that open water data would lead to public hackathons, where anyone with an interest in water management could attend and spur future ideas. I like this hackathon idea because what she envisions is hundreds of people putting their heads together and dreaming up, then actually building, products and platforms to specifical-ly address water-related challenges.

For any of this to happen though, the government must update the laws. The world changes quickly, but bureaucra-cies move slowly. In this case, that slow movement is hampering real change that the state now desperately needs. It’s time for California’s politicians to show some bravery and change these outdated laws. The future of the state depends on it. l

For the people of California, the drought has become a very scary reality. Politicians have

spent years hoping that the next rainy season would alleviate the problem. But this year it’s become terrifyingly clear that the drought is here to stay.

Now the state must figure out how to deal with a crisis that should have been part of the legislative agenda all along. Gov. Jerry Brown took a good first step by requiring the state to cut water use by 25 percent. But that’s (pardon the pun) just a drop in the bucket when it comes to finding the savings the state will need to get it through what could be a prolonged drought.

Politics make meaningful change hard. Brown’s cutback is already being attacked by communities claim-ing they can’t make the cuts. It might be too much to expect the govern-ment to take additional steps to make a difference anytime soon.

But there’s a very simple thing the governor could do that I believe would make a huge difference.

He could support the reversal of a dusty law from the 1950s that requires California water records to remain private. The law prevents these records from being disclosed to the country’s vast hordes of smart engineers and big thinkers. If we want a real solution, we need new ideas from water industry outsiders. By sharing water data, Brown could unleash the power of California’s entrepreneurial class to innovate new ways for the citizens of California to significantly reduce their water use.

It’s worth asking why, in these dire times, is California the only western state that restricts water record transparen-cy. If universities, civic-minded startups and scientists could study these records for water supply patterns, groundwa-ter protection and water safety issues, California would be on the verge of some top-notch solutions that could stretch a whole lot further than our backyards.

“We have many of the smartest minds on the planet here in California,” said Mark Daniel, a San Francisco-based entrepre-

neur and former Thiel Fellow. “To not involve them in a quest for a solution is absurd.”

California Water Code Section 13752 blocks the public from inspecting water logs. The law was enacted in 1951 to protect well-drilling companies from competitors, and only a select few in the state govern-ment are allowed to access these records.

To get a better understanding of how these records might be used, I asked three tech innovators to share their thoughts.

In the interest of full disclosure, they all are members of CALinnovates, the nonprofit tech advocacy coalition I run. Here are four ways public water records in California could help ease the drought.

Blue MarketplaceYo Yoshida, the founder and CEO of

Appallicious (a civic startup that uses data to help government better serve its citi-zens), says publicizing water records would allow for the creation of a dynamic pricing marketplace based on availability, use and ease of access. The market could set the price for water just as markets set prices for things like oil and wheat. Those who use little would have a cheap baseline. Those who use water as a luxury would have to pay more.

Public Shame as a Water Virtue“I would love to see the use of drones

in all areas to do moisture readings like they do on farmlands to optimize water usage block by block or neighborhood by neighborhood,” Yoshida said. Analyzing these data sets alongside public records would allow experts to compare the drainage of water tables and visualize cause and effect. “I imagine this would

“If universities, civic-minded startups and scientists could study water records for

water supply patterns, groundwater protection and water safety issues, California would be on the verge of some top-notch solutions.


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Wei Named CIO at California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board

California Department of Technolo-gy Project Manager IRENE WEI began a new position on May 1 as CIO of the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board (VCGCB).

According to CalTech, Wei was the Department of Technology’s project manager on CaRES, which modernized the VCGCB’s claims management system and replaced a mainframe. Wei has worked on several high-profile, complex IT projects during her career in state government, according to CalTech, and brings expertise in IT governance, organizational change management, technology acquisition and other disciplines.

Christy Quinlan Enjoying New Role at HP

CHRISTY QUINLAN plans to put her deep knowledge of California’s IT portfolio to good use as a client principal for Hewl-ett-Packard. A 40-year veteran of state government, Quinlan began her role in March as part of the company’s mission to help California solve its business challenges. Quinlan said she can appre-ciate vendor problems and issues, as well as the workings of state government. “I think I bring that sense of know-ing both sides of the coin,” she said.

Quinlan served as acting state CIO for almost a year before Carlos Ramos’ appointment in mid-2011. She worked as the state’s undersecretary of technol-ogy for three years, CIO of the Depart-ment of Health Care Services and Department of Corrections, and deputy CIO of the California Public Employ-ees’ Retirement System (CalPERS).

Gregory Franklin Accepts Position with Optum

GREGORY FRANKLIN, a former California assistant secretary of health informa-tion technology, began his new job as a

vice president at Optum in April. Among Franklin’s duties is managing Optum’s relationship with California’s Department of Health Care Services, which in March awarded the company a nine-year, $56 million contract to maintain and operate the state’s Medicaid Management Infor-mation System/Decision Support System (MIS/DSS). Minnesota-based Optum has offices across California and works with several state health systems, offer-ing solutions in Medicaid management, analytics, health insurance marketplac-es, and fraud, waste and abuse. Franklin retired from his state position in 2013 and went on to found his own consulting firm.

