Technology changes so rapidly that no one can build a blueprint for an ideal system. Yet systems must be built. All that's known for certain is that the product is expensive, it is important, and if serious mistakes are made, many people in state government are going to wind up looking dumb. More and more states are responding to this pressure by elevating the importance of information technology in their state's management scheme. The vast majority now have some kind of strategic IT planning process.
Quality varies widely, though.
In Hawaii, all departments establish annual plans, but nobody much looks at them after that. Utah's strategic planning methodology, on the other hand, involves all the cabinet members, who try to find ways for technological improvements to help them with their individual missions. Given the general wisdom that Year 2000 problems have crowded out funding for other major IT projects, it was surprising to discover that many states are in the process of replacing at least one major central system. Florida has a new integrated human resources system in the pilot stage. Illinois has made money available to set up a data warehouse that will give managers far easier access to a variety of information.