Tech Transformation in Counties

Tyler Podcast Episode 91, Transcript

Our Tyler Technologies podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Each episode highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give the podcast a listen today and subscribe.

Show Notes

On this episode of The Tyler Tech Podcast, Rita Reynolds, CIO at NACo (the National Association of Counties) unveils groundbreaking initiatives aimed at transforming how counties harness technology for accessibility, security, and real-world impact. From innovative workforce strategies to crucial strides in digital transformation, Rita shares insights and practical wisdom that are truly reshaping the landscape of local government. Get ready for a thought-provoking discussion filled with tangible strategies and inspiring anecdotes straight from the forefront of county tech innovation.

We also look ahead to Connect 2024, which will be in Indianapolis, Indiana, from May 19th to May 22nd. Registration is now open at: www.tylertech.com/connect

Learn more about the topics discussed in this episode with these resources:

• White Paper: Is Your Legacy Digital Infrastructure Putting You at Risk?
• NACo Resources
• Tyler Technologies & NACo: Modernized Systems from a Connected County
• Additional Resources for Counties
• Blog: Is it Time for Your County to Move to the Cloud?
• Webinar: Making Data Accessible to Residents

And you can listen to other episodes of the podcast at this link: www.tylertech.com/resources/podcast

Let us know what you think about the Tyler Tech Podcast in this survey!

Transcript

Rita Reynolds: This is so critical now from a cybersecurity and continuity perspective, as well as what our resident’s expectations are these days.

We know, from looking at the antiquated systems that counties are still using, that the security prevention is much harder and in some cases near to impossible to put in place. And so that is an imperative in order to protect and strengthen the guardrails around your systems, you need to modernize.

Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, it's The Tyler Tech Podcast, your source for insightful conversations with thought leaders addressing the pressing issues in our communities.

I'm Josh Henderson, and I'm on the corporate marketing team here at Tyler. Thanks for joining us.

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On today's episode, we're joined by a very special guest, Rita Reynolds.

Rita is the CIO of NACo, or the National Association of Counties, and is someone whose expertise and leadership are reshaping the technological landscape of county governance across the country.

Throughout her time at NACo, Rita has spearheaded initiatives aimed at making technology more accessible, secure, and impactful.

And today, Rita dives into those initiatives, including workforce recruitment and retention, modernization and digital transformation, local government innovation, data governance, digital equity, and much, much more.

You do not want to miss this one. So, without further ado, let's jump right into my conversation with Rita Reynolds. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Rita, thanks so much for joining me on The Tyler Tech Podcast today.

Rita Reynolds: Absolutely. It's my pleasure to be here, and I'm looking forward to sharing with you and your audience some of our county technology priorities. So, thanks again for having me.

Josh Henderson: So, we're so excited to have you on the podcast. And first, just kind of wanted to touch on your professional career. So, how did you find your way to NACo, and what, you know, what excites you most about the work that you're doing at the association as CIO?

Rita Reynolds: Well, that's a great question, and it is quite an interesting journey for sure. I started out over 37 years ago working in county government.

First ten years I spent as a consultant in Pennsylvania working with county youth agencies on fiscal and computer setups and design for their reporting. And through those relationships, I came to know the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

And they had a division or an affiliate that focused on children and youth, and they asked me to apply for the deputy director position, which I did. And was able to move into that position for a couple years, but then moved over into the IT director/ CIO position that I held at CCAP for well over 20 years and focused on, of course, rightsizing the internal IT operations, but then working with county IT leaders across Pennsylvania on what was important to them, helping form a network and also helping to craft programs that would benefit the counties throughout Pennsylvania.

A number of those programs were software related, in terms of aggregate agreements, but we also designed a criminal justice system, a unified case management system during that time. And throughout those years, I would go to NACo events.

And that's how I became familiar with NACo and the work that NACo was doing.

