Ep.149 CIO Playbook: Proactive Strategies for Customer Service Success

Joe Toste [00:00:00]:
Hey, what's up everybody? This is Joe Toste from techtables.com and you're listening to the public sector show by techtables. This podcast features human centric stories from public sector, cios, cisos and technology leaders across federal, state, city, county and higher education. You'll gain valuable insights into current issues and challenges faced by top leaders through interviews, speaking engagements, live podcast tour events. We offer you a behind the mic look at the opportunities top lead. Yours are seen today. And to make sure you never miss an episode, head over to Spotify and Apple podcasts. Hit that follow button and leave a quick rating. Just tap the number of stars that you think this show deserves.

Joe Toste [00:00:34]:
Today we have John Fowler, CIO of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which is very long, and I will now refer to it as TDLR for the rainy part of this podcast. And we have Kenny Wright, chief of process improvement at TDLR, and Daryl Tompkins, CIO of the Texas Water Development Board. Welcome to the podcast.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:00:53]:
Thanks, Joe.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:00:54]:
Appreciate it.

Joe Toste [00:00:55]:
Daryl, this is your second time coming on the podcast.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:00:57]:
It is, and I'm very thankful to be back. I appreciate it, Joe. Enjoy it.

Joe Toste [00:01:02]:
Just as a quick side note, it's been awesome to get to know Daryl. I ran the Austin half marathon, which, fun fact, you're like, these podcasts digress a lot. They really do. And so why it's funny to me is because in the morning, I started out in downtown Austin. This is like Congress and third, something like that. And I hear Joe tech tables and it's meg from Accenture. And she is, how do I put it? One really fit woman. Because the smoked me and I ran the half and she ran the full.

Joe Toste [00:01:34]:
And just 3 miles in or 2 miles in takes off. And then I was like looking at her time when she finished. I'm looking at my time when I finished. I was just like laughing at myself. So she's a fantastic runner. But that after ended, after the half marathon ended, then Daryl came into downtown Austin and we went to a bar, which is fantastic and had a great.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:01:57]:
Relaxation because you got to drink after a marathon, right?

Joe Toste [00:02:01]:
I was dehydrated. I really had to drink. I was really dehydrated. So, John, let's kick off with you. For those who don't know you, a little bit of background with TDLR. And if you want your previous.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:02:14]:
Yeah, I mean, I've only been at TDLR for about 1617 months, so I can spell licensing now, but I'm still struggling with a little bit. Prior to that, I was at the Texas Workforce Commission ran the unemployment insurance system for the state of Texas. I guess my biggest claim to fame might be running that through during the pandemic. So I was there for 17 years, heard somebody else say, I'm not for sure how I ended up where I am. I never intended to be in state service. Ended up taking a full time job at TWC back in four and fell in love with public service. So I feel like I'm where I need to be. TDR is a tremendous opportunity.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:02:49]:
Grateful to be working for Mike Harris, Mendez, or Ed.

Joe Toste [00:02:53]:
Yeah, and shout out to Mike. Unfortunately, he could not make it today. He really wanted to. He came on the podcast, just a great human being and highly recommend listening to that podcast. And John's being very humble right now because we talked about the unemployment claims. What was it, 55 billion going out the door?

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:03:13]:
Yeah, that's what the state paid out during the pandemic. In a normal year, to put it in context, was probably three to 4 billion. So it was like an entire legislative session about every three months. If you know anybody in the UI industry, they're exhausted.

Joe Toste [00:03:27]:
Kenny, thank you for coming down. I really appreciate it. This is fantastic. I love Kenny's tie. I love it, too. I won't steal the tie, I promise. But for those who don't know you, a little bit of background with TDLR and kind of where you're at today.

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:03:41]:
So a little bit of background. I started with TDLR probably eight years ago. I initially was in the private sector I worked for at t. I also worked for a small company called Genesis Network Integration Services, and then I decided to transition into the public sector. I wanted to spend more know raising my know working in the private sector. I rarely got to spend time with him and see him, and he was growing up really fast. And so I took a position at TDLR as their first project manager in it. And just over the years, I moved up the ranks to now being a part of the executive office as the chief process improvement officer.

