View Full Version : Oklahoma Technology Chief



sacolton
04-13-2010, 01:05 PM
Headline: Oklahoma technology chief hopes to improve access

Alex Pettit, charged with finding millions of dollars in savings in Oklahoma’s information technology services, is starting his state career in a 70-year-old condemned building known as "the shack.”

His task generally is overseeing all state computer information and technology operations and looking for ways to help save the state money.

Proponents of the legislation passed last year that created the post estimated a chief information officer could find about $52 million in savings in the first two years.

Consolidated information technology services should allow the state to get lower costs by buying computer equipment in bulk for agencies that have similar needs.

Pettit also will be looking at contracts that agencies have with software companies and will be seeing which agencies could be tied together on one contract with the state and those that might be better off using separate programs.

"Where can we identify where two agencies may have two different pieces of software that accomplish the same goal and would support the same outcome and therefore may be more cost efficient or improve services if they were the same software?” Pettit asked.

Some state agencies can’t communicate efficiently because they don’t have the same software. For example, they can’t open up some attachments sent by e-mail.

"Improving access to information universally across the state and to the citizenry has to be a high priority,” Pettit, 44, said. "It has to be one of the outcomes that we’re trying to achieve.”

Pettit and his staff of about 130 will move this fall from a weathered office building just west of the state Capitol to a $40 million building being built off Lincoln Boulevard north of the Capitol.

The wind-resistant building is being designed specifically to safely store computer equipment and servers. State agencies will have the option to move their equipment to the new structure, Pettit said.

"My hope would be that that would be realized, that they at least would give up the care and feeding of their own equipment and let us house them, let us make sure the power stays up, let us back them up,” Pettit said. "Those activities are things I’m optimistic that we can do for the state and take away a lot of the drudgery of system management.”

Pettit, who started on the job Monday, said he first wants to talk with state employees involved in information technology systems, visit the various departments and observe their existing information technology systems and develop recommendations. He’ll be looking to make sure departments are using software and programs best suited for them.

Pettit spent the past year at Brown University to ensure its information systems were secure while its data center was renovated. The Rhode Island university ran into some problems, intensified by the fact it didn’t have a data recovery plan.

Before that, he worked 10 years for the city of Denton, Texas, as its chief technology officer and held similar information management positions in the private sector.

He was commuting between Providence, R.I., and Denton, where his wife and their six children — ranging in age from 6 to 21 — remained, when the position became available.

Gov. Brad Henry selected Pettit last month for the post. He’s being paid the top authorized annual salary of $160,000.

Being the state’s first chief information officer gives him an opportunity "to have a very large impact and a very positive impact” as well as the chance to get closer to home, Pettit said. He plans to eventually move his family to Oklahoma, but not until after the end of this school year.
Until Pettit was hired, Oklahoma was one of four states to not have a chief technology officer.

Pettit comes on board at a time the state is undergoing a significant revenue shortfall. Legislators have about $1.2 billion less to spend this year compared with last year.

"In this budget climate, we must work to ensure our taxpayer dollars are being spent in an efficient manner,” said House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa.

A legislative task force in 2005 concluded that Oklahoma lacked a state technology strategy after listening to the concerns of agency information technology personnel. In 2007 the House Republican leadership further looked at possible cost savings through restructuring technology services.