Just so happened that, I wasn't even looking for it, but the position opened up for CIO at NACo in 2019, and I applied. It was really a natural transition doing what I was doing in Pennsylvania to now, providing that same type of service and programming to counties across the United States. And so, the excitement which continues, is growing the network of county IT leaders.

We call it the NACo tech exchange, and we have over 1100 members, individual members now. It's great to see the interaction and, response that they have with each other, and it's really encouraging to see the work that NACo is doing is providing that platform for them. The other exciting thing right now, of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention it, is that we're in a world of transition with technology, not just with cybersecurity, which has been an ongoing concern, but now with artificial intelligence and generative AI. I would, I could spend a whole podcast talking about that, but it has revolutionized and is changing how county government is going to be doing business, even now and into the future. So that's pretty exciting and probably the most exciting point in my career in technology.

Josh Henderson: That's great. That's great. Yeah. You know, we love our associations partners here at Tyler Technologies, and, obviously, NACo is a huge one of those. And, you know, NACo has a comprehensive list of of technology priorities, you know, 2024 and and yearly or annually. They put that out. I'm curious if you can tell me a little bit about the priorities list and how those get decided on at the association?

Rita Reynolds: Yeah. Great question. And thank you, as well for being a partner with NACo. We value that partnership. And the counties, as you know, many of them use the Tyler products. And so, there's a lot of dialogue and interaction and engagement that happens there as well. In terms of the priorities, we do have a list of ten priorities.

And each year, we survey the tech exchange as well as the NACo IT standing, as well as our county technology advisory council. Ultimately, that list of ten priorities is validated by the council and then also rearranged depending on what the results came back from the survey out to those other groups within NACo county membership.

And I have to say that for a while now, cybersecurity has led the list as number one.

This year, IT talent recruitment and retention is number two. Data governance has moved up, in the third spot. There are others, of course, that include digital transformation and modernization as well as digital equity. And instead of having a standalone artificial intelligence priority, it is spread throughout.

That was one piece of feedback from the council that was repeated over and over again, that artificial intelligence isn't necessarily a standalone priority because it permeates everything. And so, we have references through artificial of artificial intelligence throughout a number of the priorities.

Josh Henderson: Yeah. I was going to say, we're going to touch on, you know, a bunch of these priorities throughout this conversation. And, obviously, cybersecurity and AI, those are going to be throughlines through it all. So, I'm sure we'll touch on that quite a bit. But I wanted to focus right now on the IT talent recruitment and retention. What would you say what are some strategies you would say government organizations should be utilizing when approaching retention and recruitment?

Rita Reynolds: And this has been a topic of recent conversations and is also a theme for our CIO Forum that we're having later this summer in Tampa at the NACo annual conference, which, the CIO Forum is a pre-conference. It'll be on July 11th. And the theme has to do with workforce recruitment and retention.

There are a number of strategies, of course, and they can vary based on the size of the county and the location of the county and access to resources. But what I want to do is touch on five that I've identified that I think are pretty common and achievable regardless of any of those differences. The first is partnerships.

Talent, IT talent and recruitment is a difficult area these days, even more so than it ever has been. And no offense, competition with private industry doesn't make it any easier. And so, partnerships, whether it's partnering with municipalities or educational institutions or even, you know, corporate partners is really critical in helping broaden that landscape of where you can recruit and also how to retain IT talent. And so, it might be a shared position between the county and the municipalities for a position like data analyst or data strategist or a position of cybersecurity, as we call it, the CISO, the security officer.

So that's number one. Number two is providing educational opportunities, and you'll hear me say this probably in a couple places. While a county can't compete with industry standard salaries, necessarily, and that does vary. What they can do is provide the opportunities for continuing education, whether it's online courses or certifications, encouraging their IT staff to make to avail themselves to those different opportunities and covering that cost.

That's seen more as I I want to say once and done, but an annual cost that doesn't necessarily grow like a salary would.

Another strategy, and I've really seen a lot of success in this area, is with internships and apprenticeships.