Governor Appoints Small Business Advocate

Gov. Jerry Brown in April appointed JESSE TORRES deputy director, small business advocate in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. Torres leaves his position as regional director of the Los Angeles Small Business Devel-opment Center Network at Long Beach City College, which he has held since 2011. He is a former state chair of the Califor-nia Small Business Development Council. Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coach-ella, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy, told the Imperial Valley News that Torres “has worked closely with small

businesses and understands ways in which the state can help support their success.”

Covered California Names Chief Technology Officer

KAREN RUIZ has been named CTO and director of Covered California’s IT division, which oversees the health-care exchange system Californians use to apply for and enroll in health insurance plans. Ruiz was former-ly the project director of the Califor-nia Healthcare Eligibility, Enrollment and Retention System (CalHEERS).

Ruiz earned a 2012 Best of Califor-nia Award for her work to consolidate and modernize the $500 million pension and health system at CalPERS. Ruiz also has worked at the Department of Social Services, the Employment Devel-opment Department’s Technology Governance Division and the Califor-nia State Teachers’ Retirement System, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Governor Appoints IT Director at Corrections

RUSS NICHOLS was appointed director of the Division of Enterprise Informa-tion Services at the California Depart-ment of Corrections and Rehabilitation in March. It is a position he has held as

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interim director since the beginning of 2015 after Joe Panora retired. Previous-ly Nichols was the project director of the department’s $245 million Strategic Offender Management System, replac-ing and consolidating more than 40 aging electronic and paper database systems.

Nichols has worked in state govern-ment for 25 years with positions at the Office of Correctional Health Care Services, the State Controller’s Office, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Employment Devel-opment Department. His appoint-ment requires Senate confirmation.

Department of Aging Welcomes New CIO

In February, KEN KETSDEVER began his role as the CIO of the California Department of Aging, where he over-sees the operation and management of the Information Technology Branch and the department’s IT infrastructure. The former Marine spent the past eight years with the Department of Pesticide Regula-tion, where he managed the Applications Development team, Data Management team and Web shop. He also worked in IT for seven years at BloodSource and has been adjunct faculty at the American River College computer science depart-ment. Ketsdever replaced Wesley Riley, who left the department’s IT branch last year to manage the FI$Cal Service Center.

Department of Managed Health Care Welcomes CIO

The California Department of Managed Health Care has found a new CIO from within state government. KAMAL KATHYAL began leading the department’s Office of Technology and Innovation in late 2014. Kathyal had previously worked at the State Controller’s Office as a chief of the Technical Administration Support Section. He managed the office’s technology recovery and business continuity plan, IT budget, human resources, procurements, contracts and asset management, according to a biography posted on the department website. He also has worked at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of Health Care Services, Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Franchise Tax Board. He replaced Barbara Garrett, who became CEA for the Office of Technology Services’ Statewide Telecommunication and Network Division.

Cruz Appointed Chief Deputy Director of Operations at CalTech

Department of Health Care Services CIO and Deputy Director CHRIS CRUZ

has been appointed chief deputy director of operations at the California Department of Technology, the governor’s office announced on May 15.

Cruz becomes CalTech’s No. 2 execu-tive, replacing Ron Hughes, who retired from public service last summer.

Cruz was CIO at the Department of Health Care Services since 2011 and in March was named to Govern-ment Technology’s annual Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers list of change-makers in the public sector.

At DHCS, Cruz oversaw a $1 billion project portfolio and some of Califor-nia’s biggest IT initiatives, including a mission-critical Medicaid Management Information System expansion and upgrade. In recent months, Cruz has spearheaded a cloud readiness assessment of the state’s major health IT systems.

Under Cruz’s leadership, the depart-ment enacted a voluntary teleworking and virtual desktops plan for IT workers in order to attract and retain top talent. He also made DHCS one of the first state-level departments to actively encourage bring your own device (BYOD) in the workplace.

Cruz has worked for the state govern-ment for more than a decade after begin-ning his career in the private sector as a project manager and consultant. He was CIO at the California Department of Food and Agriculture (2007-10) and an IT manager at the Department of Health Services (2004-07).

Cruz is an alumnus of California State University, Sacramento, and resides in El Dorado Hills. l

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Executives can measure and there-fore manage more precisely. They can be more effective and target decisions based on budget, operational effectiveness, organizational need, and public require-ments and perceptions. Decisions that were once made by a little voice in your head or by your gut are now being made largely because the information is at your fingertips. (I personally would use both gut and data.) Decisions will be based on big data, the analysis of that data and how it feeds into the market. While experience and intuition are welcome, having factual data will make decision-making easier and we’ll probably make fewer mistakes.

Think Moneyball and the Oakland A’s, and how decisions made by the team’s executive management kept the A’s both competitive and fun to watch in an era of big money. Big Data and the Cost Paradigm

Government has tons of data, numerous programs and numerous systems that store data. Most of this data is duplicative, however, and we’re just learning to share it. The fact that big data could bring many of these disparate systems together for some

common purpose is intriguing as to how we handle data and how data can define decisions that could poten-tially reduce our operating costs.

