The Digital States Survey evaluates states’ use of technology to improve service delivery, increase capacity, streamline operations and reach policy goals and assigns each state a grade based on quantifiable results.
Since the last biennial survey in 2018, grades improved in 10 states.
“Ten states improved their grades, an indication that they made smart technology investments and successfully leveraged those investments to deal with urgent changes in operations and remote work prompted by the pandemic,” said Teri Takai, co-director of the Center for Digital Government.
Sixteen states earned top grades, with Arizona, North Carolina and Texas moving up to an A- designation and Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Utah maintaining their A marks. Rhode Island was the most improved state, rising from a C to a B+.
The survey evaluated states based on a set of criteria that included actions supporting state priorities and policies to improve operations or services, hard and soft-dollar savings/benefits, progress since the last survey, innovative and citizen-centric services, and effective collaboration. Those states receiving high marks demonstrated results across all criteria.
“Survey results revealed cybersecurity, budget and cost control, citizen engagement and experience, and cloud computing are the states’ top four priorities, with IT collaboration and IT governance moving up to fifth and sixth,” said Takai. “We are also seeing emerging best practices from states around addressing the digital divide and infrastructure modernization.”
The Digital States Survey was designed to highlight best and emerging technology practices that serve as models and/or can be shared across state borders. The survey recognizes these achievements and provides a common reference for all 50 states in the ongoing work of finding better ways to provide public services.
The states will receive recognition during a virtual awards event on October 28th.
The Center for Digital Government thanks Adobe, Amazon Web Services, EasyVote, McAfee, NIC, SHI, and Verizon Enterprise Solutions for underwriting the survey.
To see the awards article and the 50-state summaries, Click Here.
2020 Digital States Survey Grades
A
Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Utah
A-
Arizona, California, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin
B+
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Tennessee
B
Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia.
B-
Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, and South Dakota
C+
Nevada and Wyoming
C
Alaska
2020 Digital States Survey Category Awards
In addition, several states earned the Digital States Survey Category Awards, given in the following areas:
Leadership
IT Strategy consistency and support of the Governor’s priorities and the actions Enterprise IT takes to improve working relationships, planning, policies and coordination with agencies.
State of Arizona
State of Georgia
State of Utah
Citizen Centric
Mobile and digital services that engage individual citizens/businesses. Solutions may focus on transactions, decision support and other interactions with government groups.
State of Arkansas
State of New Hampshire
State of Utah
Data Governance/Transparency
Using mechanisms to ensure data quality (complete, consistent and accurate) and privacy protection. The ability to deliver trusted data to all users who are authorized to access it.
State of Indiana
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
State of Ohio
State of Rhode Island
Data Driven Government
Systematic data-based analytical mechanisms and techniques used to efficiently and effectively manage the states’ business as well as IT functions.
State of Minnesota
State of Missouri
State of Washington
Sustainability
IT programs/projects in energy conservation, environment management and the state’s modernization of its physical assets.
State of California
State of Maryland
State of New Hampshire
Disaster Recovery/Continuity of Operations
The ability to recover from and maintain continuous IT and business operations during disasters and crisis conditions.
State of Iowa
State of Nebraska
State of South Carolina
Continuous Innovation
The exploration, testing and appropriate application of Emerging Technologies beyond current operations to improve government services.
State of North Dakota
State of Texas
State of Utah
Connected Infrastructure
IT enabled services – computing, storage and networks. On premise (data center) and/or off-premise, distributed (cloud) computing capabilities managed or owned by the CIO Enterprise IT.
State of Maryland
State of Michigan
Commonwealth of Virginia
Business Projects
Public Safety, Emergency Management, Criminal Justice and Corrections
State of California
Health and Human Services
State of Oregon
Transportation and Motor Vehicles
State of Wisconsin
Most Improved
State of Rhode Island
Improved
State of Arizona
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
State of Mississippi
State of Montana
State of New Hampshire
State of New Jersey
State of North Carolina
State of Texas
State of Vermont
About the Center for Digital Government
The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government.
The Center is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.
For questions, please contact Janet Grenslitt, Director of Surveys and Awards, at jgrenslitt@centerdigitalgov.com.