Joe Toste [00:04:21]:
Awesome. Daryl, just a quick background on yourself. We do want everyone to listen to the first podcast, but, yeah, just a little bit of sure.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:04:28]:
So. Well, first, I'm a University of Houston alum, so go cougs. And there was a lot. It was more basketball heavy earlier in the morning when we were talking kind of final four, but it was sad to see u of h go out, but really happy with what Kelvin Sampson is doing with that program. He's doing a great job. Also a huge Longhorn fan, because I've spent the majority of my life.

Joe Toste [00:04:50]:
I'm so confused right now.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:04:51]:
Right? I am. I spent most of my life in Austin, and so I was kind of pulling for both of them, but I think that they're really going in the right trajectory, both programs, so that's good. But yeah, I went to hotel and restaurant management program at U of H. Like John said and a lot of others said, I kind of just lucked into this. I worked 20 years in the luxury hospitality industry for four seasons hotels and resorts. And through that time, I had an opportunity to get into it. I kind of fell into it, and I loved it and great company, but kind of similar to what Kenny was saying, I was looking for more quality of life change at that point. And so all of us have had staffing problems, selling point for working for the state.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:05:41]:
Good quality of life. It's really nice. So then I made the jump over to working for the state of Texas, the Texas Water Development Board, and I'm currently the CIO there. And I have to say, working for four seasons customer service, elite customer service, is in my DNA. And I was honestly a little worried about that when I came over to working for the state. I'm like, gosh, how am I going to come across? How's this going to fit in? But I'll say that what I found there is a group of people that are incredibly passionate and deeply care about the mission of what we're doing. And so though it may not be a culture that was just set on around customer service because they care so much about the mission, and I think you see that in a lot of public sector groups, it results in great customer service. So it ended up working out great.

Joe Toste [00:06:35]:
Yeah, no, that is fantastic. My earlier days, I worked at a hotel, so I definitely have that. John. Mike Eris Mendez. I know you're going to laugh at me, but I'm still going to say it.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:06:48]:
Yeah, don't say it.

Joe Toste [00:06:50]:
We on camera, right? Okay, cool. So, Mike Aris Mendez, the executive director at TDLR, said you were a first round draft pick. No pressure, some big words. He said you understand the technical aspects and you talk in dummy terms. His words, not mine. In your last role at the Texas workforce Commission, you were the director of application development and maintenance, where you managed a team, the unemployment insurance system, during the COVID pandemic to the tune of 55 billion. I'd love to dive into reflecting on your time there. What are maybe two or two to three lessons you learned from your experience that you're now taking back or taking.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:07:28]:
To TDLR well, I would echo what several people said here today. First and foremost, the state is full of dedicated, talented people, and lots of agencies had to stand up and do a lot of amazing things during the pandemic. And I had a fantastic team over there. And when people ask me, well, how's TDLR going? I say, great people, old systems, and it's similar across many agencies within the state of Texas. That's first and foremost, though. So we have a great team at TDLR and a great team at TWC. Secondarily is, I would say we have to meet our customers where they are today. And I've had a saying forever at TWC, which is systems implemented in the mentality, and that's sort of what we live with, and that's our challenge.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:08:25]:
And we're not meeting our external customers where they are today, nor our internal customers. And so we have to work and have systems that meet the speed of change of the world. And so coupled with that, then the other biggest lesson is we don't need to reinvent the wheel. There are systems out there. We need to leverage technology and partners and vendors and solutions that exist so that we're not starting from ground zero, because today, that's a recipe for disaster. For large, custom built systems, that just doesn't happen.

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:08:58]:
So, sounds like you're trying to navigate this next RFO a little bit.

Joe Toste [00:09:02]:
Maybe everyone perked up now.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:09:05]:
Oh, yeah.

Joe Toste [00:09:06]:
Kenny. So Mike sent this fantastic email about you, and it was pretty amazing. Should I read it?

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:09:13]:
No, please don't. Please don't.

Joe Toste [00:09:15]:
My wife was like, you should read this. This is awesome. Who's Kenny? And I was like, you're having to explain the background, so I'm going to touch a little bit. He said, you've got a deep background in it. Throughout your history. You and John are heading up the new licensing system project that will set the trajectory of the agency for the next 20 to 25 years. What makes this project so special when compared to some of the other projects that you've taken on in your career?

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:09:37]:
No pressure at all.

