THANK YOU FOR SUBSCRIBING
Gov CIO Outlook Weekly Brief
Be first to read the latest tech news, Industry Leader's Insights, and CIO interviews of medium and large enterprises exclusively from Gov CIO Outlook
Bill Zielinski, Chief Information Officer, City of DallasFor over three decades, Bill Zielinski has been serving the federal IT industry and has served in multiple departments, including the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the General Services Administration (GSA), as well as the Executive Office of the President (EOP). Zielinski is currently serving as Chief Information Officer for the City of Dallas, where he is advancing cyber security and removing technological debt.
Please share with our readers your current roles and responsibilities as a Chief Information Officer.
As the Chief Information Officer at the City of Dallas, I mostly oversee the IT operations. The City of Dallas is the ninth largest city in the nation with about 1.3 to 1.4 billion population with a wide range of departments, including police, fire, IT, animal services, airport operations, and so on. In terms of the IT department, we have a relatively centralized IT department. We have a single data center and we run our core city network out of that data center. Also, the Chief Information Security Officer is within the department and we are responsible for IT security, which is no small challenge in the in today’s increasingly risk cyber environment. We also work closely with each city department to understand the needs and IT capabilities required to utilize technology to deliver all the vital city services.
Can you share some of the challenges you face in the technology space on a daily basis?
One of the challenges that I face is keeping up with the rapid advancement of technology. Technology is always advancing, therefore incorporating new technologies in delivering services is a high desire for our departments. These technologies include new IoT devices, monitors, cameras, and sensors. Deploying these technologies throughout the city, utilizing them to improve the delivery of services, and being able to keep up with those technologies to understand the market and implement them to improve service is one of our prime areas of concentration. We also try to incorporate artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and data sciences to convert data into actionable insights. For example, incorporating smart metering in water utility services helps to understand the normal pattern of water delivery. This enables proactive detection of anomalies that may occur.
"In the next few years, municipalities and cities may transition from reactive to proactive service delivery by using technologies to anticipate individual needs before they arise."
Another challenge we face is while we strive to incorporate these new technologies, it's crucial to ensure that we do so in an equitable manner and a manner that is mindful of resident privacy. Every resident of the city deserves the best services available to them, but we face challenges due to inequities in the distribution of telecommunication services throughout the city.
As a municipality, having consistent and steady funding to maintain services and applications at a high level is another challenge. Technical debt is a classic problem where systems that were great ten years ago become a risk due to lack of care and maintenance. So consistent funding is a necessity to ensure that we can continuously update, upgrade, and maintain our systems to avoid failures and maintain security.
What is your piece of advice to your fellow peers?
I think as leaders in civic technology, we need to understand the needs of our communities and strive to deliver equitable services. It is essential to take into account the experiences of our residents, and businesses and ensure we are fiercely focused on delivering those services for their intended purposes. The most significant value I received from my career is that the work I do in the public sector improves the lives of people - the residents, businesses, and visitors within the city. So always keep in mind that everything we do is intended to benefit somebody.
What are some of the future trends that could be noticed in the tech space in the following years?
As far as technology is concerned, the maturation and improvement in network technologies – their speed, and capabilities, as well as in technology related to the cloud, Artificial Intelligence, and IoT are leading the next wave of innovations in municipal technology. By combining these technologies we will be able to deliver proactive services. In the next few years, municipalities and cities may transition from reactive to proactive service delivery by using technologies to anticipate individual needs before they arise. These technologies would also reinvent the delivery of local government services. However, we also need to remember that with these advancements comes risk. Cities will continue to be a target for ransomware attacks. And I think while we move forward with the deployment of these technologies, we must keep our eyes on security, ensuring our systems are secure and guarding the privacy of our residents.
Read Also