The beauty of big data is that there is so much more data today than ever before, and it continues to grow. This will allow government to know exactly what customers need and want, and how or why they do what they do. But with these opportunities come costs, and the true cost of ownership is yet to be fully appre-ciated. While government must always

You may know that I am not tech-nical in any way, shape or form. I have never been a CIO, but I

have been a director/undersecretary who was frustrated by why technology was so costly, so cumbersome and often duplicated throughout so many state and county programs.

I wondered if “big data” was just anoth-er buzzword the IT industry was only using to confuse people in non-IT profes-sions. I’d hear that big data was the next big thing, that it was the long-lost tech-nology that would put everything in order and that it would be the panacea to all that ails me. This all seemed like technobab-ble. So I went searching for a definition.

Big Data DefinedBig data is a term describing the storage

and analysis of large and/or complex data

sets using a series of techniques. OK, that makes sense. Now I needed to know more.

Big Data and the Business Continuum The Big Bang reference notwithstand-

ing, what would big data do for me?I started thinking about what matters

most: Data should be used to enlight-en and to provide information for the business community to help make intelligent decisions — decisions that let the business operate more clearly, transparently, efficiently and effectively.

Why Big Data Matters

By Paul Benedetto

Guest Voices

Paul Benedetto is the former Undersecretary of the California Technology Agency.

More than a buzzword, big data can drive more transparent, efficient and effective government.

“Government has tons of data, numerous programs and numerous systems that

store data. Most of this data is duplicative, however, and we’re just learning to share it.

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All InThe question for leaders will be wheth-

er they trust their CIOs when they say the cost of big data is a fraction of the true benefits it offers. Having data, turning it into information and being more prepared to make better decisions is big data’s real benefit. Speaking as a former director, good and accurate information is gold.

In the immortal words of Billy Beane, “Play ball.” l

challenge itself by looking at the cost of purchase versus the cost of information, big data — like everything else in technology — will start to become much more afford-able and therefore much more important to implement.

Big data isn’t exactly new. We’ve already been storing and analyzing data not only to gain competitive advantage, but also to achieve deeper insights into everything from health and social service programs to driving habits to water conservation.

But we’ve entered the age of big data where government can discover intelli-gent opportunities daily using innova-tive data management technologies to analyze all types of data. Semistructured and unstructured data being generated in vast quantities at network speed are rich sources of information.

The PitfallsHonestly I can’t see any. Without the

capability to analyze big data, skill learning will take time and money, and won’t keep pace with business demands. Data growth rates will simply outpace the cost of scale to manage the hundreds of terabytes to petabytes of big data that come every day.

CIOs and CTOs must take a closer look at the true cost of big data. One thing has been proven: The benefits of leveraging big data will outweigh IT investment, and for that, we thank our grass-roots innova-tors. “Cost how much?” is the question.

The nation’s only media company focused exclusively on state and local government and education. erepublic.com/subscribe

“Big data, like everything else in technology, will start to become much more affordable

and therefore much more important to implement.


The Department of General Services (DGS) functions as business manager for the state of California, providing a variety of services to state agencies. The agency’s responsibili-ties include: procurement and acquisition solutions; real estate management and design; environmentally friendly transportation; professional printing, design and Web services; administrative hearings; legal services; building standards; oversight of structural safety; fire/life safety and accessibility for the design and construction of K-12 public schools and community colleges; and funding for school construction. Rebecca Skarr has been CIO of Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) at DGS for approxi-mately 14 months. She oversees 125 staff members and an annual IT budget of $25 million. Currently, DGS’ major technology project is the Financial Information System for Cali-fornia (FI$Cal), a business transformation project for state government in the areas of budgeting, accounting, procurement and cash management. The project will prepare state systems and its workforce to function in an integrated financial management system environment. DGS also has several other projects under way or planned that will help bring DGS to the forefront of state government technology.

Q: What is the status of the FI$Cal project? We are in Wave 2 of the FI$Cal project. In additional to migrating statewide procurement functions, DGS has 35 systems that will need to interface with FI$Cal. There are an additional 30 systems that will be decommissioned because their func-tionality is being replaced by FI$Cal. It is a complete transformation.

Q: What other major technology projects are under way?We’re moving forward with imple-menting voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) across all 70 DGS locations. This is new technology for DGS. We have implemented the infrastructure needed to fundamentally become the phone company for the department.

In addition, we are currently replacing and retiring end-of-life hardware. This includes replacing more than 1,500 workstations that are over 5 years old and retiring physical servers in favor of virtual servers. We also have multiple security initiatives in progress. We’ve got to find new and better ways to make us secure.

Q: How are those projects progressing? FI$Cal is keeping everyone busy. It is an exciting project that will change the way business is conducted in state service. It’s also a great opportunity for our in-house developers to shine. They are getting exposure to People-Soft, which is new to all of us, and upgrading our legacy systems to ensure data integrity and sustainability.

