Ensure ongoing support exists for data efforts.
Chief Data Officers can’t do the work alone, and need adequate resources to fund the baseline staff and technology infrastructure to help advance the use of data. Providing a baseline budget for a core data team and infrastructure allows a Chief Data Officer to support partner agencies that may be resource constrained. North Carolina’s legislation allows them to achieve economies of scale by building off their baseline funding to identify cost saving opportunities, recover any direct savings, and allocate them to the Government Data Analytics Center for future use.
CDOs will need to plan ahead for budget cycles, understanding their needs to maintain baseline services, and ensuring that their technology stack is properly maintained, kept up to date, and able to adapt to shifting needs. Additionally, CDOs will need to demonstrate the value they add in quantifiable metrics. For instance, the Indiana Management and Performance Hub identifies in it’s annual report that for every dollar invested in the MPH, it generates four dollars in value.
Funding Example: North Carolina:
Funding. - The Department of Information Technology, with the support of the Office of State Budget and Management, shall identify and make all efforts to secure any matching funds or other resources to assist in funding the GDAC. Savings resulting from the cancellation of projects, software, and licensing, as well as any other savings from the utilization of the GDAC, shall be returned to the General Fund and shall remain unexpended and unencumbered until appropriated by the General Assembly in a subsequent fiscal year. It is the intent of the General Assembly that expansion of the GDAC in subsequent fiscal years be funded with these savings and that the General Assembly appropriate funds for projects in accordance with the priorities identified by the State CIO.
(f)Reporting. - The State CIO shall: (1)On or before March 1 of each year, submit and present a report on the activities described in this section to the Chairs of the House of Representatives Appropriations and Senate Base Budget/Appropriations Committees, to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology, and to the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly. The report shall include the following:
a.A description of project funding and expenditures, cost savings, cost avoidance, efficiency gains, process improvements, and major accomplishments. Cost savings and cost avoidance shall include immediate monetary impacts as well as ongoing projections.
b.A description of the contribution of funds or resources by those private entities which are participating in public-private partnerships under this section, including, but not limited to, knowledge transfer and education activities, software licensing, hardware and technical infrastructure resources, personnel resources, and such other resources as agreed upon by the State and the private entity.
(2)Report the following information upon its occurrence or as requested:
a. Any failure of a State agency to provide information requested pursuant to this section. The failure shall be reported to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology and to the Chairs of the House of Representatives Appropriations and Senate Base Budget/Appropriations Committees.
b. Any additional information to the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations and the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology that is requested by those entities.
States may desire to partner with academic institutions or other non-government organizations to supplement their research and analytics capabilities. States like California and Colorado have established policy labs in partnership with local universities. These partnerships allow them to supplement their capacity with data scientists and researchers to better evaluate the effectiveness of public policy. Connecticut has established a partnership with a non profit, the CT Data Collaborative, to enhance public access to data and to train state and non profit employees in data literacy. Support for such public-private partnerships through legislation signals that the executive and legislative branches value this type of collaboration and sharing of knowledge and resources.
(2)Public-private partnerships. The GDAC may utilize public-private partnerships and existing data integration and analytics contracts and licenses as appropriate to continue the implementation of the initiative. Private entities that partner with the State shall make appropriate contributions of funds or resources, including, but not limited to, knowledge transfer and education activities, software licensing, hardware and technical infrastructure resources, personnel resources, and such other appropriate resources as agreed upon by the parties.