Joe Toste [00:09:39]:
There's none.

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:09:40]:
The huge difference for me, honestly, is the fact that it is affecting the constituents of Texas. It's the license fees that we're impacting. I think another big thing for me is that it is a project that we're focusing on. Our staff, our people, the folks that I have to look at every single day that are struggling with our current systems that we have in place right now. We have an opportunity this time around to develop a solution that will make things easier for them that will make the processes more seamless. They always talk about all the manual processes that they have to deal with, all of the paper that they have to deal with. This is our opportunity to introduce some latest and greatest technology to hopefully make the job more seamless for them. I think that is the most important thing for me.

Joe Toste [00:10:23]:
Awesome. There's another really big project going on. I'm plugging my own podcast episode. Okay. Yeah. So Dan, Texas Dan came on the podcast and it was kind of a very similar thing of this legacy, getting rid of the paper and trying to modernize at the secretary of state's office. Thank you. Short plug.

Joe Toste [00:10:43]:
There's over 130 episodes of podcasts. So you knew my brain is like mush by 425 right now. And I don't know if you've had a chance to connect with Dan yet.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:10:53]:
I have.

Joe Toste [00:10:54]:
Okay. Yeah, Dan's absolutely fantastic. Have you been to the chili parlor in Texas, in Austin?

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:10:58]:
I have been there. Of course.

Joe Toste [00:10:59]:
That's where business gets done, let me tell you. Is that that chili parlor is. I met with Dan and Tracy Cotton and a few other folks, and that's the business one. So anyways, now, again, podcast Tangent. Daryl, I brought you in because I love the customer experience. You got a lot of wisdom around finding solutions that fit the end user's needs. You're big on empathy. In our first episode, we talked about how customer service and relationships are critical for building bridges and being successful and to be successful in any organization.

Joe Toste [00:11:34]:
You talk about the importance of anticipating customer needs and providing solutions before the customer asks for them.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:11:40]:
Well, I mean, that is, I think, the ultimate in customer service experience. Obviously, that's the space you would like to operate in, but it's impossible to operate in that space all the time. Right? You would love to get some wins at that level where you're anticipating what somebody wants and needs and offering it up as either a solution or a suggestion before they even mention it. But man, that is very hard. It's very hard to do that. And there's been a lot of great conversations today about everything we struggle with when it comes to staffing and just how busy we are and being understaffed. It's hard to get yourself out of the daily operations grind and out of the weeds, at least for me, right. To spend enough time with the business areas or the customers to really get a firm grip on what it is that they're going through and try to bridge that gap to say, with our technology experience and what we know, how can we translate that into some sort of a technology solution that's going to make their lives better and present it to them, like I said, without them having to come forward with, hey, I saw this thing online.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:12:59]:
I think it would be a great idea to do this. And sometimes those work out and sometimes they don't. But, yes, I think that is where we would all love to be, is operating at that level. But it's not easy. It's challenging.

Joe Toste [00:13:15]:
So I want to give you the opportunity. There's that story that you wanted to tell, right? We got to tell it.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:13:23]:
I'm going to tell it. I'm going to tell it.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:13:25]:
Yes.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:13:26]:
I failed you last time. I failed tech tables in our first, I guess, discussion, because you had asked me kind of off the cuff about a good customer service example from my time at the four seasons. And, gosh, there have been so many. But at the time, I'm just, like, drawing a blank. I'm like, oh, my God.

Joe Toste [00:13:48]:
And the.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:13:48]:
As soon as we ended, these are coming back to me, and I'm like, I can't believe I didn't tell this.

