State of Wisconsin IT: Destroying the Barriers to Borderless Government

Abstract

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle inherited a $3.2 billion de?cit when he took of?ce in January 2003. His plans to institute a meaningful, long-term ?x to the state’s budget problems included using technology to streamline state government and build the foundation for ongoing cost savings. State CIO Matt Miszewski assumed he would have to carry out the governor’s directive without any additional funds for information technology (IT), but then the legislature pushed through an additional $40 million cut to IT funding across state agencies. This case study describes the strategies Miszewski and his colleagues in the state’s Division of Enterprise Technology devised, and are in the process of implementing, to deal with having to do much more with considerably less.