Expanding
Florida’s IT Capacity
To an ever-increasing degree,
information technology -- or IT for short -- is the backbone of
the business world.
Many corporations have discovered, to their dismay, that saving
money on information technology (IT) funding is penny wise, but
pound foolish. The state of Florida may be on the verge of learning
that same lesson the hard way. Some segments of the Florida’s
governmental IT systems are so bad and outdated that services
to citizens and business are suffering.
The computer systems at the state Department of Corrections
that control all of the state prisons and prisoners are so old
and outdated that if those systems were to crash, finding someone
who could fix them would be nigh unto impossible. The same is
the case with the computers designed to run public health and
welfare programs. The failure of one of those networks pose a
costly threat to the populace.
When Jeb Bush became governor in 1999, he immediately set about
to bring much-needed changes to the way Florida’s state
agencies finance, manage, and plan for their IT needs. Despite
the ‘e-Governor’s’ best efforts, Florida still
suffers from an outdated IT infrastructure.
Florida also lags behind many other states in per capita IT spending,
including New York, which Florida will surpass before 2010 as
the third-largest state in the Union.
Florida cannot be satisfied with a business-as-usual approach
to information technology. Despite the proliferation of cheap
PCs, IT costs are not getting cheaper. In fact, security, support,
and software licensing costs are spiraling upward.
In our state’s multilingual society, confronting the threats
of a pandemic flu, global terrorism, and sophisticated criminal
gangs, the tools must be in place to sort critical information
and quickly relay it to caregivers, first responders, government
agencies, and the general public.
Increasing state government’s IT capacity is a matter of
public safety, but it is also vital to economic development. Businesses
activity often is dependent on government. When government operates
inefficiently, it weighs down the ability of a business owner
to move forward on economically productive activities.
In addition, Florida should be developing an infrastructure that
persuades IT companies to locate their most profitable endeavors
in our state. |
