Georgia Earns Highest Grade Possible in 2018 Digital States Survey

The state of Georgia received a letter grade of A, the highest ranking possible, in the 2018 Digital States Survey. In addition, Georgia placed first in the nation in the category of Adaptive Leadership and was named among the top five states in the category of Collaboration.

The survey is conducted every two years by the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute focused on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. The survey evaluates all 50 states’ use of technology to improve service delivery, increase capacity, streamline operations, and reach policy goals, and each state is assigned a letter grade based on quantifiable results.

Under the Digital States Survey criteria, a letter grade of A indicates a state “is trending sharply upward. They show results across all survey categories. Modernization is used to realize operational efficiencies and strategic priorities. There is evidence of meaningful collaboration, and performance measures and metrics are widely adopted.”

Georgia’s letter grade of A is an improvement from the last survey in 2016, when the state received an A-. Georgia is one of only five states to receive an A in the 2018 survey. The other states are Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Utah.

The category of Adaptive Leadership measures how well a state’s technology investment strategies match the top policy priorities of the governor, the legislature, and the public.

The survey evaluated states for actions supporting priorities and policies to improve operations and services, hard- and soft-dollar savings and benefits, progress since the previous survey, innovative and citizen-centric services, and effective collaboration. The survey is designed to highlight best and emerging technology practices that serve as models to be shared across state borders.

For more information, visit http://www.govtech.com/cdg/digital-states/Digital-States-Survey-2018-Results.html.

Georgia Scores Impressive Wins in NASCIO Awards

Georgia state agencies have earned impressive wins in recent years in the State IT Recognition Awards, which are sponsored annually by the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO). It’s arguably the most competitive and prestigious awards program in the nation that honors state agencies for their achievements in the innovative use of information technology.

For the 30th annual NASCIO awards in 2018, Georgia Gateway, the state’s consolidated system for determining eligibility for an array of public-assistance programs, received a first-place award in the category of Cross-boundary Collaboration and Partnerships. Georgia Gateway is managed by the Department of Human Services (DHS) but also incorporates public-assistance programs from the departments of Community Health, Public Health, and Early Care and Learning. For more details, see Georgia Technology Innovation Showcase.

DHS also received a first-place award from NASCIO in 2017 for its Child Support Services Mobile App, which allows non-custodial parents to make child support payments on their mobile phones. In addition, technology projects from the departments of Revenue and Transportation were named finalists in the 2017 awards program.

First-place awards were presented to the Georgia Technology Authority in 2016 for its Web Accessibility Initiative and to the University System of Georgia (USG) in 2014 for its integrated learning platform. USG was named a finalist in 2013 for an online information repository, and the State Road and Tollway Authority was named a finalist in 2012 for its I-85 Express Lanes.

NASCIO is the nation’s leading resource for state CIOs and a prominent advocate for technology policy at all government levels.

Calvin Rhodes Receives CIO of the Year ORBIE Award

Georgia CIO Calvin Rhodes was honored with the 2018 CIO of the Year ORBIE Award for the nonprofit/public sector. The ORBIE awards, sponsored by the Georgia CIO Leadership Association, are widely considered to be the nation’s leading recognition program for technology executives.

In choosing award recipients, the association considered the size and scope of the nominees’ responsibilities, their leadership and management effectiveness, the business value created by technology innovation in their organization, and their engagement in the technology field and community.

Mr. Rhodes was named Georgia CIO and Georgia Technology Authority executive director in 2011 and is currently the nation’s longest-serving active state CIO. He has led the state’s public/private IT transformation and consolidation initiative, which has successfully strengthened cybersecurity, modernized IT infrastructure and networks, improved the reliability of information systems, and increased transparency in the state’s IT enterprise. He also has overseen construction and partner coordination for the $100 million Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta.

The Georgia CIO Leadership Association is a professional association for Georgia CIOs. It is one of 11 chapters of a national leadership association for CIOs from public and private companies, government, education, health care, and nonprofit organizations.

StateScoop Honors Georgia Technology Leaders

Georgia was well represented among the 2018 winners of the StateScoop 50 awards, which annually highlight outstanding leaders and innovations in the state IT community.

Chief Digital Officer Nikhil Deshpande was among eight people nationwide to receive the State Leadership of the Year award, while Walter Tong, formerly Director of Cyber Intelligence, was one of seven winners in the State Cybersecurity Leader category. In addition, Georgia Gateway was among 12 projects recognized as a State IT Innovation of the Year award winner.

Mr. Deshpande leads the Georgia Technology Authority’s Office of Digital Services Georgia, which manages the web-publishing platform supporting more than 80 state agency websites.

Prior to his retirement from state government, Mr. Tong worked with state agencies on security program development, evaluations, and risk management.

StateScoop named Kendra Skeene to the list of Top Women in Technology for the second year in a row. Ms. Skeene, formerly product director for Digital Services Georgia, was one of several women from state and local government and private industry who were recognized for "their dedication, excellence, and use of technology in the course of public service."

Award recipients were selected by members of the state IT community in nationwide voting. More than 500,000 votes were cast on StateScoop’s website, narrowing hundreds of readers’ nominations in six categories to select the 2018 winners.

Georgia Named a Finalist in Government Experience Awards

Georgia was named a finalist in the 2018 Government Experience Awards, which recognize states, cities, and counties that “push the boundaries of how citizen services are delivered.”

Like the Digital States Survey, the awards are sponsored by the Center for Digital Government. In naming Georgia a finalist, the center described Georgia’s state websites as “built with a simple and clean design that allows residents to perform necessary functions with self-service capabilities, all while projecting a warm, conversational tone.”

Georgia.gov Ranked as Top Performing Website

Georgia’s primary state website, www.georgia.gov, was ranked as the best performing in the nation by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). When taking additional state agency websites into account, Georgia ranked No. 4 in the overall state standings.

The ITIF reviewed 400 U.S. state government websites representing seven different service types to assess performance on four criteria: page-load speed (on both desktops and mobile devices), mobile friendliness, security, and accessibility.

The ITIF is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute in Washington, D.C.

Georgia ranked No. 2 overall in both page-load speed and accessibility. When evaluating specific government functions, Georgia.gov’s Popular Topics webpage on driver’s licenses ranked No. 2 for driver’s license information, and the Popular Topics webpage on business licenses ranked No. 2 for business registration information.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Department of Revenue’s website ranked No. 2 for taxes websites, the Georgia Department of Public Health’s website ranked No. 3 for vital records websites, and the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s website ranked No. 3 for traffic citation websites. All three of these top-performing websites are part of the state’s enterprise web-publishing platform, which is managed by GTA’s Office of Digital Services Georgia.

Georgia ranked No. 11 overall on mobile friendliness and No. 18 overall on security measures, even though communications between web browsers and websites on the state’s enterprise platform are encrypted.