The first VoIP deployment was successfully rolled out to two locations in December 2014. It was an amazing accomplishment. We were prepared for the sky falling, but it worked out great — it was one of those things when you overprepare and it really worked. The next VoIP rollout will include the remaining DGS staff locations in the Sacramento area, followed by the final phase to DGS staff located in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego.

In terms of replacing end-of-life hardware, 105 servers have been

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Managing the Business Side of State GovernmentRebecca Skarr, CIO at the Department of General Services, talks about her department’s role in Fi$Cal, and other major projects on the horizon.

By Justine Brown


virtualized, and three storage systems and 1,100 workstations have been replaced since September 2014. When I first got here, the backups weren’t even running nightly, if you can believe that. That was job one: getting a new backup and storage solution installed quickly. The technology infrastructure upgrades we have under way are moving the department forward 10 years.

With 200 applications, 70 sites and 3,700 employees, security will be a top initiative for the next several years. Q: What specific challenges is your department experiencing? There are several projects of critical importance under way simultane-ously. This, compounded with inter-mittent hardware failures occurring prior to replacements being made, creates a very dynamic environment requiring great flexibility and adapt-ability by the entire organization.We are working on evolving the matu-rity of our operations with the devel-opment of processes and support structures. We’re improving internal operations while making major tech-nology shifts. In certain respects, it is akin to being at a startup.

Government is often seen as this monolithic entity that doesn’t change or evolve, but that is the exact oppo-site of what’s going on right now in IT at DGS. We are making a significant technology shift, improving operations and creating enriched business oppor-tunities for our customers. Essentially, the outstanding teams we have in IT are making a difference every day.

Q: Looking forward, what are some of your departmental goals when it comes to technology? We’re upgrading and aggregating applications for improved business operations and sustainability. We want to get to a high-availability environ-ment so if any one part of the struc-ture goes down, we can failover.

Two of our seven lines of business are very machine-based, which means relying on a lot of manual controls to keep things operating. Those lines of business are

moving from machine interfaces to infor-mational technology. It is a very different paradigm and offers great opportunities.

Additionally we’re going to implement new features that are available from the rollout of VoIP. We are excited about GIS and mobile apps under development in partnership with CalTech. We want to continue to leverage technologies that can support us in reducing energy consumption as well.

Q: Are there any obstacles standing in your way?I think it’s the same in every state department, and the private sector too. When I talk to CIOs outside of state service, I hear this day to day — it’s about getting the resources with the necessary skill sets because it’s an ever-evolving skill set today. Fortunately we have amazing technical staff and a management team that thrives on deliv-ering results for all of our customers.

Maintaining existing tools and appli-cation services while simultaneously building or installing new ones is an ongoing struggle, but that’s every-where. Utilizing the same resources and making both happen — it’s the outstanding staff we have that make it possible. Then, of course, there are always budget realities and expan-sive procurement processes that are necessary for projects of this scale.

Q: Any recent success stories you’d like to highlight?The VoIP implementation was an outstanding success, with 990 phones converted in one night without incident. Customers are happy with the service — particularly with the sound quality.

The recent installation of the new backup and storage solution was essen-tial and actually exciting. It replaced a grossly inadequate collection of end-of-life products that left us wondering if the nightly operations would complete.

The overall customer satisfaction rating for IT in 2014 was 85 percent, among the highest in the department. In November, seven members of the executive staff gave individual presentations recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of the IT division over the past year. This included the director, as well as several of the governor’s appointees. That had never been done before. The appreciation expressed was very real and heartfelt.

Last year, we completed 26 initiatives. We plan on completing even more in 2015. Those initiatives could be things that are transparent to our customer base or in direct support of a customer’s line of business. It’s a very diverse group of initiatives, requiring various technology solutions and skill sets to be successful. I think 2015 is going to be a great year.

Q: What is your leadership philosophy?Set the strategic direction based on the department’s business goals, culti-vate a culture in alignment with the core values, and strive for collab-oration and fun along the way.

Ensure you have the right staff with the right skills and let them do their best. If needed, clarify direction or expectations, and remove barriers limiting the team in achieving their full potential. Always encourage and celebrate successes.

Q: What advice would you give to other CIOs?Distractions are everywhere. Watch what takes your attention.

Q: What do you do in your off time?I enjoy every moment possible with my husband and three boys, doing sports, church and family centered activi-ties. We spent one recent weekend in Monterey with friends and our 13-year-old twin boys who were getting certified in scuba diving. l

“Government is often seen as

this monolithic entity that doesn’t change or evolve, but that is the exact opposite of what’s going on right now in IT at DGS.


Vendor Performance Task Force Considering Key Performance IndicatorsWork is continuing on development of a new system that would track and assess the performance of IT vendors that are awarded state contracts. The Vendor Performance Task Force formed a year ago and continues to meet virtually, according to the Department of Technology. The Statewide Technology Procurement Division is getting the group’s feedback on possible key performance indicators (KPIs) to be included.

