Another major endeavor of the past eight years, Howze told GT at the recent NASCIO conference in Minneapolis, was addressing the state’s backlog of technical debt. The consolidated Office of Technology Services has prioritized this work during the two terms of Gov. John Bel Edwards.
“We’ve spent the entire eight years of this [the Edwards] administration retiring legacy technologies and putting them into a posture of being on modern supportable technologies that won’t ever go out of date ever again,” Howze said.
Last weekend, Louisiana voters chose Edwards’ successor, Attorney General Jeff Landry. Having retained his post through previous gubernatorial transitions, Howze and his organization are prepared to weather this transition too.
“Now that we’ve been there and done that, we’re in a great position to support the transition. The day-to-day operations of the organization will be easily handled, and we’ll be able to easily pivot with the direction that the new governor wants to take us in with respect to his priorities,” he said.
Howze’s longevity means he’s overseen many relationships with technology partners in private industry. In Louisiana, the Office of Technology Services is where the buck stops with regard to procurement. As such, Howze offered some advice to would-be partners about working with the state.
