Sarah Palin's IT Record

With so much attention focused on Republican vice president nominee Sarah Palin's record, market research firm INPUT took the time to examine Palin's performance on IT issues as governor of Alaska. From INPUT's blog, B2G Exchange:

While the nature of Gov. Sarah Palin's, R-AK, "executive" experience will be the subject of much debate during the closing months of the presidential campaign, there is no doubt that she is the only person on a ticket who has signed budgets with state and local IT line items. As would be expected, she has employed IT pragmatically in service of her larger policy agenda.

Chris Dixon, manager for state and local industry analysis, said Palin's record on IT was on par with other governors nationwide and gave her kudos for elevating the position of chief information officer during her tenure.

"Looking at the CIO, it’s been a significant upgrade to the stature of the position," Dixon said. "[Alaska has a] CIO who can hold his own with anyone in the nation in terms of credentials."

The CIO in question is Anand Dubey, who was appointed director of enterprise technology services division for the State of Alaska in October 2007. Dubey manages a staff of 125 and is responsible for all of the network infrastructure and information technology services in Alaska. Before becoming CIO, he spent three years with the Alaska Railroad and also worked for British Petroleum.

"It used to be niche bureaucratic function, but the new CIO is finding new value and new savings," Dixon said. "Her administration has raised [the CIO] to that first tier in terms of what they’re seeking to do." Dixon added that elevating the CIO is probably the single most important and distinctive IT move made by Palin during her short term as governor.

"Most people don't think of Alaska as an IT hotbed, but the state has significant industries -- oil and transportation, which involve global commerce-level concerns and require IT support," Dixon said. He added that before Palin, it was "very quiet" on the IT administration front for many years.