Some time in early 2019, Tennessee residents will be able to renew their driver’s licenses or apply for professional certifications simply by pulling their phones from their pockets and opening the state’s new mobile app. That was the prediction made Tuesday by the state’s chief information officer, Stephanie Dedmon, during a presentation on the app at the annual conference of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers in San…

A division of North Dakota’s statewide technology agency has announced a new partnership that will bring cybersecurity teaching educational materials to educators throughout the state. Formed late last month, the partnership between the North Dakota Information Technology Department’s EduCause office and the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center is the first of its kind. While the national program funded by the Department of Homeland Security has worked with teachers on a…

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency announced Wednesday it has awarded a six-year $242.4 million contract to Unisys to manage its server, storage and data center services. The contract joins five others already signed by the state and other vendors as part of its new services model that allows a variety of shorter contracts from different suppliers, rather than the single IT contract the state has held with Northrop Grumman since…

Providing a customer experience like what’s offered by Amazon has become a holy grail for many government IT leaders in recent years, and with North Dakota’s newest hire on Thursday, the state is drawing a direct line to that mission. North Dakota’s chief information officer, Shawn Riley, announced a new position called the chief reinvention officer, or CRO, that will be filled on August 20 by Julie Cabinaw, a private…

Fairfax County benefits from improved operational intelligence and cost savings from a reduced data center footprint, a new report says.

State governments struggle to compete with the private sector for top-shelf technical talent, but with a little ingenuity, a couple of states say, it’s possible to find success. The chief information officers for Missouri and Hawaii shared with StateScoop how they revised strategies for attracting and retaining staff to support their organizations. Both said they defined clear identities for their organizations, considered unique geographic challenges and found new partnerships to further their goals. Government work has always been a hard…

State and local government agencies are turning to cloud to streamline and strengthen their organizations' cybersecurity efforts.

Deborah Acosta knew making San Leandro, California, stand out among other San Francisco Bay Area communities would be a challenge when she became its chief innovation officer in 2013. The city of about 90,000, just south of Oakland and across the water from ritzy Silicon Valley cities like YouTube home San Bruno, was still trying to move on from its past as a decaying manufacturing hub and poster child for the restrictive covenants…

South Carolina is taking steps to strengthen its cybersecurity posture. Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster announced the formation of a new office at the North Augusta Municipal Center for SC Cyber, the state’s initiative and liaison between industry, academia and government for cybersecurity development.  The office will work to meet the region’s “growing cyber related educational and workforce demands,” a statement says. McMaster touted the move as a positive one to build developmental and…