By Christopher Klaver
CIO
Posted: January 3, 2018 4:42 PM
From the time Governor Rick Snyder first announced he was running, he has promoted his ties to technology and throughout his tenure he has pushed for system improvements.
He has been able to hire some top technology people into the state service and has put a priority on upgrading the technology already there and integrating technology where it was not. The administration has overseen new systems to track welfare cases and moving State Police troopers from offices in post buildings to offices in their patrol cars.
For the general public, if you want to contact a state employee, you need only go to the state website and type in their name.
Unless you go to the front desk of one of the state office buildings. The technology there: large binders filled with pages of printed telephone directories.
Where names or numbers have changed, in many cases they have been updated by crossing out the old and writing in new. In some cases they have not.
This reporter recently made a security guard, flustered that he could not find the requested name to call for a staffer to escort the reporter elsewhere in the building, more flustered by letting him know that, if he had a terminal at the desk, the information was available with a simple internet search.
Mr. Snyder had kiosks that were installed under the prior administration removed, arguing that visitors to state buildings should be greeted by a person, but maybe there is room for some technology in that greeting process.