So, it ties back to partnerships, with a local educational institution potentially.

But identifying here's an area where I can hire interns or an intern becoming an apprentice so that, one, they can see what it's like to work in local government, and two, we can test them out, and see if they are a good fit for this position and give them the opportunity then to be, don't say temporary, but part-time and or temporary and then grow into a full-time position.

Another area that I like to call the bonus area, and I've used this for so many years, is making sure your IT staff that you have in place have the tools they need to do their job. It's easier for the IT director or the CIO to say, yes, I will approve that tool because I know it's going to improve your productivity.

And then you also do feel valued as an employee that I have the tools that I need to do a great job.

Finally, this is one that we'll probably touch on a little bit more later, is flexibility.

It's been interesting over the years when I started talking about telework in, like, 2009, 2010 and the receptiveness back then was, like, zero, in in government. You needed to have the person in the office, in the chair, doing their work. And fast forward over the years, especially with more recent events like the pandemic, flexibility with remote work has definitely become more acceptable and has grown in use, especially with IT staff. Not all IT staff can work remotely, and some, maybe a developer, for example, could work remotely five days a week. But what we're seeing is that by offering that flexibility, you're going to get better recruitment and also, more recruitment from a diversity perspective.

And I'm referring to some of the demographics and, generational issues that we deal with, especially with women that that tend to be the caretaker in the home. I think that's changing for sure. But by having the flexibility in that area to be able to remote work, you're going to keep IT staff longer. So those are a number of strategies that we promote and also, encourage counties to look at.

Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more of The Tyler Tech Podcast.

Jade Champion: I hope you're enjoying listening to this episode of The Tyler Tech Podcast. My name is Jade Champion, and I'm here with Breanna Case to talk all things Tyler Connect 2024 in Indianapolis from May 19th to May 22nd.

Breanna Case: That's right, Jade. Our annual user conference is quickly approaching, and there's still time to register if you haven't already.

Jade Champion: And we have so much planned for this year, from special events to amazing speakers and plenty of networking opportunities. What are some highlights for 2024?

Breanna Case: We are really excited about some of the speakers we have coming to this stage. This year, you'll get to hear from best-selling author and FutureThink CEO, Lisa Bodell, chef and author Jeff Henderson, as well as Black Ambition CEO, Felecia Hatcher.

Jade Champion: I also heard comedian Leanne Morgan will be performing at our Client Appreciation Event. We hope you're just as excited as we are to join us in Indy, where we're expecting over 5000 attendees and more than 800 sessions including product training and general education classes. If you still need to register, now's the time. Go to tylertech.com/connect. Now let's get back to The Tyler Tech Podcast.

Josh Henderson: I wanted to go back a little bit to the to the modernization side of things and sort of from a county perspective and also, you know, understanding constraints, potential lack of resources. Obviously, those are those are concerns or challenges for counties. But, you know, in an ideal world, how should county governments be approaching modernization and digital transformation initiatives?

Rita Reynolds: As I thought on this question, I came up with three words, with a vengeance.

And I say that in all sincerity, this is so critical now from a cybersecurity and continuity perspective, as well as what our residents' expectations are these days.

We know, from looking at the antiquated systems that counties are still using, that the security prevention is much harder and in some cases near to impossible to put in place. And so that is an imperative, in order to protect and strengthen the guardrails around your systems, you need to modernize.

All of that aside, residents are expecting 24/7 services and online services. I'm just as that and not in a bad way but expect that just like anyone else. And it's not necessarily during the daytime when the county offices are open. It's evenings, it’s weekends, it's when someone can't sleep at night, oh, I've got to go take care of this. What does the county provide? And having that online is extremely critical in the digital world that we're in and we're not going back. And so, county government really needs to approach that with a vengeance, but from a prioritization perspective.

And keep in mind, by showing a response in that area, becoming more digitally available to the county residents, your brand, your county brand is going to improve.

We don't often think of brand of a county and residents don't always know what the county provides. But by putting these services online, your brand awareness is going to go up.