Joe Toste [00:13:52]:
Right?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:13:52]:
I didn't tell this. So one story that I thought was really cool was, at the time, there was an all female country and western band, very popular at the time. Maybe not as popular anymore, right? But at the time, incredibly popular. They've changed their name. Even though I don't work at the four seasons anymore, I still will not just come out and say a name, but they were staying there in one of our conference rooms, boardrooms, and they were actually just doing logistics for their tour, I think, figuring things out. And they had a technology issue, and I couldn't remember if it was. They were having problems printing to their printer. And this was, like, a while ago, like, a long time ago or an Internet issue.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:14:38]:
So I was up there, and at the time, one of the members was pregnant, and as I was up there, she just made a comment like, man, I'm craving Krispy Kreme donuts and Gatorade right now. So I finished what I was doing and I left. And first thing I did was I ran out and I bought Krispy Kreme donuts and Gatorade, right? And I took it up there, and they were just blown away by that, right? They were just like, oh, my God, I can't believe that you took note of that and that you did that. And so the point of that story is not to say, oh, I did a great thing, but it was the culture that four seasons had established that I think has all the employees that feeling compelled and empowered and inspired to go and do that. Right. I'm the it guy. Right. So you wouldn't think that has nothing to do with me, but everybody that works there functions at that level from customer service.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:15:34]:
So I'm sorry that that story didn't come to mind the first time when we were talking, but I thought that.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:15:39]:
Was a good story.

Joe Toste [00:15:41]:
Yeah. Sometimes just little things. Right. Just being aware. Krispy Kreme and Gatorade. That's like a sub $10. Seriously, that's like a sub $10 act. Yeah.

Joe Toste [00:15:52]:
So thank you for sharing that story. And I actually love getting kind of creative stories from other leaders just about what they do and how it could be Krispy Kreme and donuts or Krispy Kreme. I want donuts. It could be Krispy Kreme and Gatorade. Before we jump to kind of the audience q a. John, I want to give you an opportunity to maybe talk about the RFO if you want to touch on that. As far as how much public information that you want to give or not.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:16:21]:
Give, I think that's like fight club. First rule is not talk about. Sure, I'm pretty. I mean, but in terms of, for TDR to what Kenny said, I mean, this is a fundamental chance for when agencies finally get funding and the state has lots of money this year. And so it's a chance to fundamentally rebaseline the products and services you deliver. And so for TDLR, it's an opportunity for us, as I mentioned, to meet our customers, external customers, where they are today. And for us internally, it's an opportunity for us to fundamentally change the way we develop and deliver services for it. And we have to do that because you can't produce a lot of stuff today because a lot of the technologies, we can't move at a pace because the technologies we have don't support that pace and the culture as well.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:17:13]:
And so it's an opportunity to actually change that entire mindset. Manny Crawford uses the term legacy mindset. I used to be offended by the term legacy, but they're old systems. And not only do we have technical debt, we have technical process debt. So we've got process debt that we have to the whole thing. Well, that's just the way we've always done it. And we have to change that both on within it and within the business divisions of TDLR. Our licensing director in a meeting earlier this week said, inconsistencies for us equal inefficiency.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:17:47]:
And that's the same in it. If I can't continue to provide services at the same level consistently, I'm not doing it efficiently. But when everybody's been doing their own kingdom fifth, the sort of thing, it's hard to overcome that and convince them that we're not all rowing the boat in the same direction. And once we start doing that, the small things, yes, are going to be a little bit slower, but overall we're going to be faster. So that's what we're shooting for.

Joe Toste [00:18:11]:
Love it. And no fight club. Yeah.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:18:14]:
Just to the RFO question, I would love to give a shout out to our awesome public sector vendor community, and I know you do a great job of doing that because they are an amazing support network for us and what we're trying to mean, it's humbling and it's an honor to be here with such a great, magnificent, talented group of leaders and vendor partners. So thank you. Really appreciate it.

Joe Toste [00:18:38]:
Yeah, thanks, Daryl. We'll get the mic. Who has not asked a question.

Meg Hare, Managing Director; Health & Public Sector; Accenture [00:18:44]:
So for John and Daryl and Kenny as well. Right. As you guys are going into, I'm specifically interested as you guys are going into these big projects, not just from TDLR, but from water development board as well, the CIO and the IT leader and the project leader's role in organizational change management. So you guys are doing some fundamentally big things at both of your respective agencies, right? Especially with TDLR, but you've got a lot of stuff coming down, too. So what is your role? Impacting and making sure the organization receives these new systems and reacts to change, embraces change. So what is each of your respective roles in organizational change management?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:19:24]:
We need to do a better job of that. Personally, I don't think it's talked about enough of the importance of having good processes and change processes and things in place to make sure when you are implementing a significant change that it's done smoothly. And I can tell you from where I sit, we have a lot of opportunity for improvement in that area because you're right when you're doing something big. To me that's one of the biggest challenges is getting the right buy in, making sure you're communicating consistently and effectively to everybody about the why and what is going to happen and getting the training and just. It is the most important part of making sure that it's successful when you launch it, because so many times it just gets launched and there's not enough focus on that. And so I do not have the answer for you except to say I agree that it's incredibly important and we need to make improvements in that area. So I just teed it up to you because you probably have a better answer. Well, I don't know.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:20:38]:
We could be here for a while.

