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Kevin Johnson was such a good CIO that he decided his organization didn't need him anymore.
Two years ago Johnson was hired by the California Appellate Project in San Francisco (CAP-SF) to become the nonprofit corporation's first CIO. Johnson's task was to modernize systems at CAP, which was created in 1983 by the State Bar to help death-row inmates appeal their sentences. With more than 600 prisoners on death row and a host of attorneys working on a contract basis, Johnson needed to install a secure case management application that would enable collaboration.
"Historically," he says, "the attorneys worked independently on whatever their computer systems were, usually the family one in the dining room that the kids used and was loaded with viruses."
The five-person IT staff deployed a case management solution, using Citrix Systems Inc.'s remote access software and a virtual private network to tie lawyers together.
And by outsourcing most of the management, Johnson told his board that he had eliminated the need for a CIO -- a job he relinquished in August. "My recommendation was that CAP doesn't need a CIO," he says. "The system is intended to require a limited skill set. The level of failover is such that a CIO is not really needed. For at least three years out, this architecture will be stable. After that, who knows where the organization will be." The same, of course, can be said for Johnson.
Michael Ybarra is a contributing writer for SearchCIO-Midmarket.com. Write to him at editor@ciodecisions.com.
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