There were initially more than 245 indicators under consideration, but the list has been whittled down to approximately 45, CalTech says. CalTech is vetting the KPIs and plans to go back to the task force for another external review by the end of July. The department plans, as of now, to implement the vendor performance assessment in early 2016.

State CIO Carlos Ramos said at a legislative hearing in March that the rating system — which some have called a “report card” — will be used in the formula when IT contracts under the Department of Technology’s authority are awarded. Ramos said CalTech would like to pilot the assessment system.

Teala Schaff, CalTech deputy director of external affairs and communication, said that the private sector has been directly involved in the task force since it began last summer and is providing possible concepts and indicators for the system. Representatives from about 20 vendors currently are participating, she said.

HP Awarded CalWIN Contract RenewalCalifornia’s Welfare Client Data Systems consortium has signed an agreement for Hewlett-Packard to continue managing the consortium’s welfare eligibility determination system, HP announced on May 11. The five-year contract — with five more one-year options — is valued at up to $305 million or more, according to HP.

Under the agreement, HP said it will continue to provide services for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Information Network (CalWIN). Used by 18 California counties, the online system manages eligibility determination and benefit calculation for a range of public assistance programs, including CalWORK, CalFresh, Medi-Cal, foster care and adoptions, general assistance programs, and more.

KPMG Wins Contract to Provide Technical Services to Caltrans PMOCaltrans recently awarded a $1 million contract to KPMG for technical services under Caltrans’ IT Project Management Office (PMO). According to Caltrans, KPMG will provide project managers or business analysts to the PMO as needed.

“These services may include, but [are] not limited to, analyzing and re-engineering business processes, developing user requirements, managing projects, writing reports, evaluating software products, conducting briefings, drafting policies and procedures, developing project management plans and a variety of other IT-related tasks,” according to Caltrans. The contract was executed on April 21 through a master service agreement.

News

State Issues Road Map to Improve Insurance Eligibility SystemThe state is following a “24-month road map” to guide future updates to its health insurance eligibility determination system, Department of Health Care Services Director Jennifer Kent told state lawmakers in March. State officials are addressing issues such as increased workloads for county caseworkers, data errors, integration with the Statewide Automated Welfare Systems, and eligibility determination for foster children and other subgroups. Kent described the system as an “immature system that’s still finding its way.” Individuals and families use the California Healthcare Eligibility, Enrollment and Retention System to apply for public insurance programs.A 2011 law, AB 1296, requires a process for the state to receive and act upon stakeholder suggestions regarding the functionality of the system, and concerns have been raised about how stakeholder input will be considered.

News


Offender GPS Database Proposed for CaliforniaThe Assembly Public Safety Committee in April unanimously approved legislation that would require the California Department of Justice to establish an “Offender Global Positioning System Database” for more than 13,000 offenders who are monitored with GPS devices. AB 1213, introduced by Assemblymember Don Wagner, R-Irvine, “would receive and store GPS device data for offenders monitored by criminal justice agencies throughout the state.” The bill is an effort to make it more convenient for local law enforcement agencies to access GPS data from other local, state or federal monitoring agencies. The state would pay to connect to at least one sheriff’s system and one probation department system in each of California’s 58 counties. The bill is before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

State Plans ‘Big Push’ to Educate Vendors on New Procurement SystemCalifornia is training state staff on a new procurement system scheduled to launch this summer, and the state wants to make sure vendors are prepared. The Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal) will replace the system known as BidSync. The state’s solicitation process will be changed from start to finish — everything from bid advertising to vendor evaluations and award protests. A self-service portal will allow for electronic bidding, online certification and Web-based interaction with California’s procurement staff. The next few months will be critical to determine the readiness of the system and the end users before the new system goes live in July, said FI$Cal Project Executive Barbara Taylor.

Business Connect Project Bracing for Possible DelaysCalifornia’s new tech-savvy secretary of state could have his first IT challenge in the making. Alex Padilla is involved in discussions about requested delays to the Business Connect Project, which is designed to automate many of the secretary of state’s business processes and allow businesses in California to file and request records online. The $26.9 million project is currently in the design phase and is behind schedule, Betsy Bogart, chief of the secretary of state’s Business Programs Division, told an Assembly budget subcommittee in April. Bodhtree Solutions Inc., has proposed pushing the implementation date by an additional 15 months to September 2017, Bogart said, adding that the delay isn’t acceptable to Padilla and discussions continue.

Details Emerge on State’s New Project Management OfficeThe California Department of Technology’s vision for its new Project Management Office is beginning to take shape. State CIO Carlos Ramos outlined a $1.5 million budget change proposal in April that would fund 11 permanent positions in fiscal year 2015-16 for the new office, which is designed to bring project management expertise into agencies and departments that lack it. Ramos described the proposal as “fairly modest” at a hearing before the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 4. He said CalTech wants to start slow and build up the office as time goes on. CalTech envisions engaging on a project at three different levels, depending on the IT project’s risk, the management acumen of the agency or department involved, and other factors.

State Making Changes to Scheduling System for Parole HearingsThe California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in April awarded a $1.3 million no-bid contract to Riley Consulting to automate the tracking and scheduling of medical parole hearings, nonviolent Second Strike inmates and parole suitability hearings for inmates over age 60. The firm, based in El Dorado Hills, Calif., worked as the primary contractor on previous modifications to the Board Information Technology System and helped the department create similar systems for parole revocation and juvenile tracking and scheduling. Helen Derksen, the senior project manager and managing principal for Riley Consulting, said the bid was noncompetitive because the changes need to be done quickly under a 2014 court order.

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Vendors Urge State to Develop Formal Exception Process for CalCloudIT vendors are urging the California Department of Technology to release a formal process for state agencies and departments to procure alternatives to CalCloud, the state’s private cloud. The state’s 2014 cloud computing policy allows customers to use private solutions if needed services are not available. State CIO Carlos Ramos told lawmakers at a recent Assembly oversight hearing on cloud computing that he sees few exemptions and there is no reason for a formal exemption policy. If agencies and departments think they need something else, the department will work with them to get it approved, Ramos said. Some representatives from technology companies and the IT industry say the lack of a formal process prevents agencies and departments from “evaluating and choosing industry-leading, commercial government cloud services.”

Microsoft Azure Government Cloud Is Now CJIS-Compliant in CaliforniaAny state, city or county criminal justice agency in California can use Microsoft’s Azure Government cloud because it complies with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) security standard, according to Microsoft. The Azure agreement with the California Department of Justice (DOJ) will enable public-sector customers to move forward with more confidence on a range of cloud-related projects, whether it’s storage of on-body police video camera footage or archiving criminal records, Stuart McKee, chief technology officer of state and local government for Microsoft, told TechWire in a recent interview.

Under the agreement, all Microsoft employees will be fingerprinted and background checked by the state DOJ according to CJIS standards, McKee said. Microsoft also is providing in-depth audit and background data, he said. California also will be able to inspect and audit Microsoft’s infrastructure at any time.

FirstNet Approves Acquisition Framework, to Consult with CaliforniaThe First Responder Network Authority Board in April approved a framework for how it intends to deploy a nationwide public safety communications network. The federal entity also asked for feedback on draft Request For Proposals. FirstNet plans “industry day” events in May to receive early feedback from the vendor community, part of an effort to give “ongoing opportunities for the states, territories and tribes, public safety community, and market participants to provide input on FirstNet’s acquisition matters.” Consultations with California are planned for this summer. First responders say the new network, if done right, will help shorten response times, improve interoperability and help public safety users avoid congestion on commercial networks during emergencies.

News

CHP Considering Integrated Database Management System ReplacementThe California Highway Patrol is participating in a feasibility study that could someday replace its legacy Integrated Database Management System, officials said in March. The CHP is believed to be one of the last entities using the system, developed by the California Department of Technology. It supports programs like the Vehicle Theft Information System, CHP Collision Reports, and employee timekeeping.

The CHP wants to update its system to comply with federal requirements. Gov. Jerry Brown has asked the Legislature to fund a one-time $894,000 budget augmentation to cover the rising cost the CHP incurs using the legacy system. An Assembly budget committee has approved the request.

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For instance, DSH hopes a robust system of pharmacy prescription data will give insights on patient behavior. Perhaps there’s a spike in assaults at only one unit within a single hospital that is prescribing a drug that comes with aggression as a side effect. With a data dashboard in place, hospital officials would conceivably be able to take corrective action immediately.

Mangrum and the chief of the DSH data management office saw the value of analytics three years ago in a demo they saw combining data from a workers’ compensation system and an organiza-tion’s learning management system. The organization in question was investigating why so many forklift drivers at some loca-tions were getting into accidents. Perhaps unsurprisingly, data showed that the locations with the least compliance with safety training had the most accidents. Consequently the organization decided to build a data repository to be used as an enterprise risk-management system.

“This was the proverbial light bulb for us. We needed and wanted the same exact thing to help our organization solve our problems,” Mangrum said.

DSH is now embedding someone from its data management office in each of its current projects, including the Personal Duress Alarm System and the Automated Staff Scheduling Infor-mation Support Tool. The aim is to make sure these systems can report data that’s useful and actionable — all with an eye on the power of analytics.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done so far with data and what we will do in the future. A good portion of our projects will come out of, in some way or another, data-related projects,” Mangrum said. l

F ive years ago a patient at Napa State Hospital attacked and killed technician Donna Gross. The

violence was extreme, but it wasn’t isolated: Thousands of incidents and assaults occur each year — patient-to-patient and patients against staff — at the eight Department of State Hospi-tals facilities across California.

In order to improve safety, the department is outfitting personnel with wearable duress alarms and launching a new electronic scheduling system to ensure workers aren’t as fatigued on the job. But the changes and upgrades will go beyond physical infrastructure.

Department of State Hospitals CIO Jamie Mangrum says data analytics will be a focus of future projects that, when completed, will help the state hospitals

determine why violent incidents happen. Someday, perhaps, they’ll even be able to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Mangrum envisions a data ware-house that ties together data points that today are separate: drugs prescribed to patients, overtime worked by staff, the information from the duress alarms, electronic health records, and more. If you can see causes, he said, you can develop a corrective strategy.

