Consolidation leads to improved identity tools in Louisiana

Nearly half a decade after Louisiana kicked off its consolidation initiative in 2014, the state is preparing for single sign-on for state employees.

“We embarked, shortly after we began our consolidation initiative in 2014, on a process to construct an enterprise architecture that’s comprised of seven core components,” says Dickie Howze, Louisiana’s chief information officer, in a video interview. “We plan to use that for all of our modernization initiatives going forward.”

Since 2014, the state Office of Technology Services implemented the contracts for its enterprise architecture. The move enabled the state to operate in a faster, more efficient manner, Howze says.

“We no longer build it in silos, so we’re going to buy it once, and then use it many times,” Howze says.

The architecture will also hopefully lay the groundwork for a new identity and access management opportunity for the state, the CIO says.

“We believe that our customer base will be excited to only have a single user ID and a password to remember,” Howze says. “Then, OTS will handle access to any system in our environment at a later date only by virtue of only having to utilize that one single access.”

Howze on his top priorities:

Howze on cybersecurity:

Howze on modernization:

Howze looking ahead:

These videos were produced by StateScoop at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers annual conference in San Diego, California, in October 2018.