Josh Henderson: That's a really interesting thought, actually, the brand awareness of it all, I mean, it's you don't really think of counties as brands, but, essentially, you got to put yourself out there as one and make yourself look good, in the process. So really interesting stuff. So, another initiative that's I'm certain is probably top of mind for you is, IT strategy and roadmap as CIO. What approaches should agencies be taking to align their IT strategy and workforce development goals?

Rita Reynolds: Well, I really like that question, especially this podcast coming on the heels of a publication that we just put out a couple months ago. Over the past two years, the council has been putting together what we call technology guides for county leaders. Not technical documents, but a document in five different areas starting with cyber and ending with IT strategy and roadmap. And the guide basically summarizes why you should be in the line, in this case, with the county strategy, but then what are the top benefits for doing that, and then what are the top questions that accounting leaders should be asking their IT support or their CIO or IT director?

And so, it is top of mind. I'm hearing more and more from county IT leaders that, hey, we've never had to do this type of roadmap or strategy decades ago, but now we do. Can you help and guide us or give us suggestions?

And the reason for doing it and making sure you're in a line with the county strategy is, of course, cost effectiveness, awareness of efficiencies that can be done at an enterprise level rather than individual department levels, and then also making aware to elected officials, okay, here are the challenges that we're facing in IT and here are ways in which we believe those challenges can be addressed. And, yes, some of them are going to cost money.

However, if we don't do this, here's the risk that we run. And so, by aligning that strategy, you automatically are going to identify the workforce needs that you feel you have to have in place in order to meet those goals.

So, definitely top of mind, and we will be doing more education and training in that area over the coming years for sure.

Josh Henderson: That's wonderful. And, you know, of course, I think also one of the initiatives is resiliency, and I think resiliency kind of runs through all of these for counties. From your perspective, you know, how would you say counties assess or should assess and mitigate risks to ensure security and continuity in the face of potential disruptions or a potential disruption?

Rita Reynolds: Great question. And even more important now with what I would call the rise of generative AI.

First and foremost, an area that I've been promoting, I’ve use the word promoting for a very long time, is a data asset inventory.

You have to know where your data is, and you have to know what type of data it is in order to better protect it. I'll real quickly go back. It's been probably over ten years now that cyber insurance has been around. The very first questionnaire was, how many records do you have that we need to protect?

And I'm like, okay. Do a SQL query on this database. Okay. This is how many records we have multiplied by three tables. There you go. There's your number. That is not the case now. The questionnaires that we get are three, four pages long and very specific.

And part of the questions pertains to that data asset inventory. So that's number one. Number two, the security piece and continuity pieces, access controls. Go back a long time ago and maybe not too long ago, everybody in the county might have had access to way more than they needed to or should have access to, all the way up to the elected official.

And I could go into sharing lots of situations where the server was under the desk of a director and everybody had the password to get into the system. That no longer is an appropriate approach. It is not a best practice. And so, having access controls on who within your county as well as your consultants and your providers, what do they have access to when they are working with the county systems? And then the final one I'll share for today is constant monitoring.

Monitoring tools are needed and it's not just the traditional type of tools that say, hey, here's a problem, take a look at it. It's the tools that can immediately mitigate and quarantine and in some cases, wipe out the threat that is coming through. And so, counties need to be looking at the tools that they do have in place and making sure that they are keeping with the standards and the type of tools that we need to have in place for monitoring.

Josh Henderson: That's great. And, you know, you need some amount of buy-in from county leaders and from the workforce within counties to, you know, to accept any sort of change, to be innovative in their approaches.

How would you say local governments should be encouraging workforce participation and community collaboration in efforts to innovate or modernize?

Rita Reynolds: Two words, change management. And when there is collaboration within the county with the departments being affected or the departments that are driving the change with IT as well as residents and whether it's residents that are coming through the human services agencies or criminal justice, when you are working together and saying we want to make a change here and we would like you to be, you know, integral to it, what are your thoughts, here's what, what we're presenting as the change. That solution is going to be more successful.