“It positions us to move more into the day where we actually have a repository of historical events and have analyzed them. Having specific indicators and measured thresholds where, if we see those same key indicators hit those thresholds again, it’s possible this type of event may occur,” Mangrum said.

Key Indicators

By Matt Williams

Leadership

How Analytics Could Make State Hospitals Safer

Jamie Mangrum speaks at a TechWire Industry Briefing on May 14, 2015

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INDUSTRY DATA POINTS

Of the 89 departments reporting procurement activity to the Department of General Services, most procure technology goods and services using various leveraged procurement vehicles, RFPs and other traditional competitive bids. Acquisition methods that are exempt by statute or policy are usually completed with internal state staff and resources.

Of those contracts represented in the Exempt by Statute category, included are a $44 million agreement between the Department of Technology and the Department of Social Services for data center services and a $10 million agreement between the same departments for fingerprint imaging services.

Acquisition MethodsFeb. 1 - May 14, 2015

Including both private-sector contracting and interagency agreements, California departments and agencies reported more than $148 million in spending on IT goods and services from Feb. 1, 2015 through May 14, 2015. Of those reporting, the largest IT programs are listed above. Listed on the following pages are the largest contract agreements as reported to the Department of General Services (DGS) in the same period. Not all state agencies are required to report procurement activity to DGS.

Social Services

10M

0

20M

30M

40M

50M

60M

Caltrans Corrections and Rehabilitation

Correctional Health Care Services

Technology Justice Health Care Services

State Hospitals

Public Utilities Commission

Public Health

Top 10 Spending Departments Spring 2015

8%

WSCA/Coop$10,829,500

Exempt by Statute$56,749,859

Exempt by Policy$15,636,938

SB/DVBE Option$8,200,863

NCB$1,975,541

Master Service Agreement$9,100,352

Informal Competitive$6,251,154

Formal Competitive$1,299,672

CMAS$7,085,140

Statewide Contract$17,092,243

DEPARTMENT

PURCHASE DATE

GRAND TOTAL

ACQUISITION METHOD

SUPPLIER NAME

ITEM

Social Services 5/5/15 $44,072,001 Exempt by statute Department of Technology Services

Data center costs

Social Services 5/5/15 $10,259,295 Exempt by statute Department of Technology Services

Provide support services to the OSI to support the SFIS

Public Health 4/6/15 $9,380,701 Exempt by policy Department of Health Care Services

IT Services

Corrections and Rehabilitation 4/6/15 $4,769,300 Master Service Agreement

IBM SAP Maintenance & Operations

Franchise Tax Board 4/14/15 $2,046,976 Exempt by policy JPMorgan Chase & Co. Financing

Caltrans 5/5/15 $1,967,409 Software License Program

Taborda Solutions Inc. Adobe software


4/2/15 $1,936,598 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions IT refresher

California Department of Technology

4/1/15 $1,742,370 Software License Program

Dataskill Inc. IBM appliances and SW for DMV WSI Phase 2

Health Care Services 4/14/15 $1,488,000 Master Service Agreement

Radian Solutions LLC 14-90439


4/8/15 $1,418,991 Software License Program

En Pointe Technologies Sales Inc. Microsoft Premier Software Support Subscription

Corrections and Rehabilitation

4/8/15 $1,302,000 NCB Riley Consulting Services LLC Board's Information Technology System (BITS)

Justice 4/17/15 $1,250,763 WSCA/Coop Hewlett-Packard HP servers

Secretary of State 4/6/15 $1,223,622 Software License Program

CompuCom Systems Inc. CompuCom Systems Inc.

Public Utilities Commission 4/16/15 $1,140,469 Master Service Agreement

Taborda Solutions Inc. Programming

Office of Systems Integration 5/7/15 $1,044,000 Formal Competitive RMA Consulting Group Inc. AFIS Consulting Services

Caltrans 4/22/15 $1,000,000 Master Service Agreement

KPMG IT Consulting Services

Social Services 4/24/15 $970,900 Software License Program

Trinity Technology Group Software license


4/14/15 $968,190 WSCA/Coop Cisco Systems Inc. Cisco equipment

Board of Equalization 4/30/15 $929,162 Software License Program

En Pointe Technologies Sales Inc. Microsoft software support

Caltrans 4/23/15 $916,928 WSCA/Coop Verizon Wireless Verizon GPS equipment


4/9/15 $739,437 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions Desktops/Intel/Monitors

Industrial Relations 4/10/15 $697,158 Master Service Agreement

Natoma Technologies IT consulting services

Justice 4/9/15 $688,900 Statewide Contract NetApp, Inc. NetApp storage software


5/6/15 $632,500 Exempt by policy NCS Pearson Inc. GED online education


5/1/15 $631,823 Software License Program

En Pointe Technologies Sales Inc. Microsoft Premier Support Services


4/17/15 $631,126 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions IT refresher-notebooks

