When the Land of Lincoln needed a new CIO this fall, Illinois-native Kirk Lonbom couldn’t have been a more obvious choice. With two years as CISO and more than 15 years of experience with the state government, Lonbom had the right credentials for the job. So, it was no surprise when Gov. Bruce Rauner tapped Lonbom to head the Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology as state CIO.

Three years ago the state of Illinois ranked in the last quartile of states when it came to using IT efficiently. After two years on the job Hardik Bhatt, the state’s CIO, has transformed Illinois.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has declared April to be Information Technology month in order to bring attention the state’s IT efforts and increase the IT workforce.

Efforts to upgrade Illinois’ legacy enterprise resource planning system–to the tune of $250 million–are jeopardized by political gridlock.

The Illinois Department of Information and Technology has partnered with the State of Telangana, India, to advance their smart state initiatives.