North Carolina has achieved an overall grade of "A" and received special recognition for its resilience capabilities in the 2022 Digital States Survey, the state's highest ranking ever on the national biennial survey administered by the Center for Digital Governance to evaluate state governments’ use of digital technologies.
North Carolina is among six states to earn an "A" grade, which recognizes that a state demonstrates very strong innovation, adopts high-performing solutions with verifiable impacts and applies excellent practices in all aspects of operations, governance and administration.
North Carolina also received third place in the category of Resilience, which recognizes the state's ability to maintain continuous IT and business operations during peak usage, disasters and crises.
"North Carolina's highest-ever ranking on the Digital States Survey is a well-deserved honor for all the IT leaders and staff across the state and their work to shape a 21st-century government and deliver vital services to the public," said James Weaver, state chief information officer and secretary of the N.C. Department of Information Technology. "North Carolina is striving to be the model of a modern, accessible state government, and IT is integral to our success."
North Carolina’s Statewide IT Strategic Plan focuses state government on three priorities: widespread, equitable broadband access across geographic, race and income to open up business, educational and healthcare opportunities; digital transformation so that constituents can engage with government in real time and on multiple platforms; and a whole-of-state approach to cybersecurity, communicating and collaborating in prevention and mitigation across all levels of government.
"Government exists to protect and provide for our residents. We are working toward a healthier, more prosperous, more educated and connected North Carolina. IT helps the state carry out this mission efficiently and effectively," Weaver said.
The Digital States Survey evaluated states’ efforts in 11 areas: aligned leadership, constituent/customer centric, cybersecurity, data enablement, data-driven government, IT investment, resilience, workforce planning, continuous innovation, connected infrastructure and business process alignment. The full results for North Carolina and all 50 states can be found on the Center for Digital Governance’s website.
The Digital States Survey awards will be presented during the National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ (NASCIO) annual meeting in Louisville on Oct. 9.
The Center for Digital Governance, a national research and advisory institute on IT policies and best practices in state and local government, has administered the Digital States Survey for 25 years ago to benchmark state governments’ use of digital technologies to improve service delivery, increase capacity and reach policy goals.