CHICAGO (Sept. 7, 2017) – Acting Secretary and State CIO Hardik Bhatt will be leaving the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) after leading the digital transformation in state government for more than two years. Hardik is returning to the private sector to lead smart cities and transportation technology business for a large multinational U.S. company.
“At the beginning of my administration, I promised to deliver a 21st century government to the residents of Illinois. Hardik has been delivering on that promise by leading a digital transformation across all of state government,” Gov. Bruce Rauner said. “He has been a great leader, and we are deeply grateful for the results he has delivered on behalf of all residents in this state.”
Under Bhatt’s leadership for the past two years, the state has undertaken a digital transformation to update 45-year-old technology in four years. The work to date was recognized in the national, nonpartisan Digital States Survey, which saw Illinois move from the bottom-fourth to the top-third of all states in IT outcomes.
“It has been a great honor for me to work under the leadership of Governor Rauner, with the best team a state government can pull together, for over two years as we implemented his vision of delivering a 21st century government for residents, employees, and those who rely on the state,” Secretary Bhatt said. “I am proud of the work our team has accomplished in such a short time, and I know they will continue on this course to transform government.”
Based in Springfield, Kirk Lonbom, the Chief Information Security Officer at DoIT, will assume responsibilities as interim secretary of the department. Lonbom has a 30-year history in public service, starting as a police officer in the city of Clinton and working his way up to be the state’s first-ever CISO. Lonbom led the development of the Governor’s Cybersecurity Strategy, promising rapid responses to the evolving threat landscape across the enterprise.
“I’m honored to continue the work of Secretary Bhatt as we work to continue the transformation of state government, protect our residents, and deliver services more efficiently across government,” Lonbom said.
Secretary Bhatt will be working with the new leadership at DoIT to ensure a proper transition through the month of September.
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Information Technology Transformation Initiatives 2015-2017
Under Gov. Rauner’s leadership, DoIT was created as a new agency in July 2016 to modernize the state’s IT infrastructure, secure our sensitive data, make more efficient IT decisions, and deliver better service to residents.
· Modernizing our state administrative processes: Bhatt’s first priority after joining the administration was to launch and begin the implementation of the first-ever ERP system, allowing the State of Illinois the ability to streamline administrative processes across finance and procurement and to create transparency into state financial information, improve financial reporting and increase compliance with regulations.
· Securing personal information: Under Bhatt’s leadership and State Chief Information Security Officer Kirk Lonbom’s direction, DoIT has secured more than 5 billion personally identifiable pieces of information belonging to residents, employees, and those who work with State government, mitigating millions of dollars of cyber risk across Illinois government.
· Mobile-ready: Within the past two years, DoIT moved more than 90 percent of the state’s web presence to be available on mobile phones. Thirty-five new apps also were released on a unified interface — Illinois FIRST.
· Going paperless: In partnership with Department of Financial and Professional Regulations, business license renewal is online and mobile ready. Currently, 75 percent of licenses can be applied for online, with 95 percent of business licenses expected to be available online (and on mobile) by end of 2017.
· Advancing minority business: Gov. Rauner issued an executive order on sheltered markets, allowing DoIT to sign the first-ever sheltered market contract, which focused on improving state government operations, reducing agency operating costs, and securing more information.
· Modernizing criminal justice: In December 2015, Department of Corrections took a major leap of modernization – from mainframe to cloud – for its offender tracking system, Offender360. The new system has created tremendous efficiency and accuracy in the offender tracking process.
· Protecting children: In partnership with the Department of Children and Family Services, a mobile app for DCFS case workers allows case notes entry onsite via a mobile device. This helps avoid significant delays. This is complemented by a 360-degree view of a foster child, which also was developed using data from 10-plus health and human services systems. These systems have been recognized by the Federal CMS with an award of $56 million over the next two federal financial years to scale across the state and to other customer types (seniors, veterans, etc.).
Kirk Lonbom
Kirk Lonbom is the Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Illinois, leading a statewide transformative cybersecurity strategy for the Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology. Appointed as the State of Illinois CISO is 2015, Lonbom is providing leadership and oversight in the strategic planning, execution, and assessment of all statewide information and cyber security strategies, policies, procedures and guiding practices to be implemented by all state agencies under the governor. Lonbom began his career as a police officer, ultimately specializing in criminal intelligence focusing on organized criminal groups and terrorism. Lonbom specialized in the design of intelligence systems. Over the past 15 years, Lonbom has served as Assistant Deputy Director and Deputy Chief Information Officer for the Illinois State Police and Chief Information Officer for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.
