"As a CIO you have to master the art of working with people and provide solutions to their problems"

PHIL BERTOLINI
CIO& Deputy County Executive
Oakland County

Phil Bertolini was appointed as Deputy County Executive/CIO for Oakland County in January 2005. He is a vocal advocate for cloud and enterprise solutions in government, cross-boundary resource sharing, and inter-jurisdictional cooperation. Phil has overseen the development of unique government technology programs, such as the G2G Cloud Solutions Initiative. He has also promoted his philosophy of “Build it once, pay for it once, and everybody benefits” to many government agencies, including those within the U.S., Australia and Dubai. Phil was recognized by the President Obama in White House as a Champion of Change for 2012.

Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 & expectations.

The biggest challenge we will have in 2013 is creating a balance between the uses of mobile business applications and managing security. As CIOs, we could tighten our security down so much that we will struggle to deliver innovative applications that help us deliver services. In doing so, we would frustrate our business users to a point where IT could be perceived as
blocking value to the organization. As a CIO I am looking forward to the providers delivering sound device management solutions that will allow innovative solutions to end users.

The areas in business environment where solutions do not exist or not up to the mark, and which if existed, would've made job easier.

Lately, many providers have been touting their cloud solutions for anything that impacts our organization. When you look back, there are not many solutions that you expect. Some providers want to improve their products while they engage an end user. They also have licensing models that do not promote sharing technology services. If the innovation cycle and the licensing models are a bit behind, then we need to work together to get it done. Therefore, a CIO must keep everything in perspective.

Technology Trends Impacting Enterprise Business Environment.

There are two trends that will have significant impact on our organization. First is mobility. Mobility impacts every business unit of county government. In that we have hundreds of employees delivering services across our 910 square miles of geography. We have food inspectors, law enforcement officials, public health nurses serving over 1.2 million residents. They must have mobile applications that get their jobs done in an effective manner.
The second trend is BYOD. Allowing almost 4,000 employees to bring their own devices to work poses significant issues. We have to balance security issues with the benefits of not having to provide corporate devices. Bringing personal devices to work will increase productivity and lower capital costs in the future.

My roles and responsibilities as a CIO.

My role as a CIO has changed over the years. In the beginning of my tenure, technology was not as intertwined with the business as it is today. My technology career began as the Director of Information Technology and moved up to a CIO to position IT decisions at the highest level of decision making. Our County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson, wanted to ensure that all decisions included necessary technology components. In recent years my role made me enhance skills that will enable us to better serve the citizens.

Lessons learned as a CIO that can help you.

The lesson over my 12 years at the helm of Oakland County IT is that it is not technology but the people that drive change. I have found that working with people that we serve, creates value for the organization and also the most difficult hurdles to jump. County government is a very large service entity that employs large numbers of employees to serve constituents. As CIO you
have to work with people and provide solutions to their problems. Technology does the most and people make it work.