Joe Toste [00:20:40]:
We have the room for a couple more. No, actually, don't make it too long because I need Cindy to come on at know.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:20:47]:
Well, change is always hard. I mean, like, if you go with the rule of thirds, a third of the people love change. They're sick, those people. They got a fundamental defect. Yeah, well, a third of the people are just going to do whatever, but a third of the people are going to hate it. And so you have to find your champions and you have to communicate. You have to make things easy, and you can't allow people to have both sides of the fence and you have to point it out to them. The are obvious inconsistencies in that.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:21:20]:
On one side, they want to say it takes forever to get anything done here. And then as soon as you say, okay, well, then we're going to make a change. We're going to go improve this. They'll say it'll never work. Well, you can't have both sides of the argument. You can't tell me it's impossible to get something done, and then as soon as we want to improve it, you say, it'll never work. Well, we have to at least try. I will say one great thing about TDLR.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:21:42]:
There is a culture of, there are things you can try. Let's go out and try something. You're safe to fail. Let's take limited risk where we can and let's try something. And so you have to make those opportunities when you take those opportunities when you can. Now for larger mean, there's some additional things. And one of the main things, and Kenny and I have talked about you, we want a vendor partner that supplements and complements our capabilities because we don't have a lot of those today. And so we have to find somebody that complements those things for us and come along because we know that we have certain weaknesses and weak spots.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:22:18]:
And so if we can find somebody else that can help accommodate those things, then it'll lay the groundwork for a better overall solution.

Joe Toste [00:22:26]:
Okay, so this is great. I just want to ask a follow up question and just a layer. What qualities are you looking for in a vendor partner specifically for TDLR?

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:22:36]:
Wow, man, you are really hitting them up on the vendor stuff.

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:22:39]:
Can I do that? So in terms of vendor partners, in all honesty, right now we're looking for someone that can help us recognize what we're lacking within our organization in terms of resources, in terms of individuals that specialize in certain areas of the business. So in regards to the question about change management, we recognize, and Mike eras Mendez has recognized the need that we need someone to help us shepherd us through the change process. So I've received my certification from Prosci and change management. I have a member of my team that's also certified from Prosci as. So we're trying to do pulse surveys, which basically are ad car surveys to get an idea of what people are thinking and feeling in terms of their ability to be aware of the change, desire the change, know about the change. And so we're trying to get to that point where we're able to shepherd all of our staff along with this project. But we really do need assistance in terms of the other areas. We're looking for support in terms of iv and v support, there will be an RFO out for that as well.

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:23:55]:
And we're also looking for support from the procurement side, procurement assistance. And so there will be an RFO that's going to go out for that as well. This is an amazing opportunity for TDLR. I am very appreciative to our legislature for allocating these funds to help us develop the latest and greatest system of record for TDLR. And so we are going to do our darndest to do our best to make sure that we build the most optimal system possible for our constituents as well as our.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:24:30]:
I mean, in terms of generic qualities and mean, you say we probably couldn't get into that, but I mean, in terms of, they're licensing the functionality that TDR supports for the state of Texas. If you go to a gas pump, if you get your haircut, we license a number. We license people, places and things. But licensing is a domain and there are solutions that exist in the world so we don't have to start from ground zero. So a lot of the things, I mean, you've heard a lot of discussion today and you're about security. So we want a secure system, we want an elastic system, we want an existing system. It's been demonstrated to be successful in other similar instances. It's got to be modern, have responsive design, because today, if we look at our website today is not responsive, but over 50% of our web traffic is from an iOS device.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:25:22]:
And so people are, anyway, they're figuring out how to navigate all that. So there's a bunch of base level generic things that I don't think are a surprise to anybody and they're not secret.

