Goal 3: Make common technology easy to access, use, share and reuse across government

“Our scale is so big. We have over 60,000 employees. Per user, year over year, that all adds up.” User research interview with Russ Nichols, Agency Information Officer, CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

When we examined large technology projects in planning (in the Project Approval Lifecycle, PAL) across the state we found 79 case management systems across 22 departments; 45 reporting systems across 15 departments; 27 licensing systems across 23 departments; 23 claims management systems across 7 departments and 20 content management systems across 10 departments.

Pooling investment into shared digital infrastructure that we use across the state will make it easier for us to build expertise in working at scale, easier and faster for teams to apply shared experience and patterns to solve problems, and provide more time and resources for programs to focus on solving the unique problems they face in meeting people’s needs rather than managing duplicative, overlapping, and often redundant technology.

In departments, this will mean meeting people’s needs like uploading documents, providing helpdesk and support services, and verifying people’s identity quickly, easily and consistently.

“How can we work together in one shared environment, as one organization?” User research interview with Krista Canellakis, Deputy Secretary for General Services, Government Operations Agency

Staff in different departments need to be able to find each other in seconds, collaborate on documents and data in real-time, and chat on video, no matter where they are. They need consistent, easy access to the modern tools they need to do their jobs, whether they need to analyze or share data or manage projects.

Centralizing and standardizing on commodities makes it easier for us to take advantage of our scale as the world’s fifth-largest economy, using our size to deliver better services at a responsible cost, allowing us to use our public funds to better serve people, instead of maintaining redundant technology.

Most importantly, achieving this goal will make it faster and easier for teams to solve actual Californians’ problems and serve their needs, such as receiving emergency grant funding, starting businesses, or finding child care.