Getting Wired: Utah CIO Tells How

To make that dream a reality, Leavitt looked to private industry for an expert in e-commerce, process management and business administration. That led him to Phillip J. Windley, Ph.D., the former vice president of development at failed Internet company Excite@home and chief technologist at iMall.

Now the state's point man for all information technology resources, including computer systems and telecommunications, Windley is accustomed to working at Internet speed. But this job is like no other. In addition to preparing Utah for a digital future, he's also responsible for the day-to-day operations of some 22,000 desktop computers.

If that's not enough, he is also lending a hand making sure the state's networks don't go down during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Then, of course, there are the additional security, economic and administrative burdens thrust upon all government leaders since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In an exclusive interview with VARBusiness senior executive editor T.C. Doyle, Windley discusses his role as a state CIO, his views on working with outside suppliers and consultants, and what state governments believe they can accomplish by embracing the Web. The conversation begins with a look back to 2001's most fateful day.

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VB: Did life for you, the state CIO, change after Sept. 11?

Windley: A little bit. There's clearly a move within not only national but also state governments to emphasize homeland security and homeland defense. So we have seen some change in priorities in terms of IT support for that role.

But we were already under a heightened state of alert because of all the viruses that happened over the summer. They brought the level of security up before Sept. 11.

More recently, there are some security concerns over the Olympics. We've taken steps that we wouldn't have taken [otherwise because we may be targeted in some way.

VB: What role are you playing regarding the Olympics?

Windley: The organizing committee has its own people. We provide support functions, and some of the networking is running over our infrastructure. We provide a lot of the support for the security people. Beyond IT, it's all-consuming. I almost have to step outside my job description. I work for the Office of Utah Governor Michael Leavitt, and we're doing Olympics. It really doesn't matter what my title is.

VB: All hands on deck, so to speak. Different state CIOs

have different responsibilities. Describe your role.

Windley: Well, there are two aspects of the job. One is what the statute calls for, which is, responsibility for all IT within the state. That includes financing, policy, architecture, planning and so on.

The second, and perhaps more important, aspect is to help the governor, who happens to be very technology literate and interested. He comes up with a lot of things he wants done. There's not somebody feeding him information. Instead, he's driving a lot of initiatives.

VB: What attracted you to the job?

Windley: What attracted me was the whole e-government thing that Utah is doing. Taking all that I know and bringing it to government to try to change the way it works.

VB: Do you avail yourself of outside help from third-party IT solution providers?

Windley: I like to use third parties within a framework. [I see e-government as a technology that fundamentally changes how government works. It's not just a veneer to put over the old government. Given that, the vision has to be inside. We have to make it a part of what we do every day. Within that framework, though, we are going to use a variety of consultants and outside contractors to implement our vision.

VB: You come from an area where there's a lot of high-tech development. Do you get pressured to use locally developed technology?

Windley: I never feel pressured. I would love to see some local technologies used in our Web sites, if it's the right technology. That's the key. We don't feel pressured to do the wrong thing for political reasons.

VB: You have a number of initiatives, including the goal of being completely online by 2004. How are you doing?

Windley: Since I got here, I have tried to figure out exactly what the goal of being online by 2004 means. We've had e-government meetings with each of the agencies, not just the IT folks, but the executive directors and agency directors and line-of-business managers.

We're trying to...communicate that being online by 2004 isn't just my job, but also the Department of Health's job and the Department of Transportation's job, too. Our goal is to put a process in place to make that happen.

There have been a number of things that happened in 2001 I think are positive. We also have a road map for 2002, 2003 and 2004 that shows what each agency is going to do.

The next step is our product management council. Inside that, we look for areas of confluence in two different directions. One is, we look for people who are all doing the same thing. For example, there are probably half a dozen agencies that do professional licensing of one type or another. We don't want to build six different licensing applications. We want to build one and interface to the data that these six different agencies have.

The other area we look for is applications that would be better put together than [kept apart. Right now, we are working on an online business registration process. If you are in Salt Lake City, for example, and want to start a business, you come to Utah.gov and click on a link that says, "I want to start a business." That will take you through a series of forms that asks you all of the pertinent questions.

When you are done, you get your EIN from the IRS, you get all your tax information set up and all your forms filled out with the Labor Commission. The Department of Workforce Services gets all that they need, commerce gets your business registration and the city of Salt Lake will give you a business license. So, from three levels of government and multiple agencies in the state, you get all that done in one place.

VB: When did that go live?

Windley: It hasn't gone live yet. But it's one of the things on our 2002 road map. And there are others as we look at these road maps and put things together.

VB: With so much of your time spent looking ahead, how do you devote time for regular, everyday needs?

Windley: I like to divide the things we do into three buckets. The first is basic utilities, like desktops,keeping the lights on kind of things. It's processing the support checks or unemployment,the things that have to be done day-in and day-out.

The second bucket is incremental improvement. Changes to existing systems to add incremental improvement. It might be a Windows upgrade, or an upgrade to core routers, etc.

The third bucket is strategic investment. I think it's easy, especially in tough economic times, to want to pull back and say, "Well, I'm just going to concentrate on the basic utilities." I try to get the IT directors to push focus from the basic utilities to strategic investments. To do that, you have to have a good process in place on the basic utilities, or they fall apart, and everybody gets mad.

VB: Given your title, how tough is it when everybody wants a piece of your time so they can give you a sales pitch? How do you keep them at bay?

Windley: It's actually very difficult. One thing is that I am in state government. There's a sense of fairness that has to take place that isn't there in private industry. In private industry, I can say, "I'm using brand X and I don't care about all the other brands." In that case, I could tell my secretary that if anybody but brand X calls, "Don't pass them through." I can't do that in state government. I can't not talk to people. I can't just throw vendors out willy-nilly.

The other thing that makes it difficult is everyone knows who you are and they all want an appointment. So I try to distinguish between those that represent a strategic help to me vs. those who are just making sales calls. I get a lot of e-mails from people saying, "I just wanted to make you aware of our product." Great. That doesn't do a lot for me.

On the other hand, I have strategic relationships with companies that have already won business with the state. Take Qwest, for example. We are Qwest's largest customer in Utah, so we obviously have a lot of interaction with them. But I could spend 60 hours a week talking to vendors if that's what I wanted to do.