Joe Toste [00:25:34]:
I mean, I was just going to go with. I thought you were going to say, like, we're looking for a vendor who's got a caring attitude, and then you.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:25:40]:
Got to go, Kenny and I, we're not the caring type. That's not. No, no, Darryl, fill in the caring for us.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:25:49]:
Well, I was going to know. I think we look for genuine relationships that are in it for the long term and not just, I'm looking for the sale now or whatever. And I have a recent example of a vendor partner that I've communicated with for a long time, and a couple of examples, actually, where. But nothing has ever happened, and there's never been any sort of pressure or anything. And then the timing was right, and it did. And I felt really comfortable with that vendor because of that. And then the other thing I say a lot is we value value. So I think what we look for is somebody that is going to partner with us, that is going to get in the weeds with us and be committed to making sure that it is successful because we need the help.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:26:40]:
Right. We don't need just a great product. We need somebody in there with it, because, like we've all said, we're short staffed. We can't keep up. We need a vendor partner that is going to be there in the weeds with us holding our hands, saying, we are committed to making this successful with you.

Joe Toste [00:26:55]:
I love it. John, are we still friends? Like, give me this eye look.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:26:57]:
No, it's all good. It's all mean.

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:27:02]:
We'll talk later.

Joe Toste [00:27:03]:
I'm going to hide behind.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:27:05]:
We want a partnership. Mean to. I mean, that's the way state sales work, though, right? I mean, we are two year budget cycles. Everything here is long term. You can't often just go buy some unless it's less than $50,000. But outside of that, that's a state procurement fact. Yeah, but outside of that, then absolutely.

Joe Toste [00:27:31]:
I love it. Okay, so is there just one more short question or we're going to close this. Yeah. Kendra, let's go.

Meg Hare, Managing Director; Health & Public Sector; Accenture [00:27:38]:
What do you think is the most challenging part of your jobs? You have very different agencies that you serve. And what do you think is the most gratifying part of your job?

Kenny Wright, Chief Process Improvement Officer at Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:27:47]:
I can say mine real quick. For me, in terms of being chief process improvement officer, the most challenging part of my job is getting folks to realize that they have opportunities to improve, that we can improve our existing processes, that we can be more efficient. That's the most challenging part. But guess what? It's the most enjoyable part as well. Because when they have the realization that we can make things more efficient and it doesn't take away from the joy that they have in their role and they're still excited about it, that's the best part for me.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:28:19]:
Yeah. So challenging to me is just keeping up with the pace of change. Right. And how quickly technology changes. And we are always behind the customer is what it feels like to me. The customer is always coming to us and saying, when are we going to be able to do this? And we're trying to make sure we roll it out smoothly and securely in the right way. As somebody that is super passionate about customer service, that drives me crazy. And I tell them that it's killing me that we are not keeping up with the demand and the pace of change.

Darrell Tompkins, CIO, Texas Water Development Board [00:28:54]:
So that, to me, is the most challenging, the most rewarding is just, I always say I'm really more, I think, a leader than a technologist, and that's how I kind of got into this. But it's just the leadership things. Just seeing staff grow and develop and move up and customer feedback, just getting good customer feedback is like two things that I find really rewarding.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:29:19]:
That's what I always say, Darryl. We got to keep digging ditches. You want a shovel or a backhoe? That's our job. That's our job is to get the backhoe. I mean, easy technical and process debt are by far and away the biggest challenges. TDlrs, nine systems that all do the same thing spread across a technology stack that includes access, filemaker pro, and some other ones you've never heard of. And so that's a difficult world to live in. And then for me, definitely, I never intended to be a public servant.

John Fowler, CIO, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [00:29:47]:
Fell in love with it at TWC, and it's absolutely, I love my job.

Joe Toste [00:29:53]:
Awesome. Well, thank you all for serving. I appreciate you coming on the podcast. Hey, what's up, everybody?

Joe Toste [00:29:57]:
This is Joe Toste from Techtables.com, and you're listening to the public sector show by techtables. This podcast features human centric stories from public sector, cios, cisos, and technology leaders across federal, state, city, county, and higher education. You'll gain valuable insights into current issues and challenges faced by top leaders through interviews, speaking engagements, live podcast tour events. We offer you a behind the mic look at the opportunities top leaders are seeing today and to make sure you never miss an episode, head over to Spotify and or podcast. Hit that follow button and leave a quick rating. Just tap the number of stars that you think this show deserves.