Consolidation, virtualization, budget and health care are among the most critical policy or technology issues to be faced by state government in 2011, according to a survey conducted by the Lexington, Ky.-based National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). Changing priorities emerged in this year's survey, including health care, which moved up in the ranking of priorities with the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in March 2010.



As state government continues to deal with the economic realities of the current fiscal crisis, state CIOs are working to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining and even increasing the delivery of necessary services to citizens, according to NASCIO. "Clearly, the priorities this year are a mirror image of the current challenges state government is facing," said NASCIO President and West Virginia Chief Technology Officer Kyle Schafer in a statement. "State government CIOs are collaborating across the country on innovative strategies, methods and technological solutions. Our initiatives also reflect efforts to exploit capabilities from across multiple agencies within our own states."



The top priorities — consolidation, optimization, budget and cost control, and shared services — are all focused on gaining efficiencies, economies of scale and effective IT investment, Schafer said. Also, many CIOs expect PPACA to increase the need for more efficient and economic operations, he said. "There are multiple implications with the Affordable Care Act as it relates to health exchanges, automation of business rules, data quality, and interoperability and integration issues with existing systems," Schefer said.


The top 10 ranking of priorities are:
1. Consolidation/optimization
2. Budget and cost control
3. Health care
4. Cloud computing
5. Shared services
6. Governance
7. Security
8. Broadband and connectivity
9. Legacy modernization
10. Data and information management

CIOs' top 10 priorities for technologies, applications and tools are:
1. Virtualization
2. Cloud computing
3. Networking
4. Legacy application modernization/renovation
5. Identity and access management
6. Document/content/records/e-mail management
7. Security enhancement tools
8. Business Intelligence and analytics applications
9. Enterprise Resource Planning
10. Social media and networking

NASCIO uses the annual list of priorities to develop strategic areas of focus for the coming year, formulate new committees and working groups, and plan NASCIO conference sessions and publications. Download the list with more details.