Creating a Privacy Program: A Roadmap for States

One of the many tasks given to a new state chief privacy officer (CPO) is to create a privacy program for the state or their agency. This can feel overwhelming on top of the daily deluge of tasks facing a state CPO or privacy manager. This short report covers the six phases a state must execute to establish a privacy program.
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Business Architecture Part 1: A Strategic Blueprint for State CIOs

State CIOs are leading government transformation—but are they fully equipped to bridge the gap between strategy, technology, and citizen outcomes? Business Architecture: A Strategic Blueprint for State CIOs explores how states can move beyond IT modernization to build a foundation for continuous innovation, operational efficiency, and citizen-centric services. Discover how business architecture connects mission-driven objectives to real-world capabilities, enabling states to prioritize investments, eliminate silos, and respond faster to emerging challenges.

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Improving RFPs with User Research” How “Summary Sheets” Can Improve Solicitations

State government technology RFPs often suffer from inefficiency due to outdated templates and inconsistent structure, making it difficult for vendors to quickly identify relevant information. Based on user research, we found that vendors typically struggle to extract key details from RFPs, which are often buried in lengthy documents. To address these challenges, NASCIO and U.S. Digital Response collaborated to improve state technology RFPs by creating a “summary sheet” for software solicitations. The research showed that a well-designed summary sheet improved vendors’ ability to evaluate RFPs quickly and efficiently, reducing the time spent on unsuitable proposals.

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NASCIO Contacts: Meredith Ward or Amy Glasscock

State CIO Top Ten Policy and Technology Priorities for 2025

NASCIO conducts a survey of the state CIOs to identify and prioritize the top policy and technology issues facing state government. The CIOs top ten priorities are identified and used as input to NASCIO’s programs, planning for conference sessions, and publications.

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Bridging Digital Divides: Expanding Cybersecurity in Underserved Communities

As the world continues to become “digital by default,” cybersecurity has become a major concern for individuals, organizations and governments. With heavy reliance on digital platforms for government services, financial transactions, communication and personal data storage, the risks associated with cyber threats have grown exponentially. However, certain communities face disproportionate challenges in securing their digital environments. This brief lays out barriers for these communities and includes recommendations for how states can further expand the whole-of-state model by taking an inclusive approach to cybersecurity.

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Generating Opportunity: The Risks and Rewards of Generative AI in State Government

At NASCIO’s 2023 Midyear Conference, state chief information officers (CIOs) found that most conversations were leading back to generative AI (GenAI). Free public tools, which had been available for only a few months, were already changing the way people work, and state CIOs could see that the potential benefits and the potential risks may be significant. Shortly after that, NASCIO started the Generative AI Working Group. One of the most common questions that CIOs want to know is “What are other states doing with generative AI and what is the role of the state CIO?”

This publication seeks to answer that question as part of the 2024 president’s initiative report spearheaded by NASCIO’s then-president Jim Weaver who also serves as secretary and state CIO in North Carolina.  Information from this report comes from the generative AI section of the 2024 State CIO Survey as well as interviews with 11 state CIOs.

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NASCIO Enterprise Architecture Toolkit Version 3.0 (2004)

The NASCIO Enterprise Architecture Toolkit provides a foundational description of purpose and major components that comprise an effective state government enterprise architecture program. Enterprise architecture is an ongoing, iterative effort that is dynamic and adaptive. Similar to other business disciplines such as finance, marketing, human resources, accounting, enterprise architecture is a continual activity lasting throughout the life of an enterprise.

The toolkit presents basic components of enterprise architecture necessary for delivering the mission of state government. The toolkit is foundational and is built upon and supplemented through additional NASCIO resources addressing allied disciplines such as enterprise portfolio management, governance, data management and business relationship management. These additional resources include publications, webcasts, conference sessions and forum discussions.

The toolkit describes enterprise architecture and the essential architectural domains and does not prescribe any particular framework, methodology, or tools.

With the new emphasis on business architecture, NASCIO is rereleasing the toolkit, originally published in 2004.

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AI-Powered Procurement: Harnessing AI’s Potential for More Efficient State Procurement Practices

Public procurement is a critical function in state governments, responsible for acquiring the goods, services and technologies needed to support public service delivery. However, the procurement process can be slow and inefficient, particularly when it comes to acquiring advanced technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a promising solution to these challenges by automating routine tasks, reducing manual workloads and enabling public sector employees to focus on more strategic and value-added activities. AI’s ability to streamline operations, enhance decision-making and improve service delivery makes it a critical tool for addressing the workforce gaps in state governments. This brief is a joint project between the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) and the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO).

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The 2024 State CIO Survey: Building Blocks of the Next Generation CIO

The 2024 NASCIO State CIO Survey includes responses from 49 state chief information officers to questions on nine topics. This year’s survey includes a dive into how states are using generative artificial intelligence, accelerating digital government services and evolving identity and access management. The report also includes information on service delivery and it seems that consolidation and centralization aren’t going anywhere soon with CIOs reporting that they are delivering services to agencies by consolidation of infrastructure, consolidation of services and centralization of information technology project management. Finally, as it seems technology is a part of every state initiative these days, the survey digs into the technology acquisition process and how states define a technology procurement.

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2024 Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study

As information has become ever more central to how government functions, the role of the state chief information security officer (CISO) has continued to grow in importance. This year’s survey, which includes responses from CISOs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, reflects a more sophisticated—and dangerous—cyber threat environment. Moreover, the emergence of AI and Generative AI as critical technologies present opportunities as well as new risks for states seeking to keep data secure.

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