WHEATON, IL – State Sen. Michael Connelly (R-Wheaton) said he appreciated Governor Bruce Rauner’s efforts to modernize state government, as both a technological update and a cost-savings measure. 
“We live in a world where the private sector and even our homes function in the ‘cloud’ and its time that we bring the State of Illinois into the 21st Century,” Connelly said. “This new executive order to transition our state’s infrastructure under one agency will improve Illinois’ ability to deliver real-time results and cost-savings to its taxpayers.”
Executive Order 16-01 established the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), which will create a strategic, statewide technology plan to accelerate Illinois’ modernization.
According to the Governor’s office, all information technology decisions and spending will be centralized and consolidated under this new agency. DoIT will develop statewide IT solutions that take a 360-degree view of a resident or business. This will allow the state to use data to provide more tailored services while reducing inefficiencies and costs to taxpayers.
Illinois still uses some systems that were designed using 1970s, and 1980s technology. “People often laugh when I tell them that some of our software still uses the old COBOL and other archaic codes,” Connelly said.
Connelly noted that Illinois is in the top five for state spending on IT but most often those monies are spent on older systems,. Twenty-nine other state, many cities and countless business enterprises centralize their IT operations.