In an article in Government Technology magazine, State CIO Chris Estes says the state’s new Innovation Center will be used to test hardware, software and IT systems to make sure they work before they’re implemented.
“There’s some history in our state, at least where we’ve made large technology purchases and then have spent years trying to integrate and make that stuff work,” Estes said. “So the first mission of the Innovation Center is to make sure the stuff we buy works and then the second is to start involving constituent groups in helping the state solve some of these problems we have with technology and our process to modernize it.”
The Innovation Center will be a space for collaboration as well as testing. Groups using the space will include state agency CIOs, individuals from the state’s university and community college systems, vendors and the hacker community. Collaboration can help minimize redundant systems throughout state government and bring in a broader scope of constituents to help solve the state’s IT problems.
For example, in some cases, state agencies use several different types of software to perform the same function. Estes wants to reduce that number to two per function in what he calls a “Noah's Ark” approach. To help achieve this goal, the Innovation Center will serve as a space to test new technology, making sure it is fully functional and can be used at the enterprise level.
One of the first problems to solve is to upgrade more than 42,000 state desktop computers that are still running Microsoft’s XP operating system. Estes wants to use the Innovation Center to test a variety of end-user devices and their supporting technologies. He plans to have that capability in the next 30 to 60 days.
Estes also wants to use the Center to engage the hacker community and to conduct training and professional development for the state’s IT workforce.
The Innovation Center is being developed on the first floor of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources building, which is LEED certified. The grand opening is planned for later in the year.