“I am here to really focus on the tech strategy and vision,” he said. “I’m providing an interface between the technology department and the business units. I want to be able to create a secure, reliable and efficient delivery model, but I also want to be able to create business value for those units. Technology is supposed to create an easier pathway for those units to be able to operate.”
That starts with building in new efficiencies. “We want to streamline a lot. When you start to look at permitting, for example, we want the citizens and business owners to have a seamless process,” he said. “In transportation, we want to use technology to control traffic flow. We also want to use technology as it relates to our water system, using it for meter reading and to help gather data on our efforts to purify our water systems.”
To make those kinds of changes, Brantley will be seeking constituent buy-in. “You have to resonate not only with the business units but also with the external customers. They have to see themselves in what you are trying to fix,” he said. “That means having goals that make a measurable impact on people’s lives.”
Budget constraints can present a challenge to that vision. Rather than look for more money, Brantley said he plans to look for ways to spend less in order get the same results.
“I look at where we can be more efficient, rather than asking for more budget,” he said. “Do all the things we do right now rate well in terms of technical fitness? If you look for redundancies across the enterprise and you eliminate those, you can become a lot more efficient in leveraging the technologies that you already have in place, which in turn frees up budget for doing some of the more aspirational things.”
This story is part of a series profiling new state and local government CIOs.
