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The Commonwealth of Virginia has been named as a finalist in three categories in the National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ (NASCIO) State Information Technology (IT) Recognition awards. The awards honor excellence in government IT services.

“Our Commonwealth is known for its leadership and innovation in information technology,” said Secretary of Administration, Dr. Keyanna Conner. “We are proud to be recognized again by our national peers for our teams’ ingenuity in how we connect and serve over 60 state agencies, 55,000 state employees and over 8.6 million Virginians.” 

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) is a finalist in two categories:

• Virginia: Pioneering a New Method of State IT Services Delivery in the category of Enterprise IT Management Initiatives, and;
• Quantitative Risk Analysis for Improved Cybersecurity Risk Management in the Cybersecurity category.

“With the support of Virginia leadership, our suppliers, agency partners and customers, VITA is continuing to lead the way in IT service delivery and cybersecurity,” said Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth and VITA agency head, Nelson Moe. “We appreciate this recognition in how our team manages our enterprise initiatives and keeps the Commonwealth’s critical data protected.” 

VITA’s new method of state IT services delivery nomination is built on its nationally-recognized transition from a single-source provider model to a multisupplier model, which has developed an adaptable, partnership-driven portfolio of available services to Virginian customers. VITA’s cybersecurity nomination recognizes the development of an innovative, quantitative risk analysis equation to define and standardize costs of cybersecurity incidents. The equation is then used to anticipate incident costs and select the best mitigation and insurance plans for appropriate coverage. 

The Office of the Chief Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia is also under consideration for its already-award-winning:

• Framework for Addiction Analysis and Community Transformation, or FAACT, in the Cross-Boundary Collaboration & Partnerships category. 

The finalist initiative is a data-sharing and self-service analytics platform developed to address opioid addiction, which has found added value in responding to the pandemic. Using the same data-sharing capabilities and cross-boundary partnerships, the platform was expanded in a matter of days and guided leaders in responding to the crisis through a statewide lens of data. The near real-time data and analytics delivered to Governor Ralph Northam and his team empowered them to pinpoint where COVID-19 cases are rising, where containment measures are working, and where future resource and supply needs may arise. 

“Our team collaborated with private organizations and multiple agencies across every level of government – federal, state, and local – to demonstrate the value of data sharing and analytics by leveraging this platform to support leaders as they respond to the opioid and COVID-19 epidemics,” said Chief Data Officer for the Commonwealth, Carlos Rivero. “We hope that with this recognition, similar partnerships across the country can build on and benefit from cross-collaborative, data-sharing methodologies.” 

Award winners will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Over 90 award nominations were received, resulting in 30 finalist selections, of which only 10 will be named as national winners. More information can be found in NASCIO’s announcement today.