Justice 4/20/15 $617,733 WSCA/Coop Hewlett-Packard 3PAR Storage

Public Health 4/28/15 $603,395 Software License Program

Kovarus Software license renewal


4/29/15 $582,176 Statewide Contract Kovarus EMC VNX Array HW/SW Expansion


En Pointe Technologies Sales Inc. Support services renewal


5/1/15 $560,491 Statewide Contract Direct Systems Support Proucre additional resources AIX Frames


CompuCom Systems Inc. Software license

Caltrans 4/3/15 $511,556 WSCA/Coop EMC Hardware maintenance

Conservation 5/13/15 $506,437 Software License Program

CompuCom Systems Inc. Microsoft Windows Enterprise — Year 1 of a 5-year EA


DEPARTMENT

PURCHASE DATE

GRAND TOTAL

ACQUISITION METHOD

SUPPLIER NAME

ITEM

State Hospitals 4/30/15 $504,800 CMAS Vology Data Systems APC

Health Care Services 4/20/15 $490,680 WSCA/Coop EMC IT hardware and software and services

Parks and Recreation 4/18/15 $490,000 CMAS VF Partners LLC Organizational change management and business analysis consulting for RRSS


4/22/15 $488,637 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions PC/Monitors

Health Care Services 5/6/15 $488,627 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions Laptop computers

State Hospitals 4/27/15 $481,949 WSCA/Coop EMC Hardware maintenance

Caltrans 4/30/15 $441,440 Statewide Contract Dynamic Systems Inc. Hardware maintenance


5/13/15 $440,184 Software License Program

Taborda Solutions Inc. Oracle DB EE/Partitioning/Diagnostic NUPs SW+Maint Purchase (CDCR)

Industrial Relations 4/23/15 $437,500 CMAS IBM Iform consulting services

Public Health 4/3/15 $420,490 CMAS AgreeYa Solutions Inc. IT consulting services

Conservation 4/22/15 $418,121 Statewide Contract Technology Integration Group PowerEdge R730 Server

Air Resources Board 4/13/15 $400,000 Exempt by statute KDS Technology Solutions Inc. Software maintenance

Developmental Services 4/30/15 $393,660 Exempt by statute BMI Imaging Systems Document conversion-scanning/digital


4/28/15 $387,537 WSCA/Coop Cisco Systems Inc. Cisco Switches 3850

Board of Equalization 4/1/15 $385,751 CMAS Evolve Technology Group Hardware, software & support

Health Care Services 5/1/15 $384,020 CMAS Forward Solutions Inc. IT consultation services

General Services 4/13/15 $367,398 CMAS Tel Set Communications Inc. Data cabling

Public Health 4/16/15 $341,593 WSCA/Coop EMC Storage

State Hospitals 4/4/15 $337,874 Software License Program

Entisys Solutions Inc. software licenses


5/5/15 $335,069 Exempt by policy Aztec Software Aztec Software

State Hospitals 5/11/15 $330,477 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions PC Server

Public Utilities Commission 5/13/15 $329,250 CMAS SPJ Solutions Inc. Consulting

Caltrans 4/10/15 $321,347 WSCA/Coop Cisco Systems Inc. asr1002-x

Caltrans 4/13/15 $321,347 WSCA/Coop Cisco Systems Inc. Cisco Switches


5/6/15 $318,720 Exempt by policy IBM IBM SoftwareXcel Enterprise subscription renewal

Health Care Services 4/22/15 $313,318 Software License Program

CompuCom Systems Inc. Microsoft Premier support agreement renewal

Caltrans 4/7/15 $307,545 CMAS Kovarus Software

Justice 4/28/15 $306,501 Informal Competitive SRA International Inc. Software support for Cal Gang

Caltrans 4/17/15 $297,262 WSCA/Coop Hewlett-Packard [43212105] Laser printers

Justice 5/5/15 $285,275 Emergency Purchase Dell Marketing Dell SC4020 Compellent Storage Array and 3-year warranty

Motor Vehicles 5/4/15 $282,905 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions HP 800G1 All In One | HP EliteOne 800 G1 Touch AiO 23" screen & accessories

Science Center, California 4/1/15 $282,492 Exempt by statute California Science Center Foundation IT services

Science Center, California 4/1/15 $282,492 Exempt by statute California Science Center Foundation IT services

Caltrans 4/1/15 $271,194 WSCA/Coop Cisco Systems Inc. Computer hardware maintenance & support

Caltrans 4/16/15 $269,198 WSCA/Coop Cisco Systems Inc. [43222635] Network equipment upgrade kit

Employment Development Department

4/22/15 $263,375 SB/DVBE Option NWN Data storage

Employment Development Department

4/10/15 $253,612 WSCA/Coop EMC EMC hardware/software

Public Utilities Commission 5/11/15 $253,301 CMAS Xerox Corp. Copier

General Services 4/8/15 $253,253 Statewide Contract NWN Solutions HP ProDesk 600/Memory/Tagging


4/28/15 $250,000 Exempt by policy Advanced Technologies Group LLC

Software support

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