Another component of that as well, from a collaborative perspective, is that you must have senior leader buy-in. Not only senior leader buy-in, but senior leader leadership to say, we are going to move this forward. And then the next tier has to agree with that and has to feel a part of the solution.

The final piece from a collaborative perspective is we need to keep in mind that change does come hard to quite a few individuals, all of us as a matter of fact. And if someone has been doing their job for 20 years the same way every day, they may find every reason not to make the change. I've seen where there's been success with individuals because they were included.

And then I've seen areas where even though they were included, you're never going to get everyone to collaborate. And so, what you have to do is look to the higher good, focus on the senior leadership that is available and also reinforcing the direction you want to go. So, it is very important for the success of just about any project.

Josh Henderson: Absolutely. Absolutely. Now this has been such a great conversation, Rita, and I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with us on all of these amazing priorities and and things that you're working on counties with. It's all really, really important stuff and obviously really important from our perspective as well. But lastly, I wanted to touch on the digital equity priority. That's one that really stands out to me, on this list of initiatives.

Tell me a little bit about how NACo is defining digital equity and why it's a continued priority for the association.

Rita Reynolds: Sure.

As you know, internet access has been an issue for a long time. And so NACo embarked on at least trying to help improve the situation and also represent counties at a national level. This goes back a number of years as well to what we call the tested app that NACo in collaboration with a provider, developed so that counties could actually test, do I really have Internet access here even though all of the maps are saying I do? And so that data, has been able to be fed back at the federal level to share, these all might not be, these maps might not be quite accurate. And so NACo has had a great influence in moving the ball forward in identifying gaps in terms of accessibility.

So, digital equity is accessibility, but it's also affordability.

And that's where partners come into to focus as well, in terms of providing opportunities for affordable, in this case, internet access.

And I'm focusing on that for a minute, but digital equity is more than just that, and I'll talk to that here shortly. So, affordability and right now even, the continuation of some programs is, at the forefront, making sure that those who can't afford that Internet access can continue to utilize programs that are giving them discounts, and in some cases, very low-cost access to the internet. So, it's a combination.

Now having said that with digital equity, it is a bit more in that it goes beyond just the internet access. Digital equity is so important because of the underlying use of technology in every area. And so, we need to make sure that there is digital equity for economic reasons. You know, think about educational opportunities.

Even someone today that's a student needs to have digital equity so that they can work on the goals for where, of course a student doesn't always think about goals, but they know they have a direction they want to go.

Digital inequity should not be the reason they can't get there. And so, it is a key priority. It will continue to be a key priority and especially with artificial intelligence and generative AI.

Everyone is talking about the fact that, okay, generative AI is here to stay.

Well, digital equity has to be the backbone to that if everyone, when I say everyone, students as they start to use it responsibly in in the school setting have access to it, not just at school, but when they leave school and either go home or go to the library.

So, it will continue to be a priority for NACo and not just within our tech exchange, but with our policy groups like the telecommunications and technology steering committee.

Josh Henderson: That's wonderful, Rita. Thank you again so much for joining me today on the podcast, and, we hope to have you back on again soon. This was really great.

Rita Reynolds: Well, thank you so much. I've enjoyed sharing and, of course, more than happy to share other, other topics related to technology and our county IT leaders.

Josh Henderson: That's great. Thank you so much.

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Rita Reynolds.

If you'd like to learn more about the National Association of Counties and the technology priorities discussed throughout the episode, check out our show notes for more resources.

A modern digital infrastructure allows the public sector to adapt in the digital age. From operational agility to data management and analytics, as well as cost savings, security, compliance, and scalability, governments are poised to take advantage of innovative technology to create more efficiencies in their systems and better support and connect their communities.

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For Tyler Technologies, I'm Josh Henderson. Thanks for joining The Tyler Tech Podcast.