THE TECHNOLOGY-FIRST MALADY

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who works in state or local government to hear that many of our interviewees suggest – notwithstanding what ails their employer – that they’re going to solve many issues with new and improved technology. And to be sure, technology is increasingly an important part of any formula for success, and cities, counties and states that aren’t involved in improving their high-tech profile will be left behind.

Still, as a state CIO characterized his approach to his job in a recent conversation, “I’m technology last. If you start with technology first, you’re too restrictive. . .  I’m always focusing on solving the problem and meeting the need. If you can't agree on the problem at the 50,000-foot level, there's no reason to go on.”

We think he makes an excellent point. Especially in a day when AI is often thought to be a cure-all, it’s critical to first think carefully about precisely what the problem is, before starting to invest in technology that may or may not address the real issue. Yet that’s exactly what many entities do.

It’s interesting to see how many vendors of software and hardware offer themselves as providing “solutions,” which greatly oversimplifies the issues that states and localities confront. The use of that word makes it sound like whatever software they’re selling is a panacea, something like the old-fashioned salespeople who boasted that the elixirs they sold could cure whatever ails you, from tuberculosis to shattered nerves.

Consider for example, entities that are currently purchasing variations of AI in hopes that they will spit out solutions, when a critical problem they face is problematic data.  With AI, the old saying “garbage in-garbage out” should be altered to read “garbage in-garbage out faster than the twinkling of an eye.”

There are lots of reasons why unthinking reliance on technology is so common. For one thing, it appears to be a politically practical approach. A mayor can get more positive press by announcing an investment in a new high-tech innovation than by digging into a problem to figure out the cause and a smart approach to make it go away – even if that takes three or four years. The allure of a quick-fix is powerful, and most deep-seated problems that cities, states and counties face take years to solve. In the interim, a high-tech fix is easier to explain to voters than the multiple steps inherent in a thoughtful iterative approach.

In addition, no elected official wants to appear to be behind the times, when neighboring states or communities are announcing their own alluring technological solution.

Since our minds almost immediately jump to the benefits of performance management, here’s our recommendation to help ameliorate the “shoot first ask questions later” approach to technology procurements: Before acquiring any shiny new bells and whistles make sure to  clearly spell out what the actual results of the acquisition will be – and how you define success. This should be part of a clearly wrought plan before even issuing an RFP. Then, on a regular basis, do performance audits to catch any hitches along the way, before they get permanently built into the techno-structure.

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