I found this interesting and relevant article on NJSpotlight.com about Governor Murphy’s advisory committee on Government Technology and Innovations Transition.  As a summation, the article outlines some major recommendations the committee has presented to Murphy and his team about how best the state government can make some major (and much needed) upgrades to its technology infrastructure.  One of the first priorities the committee recommended was to upgrade the government’s information technology systems within six months – a huge lift for a state government, in my opinion, especially New Jersey where the state’s Office of Information Technology only has a budget of $158 million; and with over 600 employees I would imagine that a majority of that budget is simply just to maintain personnel which would automatically take away from possibilities in upgrading systems, especially in just six months.

Also, an interesting quote from the article that I’ve been thinking more about as we discuss public information and technology management for governments:

“’New Jersey’s government infrastructure is severely outdated, and the state struggles to coordinate services with town and county governments,’ the report states.” 

I think that one of the more innovative, though perhaps time-consuming and tedious forms of shared services for municipalities across the state would come from information sharing.  The Camden Coalition has pushed aggressively through our statewide advocacy platform (the Good Care Collaborative) in Trenton for integrated patient health data as a way to share important information, provide better quality of care to patients who need it the most, and to save costs as this reduces the need for multiple systems. I’d be interested to hear other’s thoughts about how shared services might play out as the concept (and perhaps even municipality consolidation) are being increasingly explored across the state. 

The rest of the article touches on other important topics about creating an “E-Government Strategic Plan” to update and improve state government online services such as renewing a driver’s license or conducting transactions with state agencies online.  Many of the other recommendations also show symptoms of more sound policy characteristics (e.g. accessibility, security, transparency) which I think the state needs on many of its policy fronts.

Interested to hear your thoughts on the state’s technology front (what’s lacking, what’s doing well, and where/how Camden fits into all of this)!