Dr. Norman Jacknis has much experience finding innovative ways to use technology. For 10 years, he served as the CIO for Westchester Country, one of the most prosperous counties in New York State. His mission focused on working with business leaders to create real business impact from IT. Because he had extensive knowledge of the business, Dr. Jacknis used every opportunity to speak to the CEO, who he reported to, about how to improve things, some of which didn't necessarily involve technology, but management issues or policy issues. He says, "I wasn't afraid to say we can use technology here, but you first need to address this issue."
 
One of Dr. Jacknis' innovative solutions involved establishing a unit that   analyzed all of the data Westchester County collected from its transactional systems. He says, "We fed the analyzed data back to the business lines according to what actions made them successful and visa versa, based on long-term criteria. For example, the police department might look at programs that kept repeat offenders out of jail or programs that helped to prevent traffic accidents."
 
Under Dr. Jacknis leadership, Westchester County earned many technology innovation awards, including the Center for Digital Government's top ten digital countries in the country, and American City & County's Crown Communities Awards for technology. Government Technology Magazine named Dr. Jacknis as one of the country's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers who broke bureaucratic inertia to better serve the public.
 
In 2008, Dr. Jacknis left his post at Westchester County and joined a think tank within Cisco Systems, established by John Chambers, Cisco's CEO. He says, "People kept asking Chambers what they needed to do if they wanted to run a successful business such as Cisco." As director of the state and local government strategic consulting unit within Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group, Dr. Jacknis speaks to business leaders and government professionals about how to use technology in innovative ways in their organization. He says, "We don't charge anything, we don't sell anything, and we don't ever talk about products, especially Cisco's products. We are out there as strategic advisors."
 
Because many government agencies have an interest in Web 2.0 technologies, Dr. Jacknis is working on a concept within the government to take advantage of Web 2.0's collaboration capabilities. He says, "We give them examples of how it has been used successfully, how they can apply these examples to their needs, and how it is meaningful to political leaders. We might talk about the Web site Samsung set up for customers to help each other.  People trust more what they hear from other customers. In return, Samsung is getting loyal customers, and free market research."
 
In this podcast, Dr. Jacknis talks about what he did to achieve business impact of IT, how organizations can use technologies, such as Web 2.0, in new ways, and what advice he would give to CIOs who have become blindsided by innovation.

Bio
In 2008, Dr. Norman Jacknis became the director of the state and local government strategic consulting unit within Cisco Systems' Internet Business Solutions Group. For 10 years, he was the CIO and commissioner of Westchester County, New York. During this time, he served as the co-chair of the technology and architecture committee of the New York State CIO Council. He is chairman of the Fairfield-Westchester Chapter of the Society of Information Management. Dr. Jacknis continues as the technology adviser to the County Executives of America. He received all three of his degrees from Princeton University.

Resources
Government Technology - Digital Communities: Westchester County, N.Y., CIO Norman Jacknis, One of Government Technology's 25 'Doers Dreamers and Drivers'
Westchester Business Journal: High-speed Network Pays Offs for County
Westchester Gov.com Newsletter
Cisco Systems: A Platform for Preparedness: Starting the Disaster Recovery Planning Discussion

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis