And Washington isn’t alone: NASCIO’s 2023 State CIO Survey found that 69 percent of states report being at the beginning stages of their enterprise data management work, while just 27 percent say their work in this area is “mature.”
In a conference session on data governance, Washington CIO Bill Kehoe said that when it comes to getting funding for these programs, “we’re not telling the story about how important data is,” adding that they need to better partner with other state agencies to tell that story.
“How are we even defining our information management journey?” he asked. “What’s the vision? And what’s the value and the benefits?”
As WaTech looks to build out a data program that will serve all branches of state government and deliver on that value, Vidyanti outlined the three major components of her agency’s plan, with a metaphor likening it to parts of the human body: the enterprise data program (the brain); the enterprise data platform (the central nervous system); and a robust data governance plan (the immune system).
An important tenet of Vidyanti’s philosophy is that “data governance cannot exist in isolation,” meaning that it’s part of an interconnected system that underpins state government.
“I think this is a very symbiotic system,” Vidyanti said. “And this is one where I just don’t see how data governance can realize [its] mission … without working very closely with the business and technology governance side of things.”
