BALANCING ACT

The largest county in America is going digital. The CIO of California's San Bernardino County shares the challenges and opportunities ahead.

As the population of digital-first and digital natives increases, so does the expectation that federal, state, and local governments will provide internet access with the speed, reliability, and ease that commercial entities have been furnishing users with for years. The largest county in the continental U.S. is making good on that presumption with a bold digital transformation program.

Occupying 20,105 square miles, California's San Bernardino County (SBC) is the 12th most populous connected state in the nation and serves a geographic area that is bigger than nine other states.

The capstone of the SBC initiative is ensuring that all 2.18 million county residents across 28 municipalities have a great technology experience. "It shouldn't be a poor experience for anyone," county CIO Lynn Fyhrlund insisted. "Citizens should be happy with their government." The former CIO of Wisconsin's Milwaukee County, Fyhrlund is leading the acrossthe-board metamorphosis, essentially changing an order-taking organization to a tech- and user-centric one.

"We've invested well in technology, and I'm here to strategically align IT with the goals of the business," he explained. The county, which has 22,000 employees and 46 different departments, has a robust IT team composed of 16 IT departments and 399 members. The team handles all the county's IT, telecommunication, and public radios.

SBC's landmass cuts across a wide swath of the state, bordered by Kern and Los Angeles counties to the west and Las Vegas and Arizona to the east. "As a CIO, you have to be a visionary leader," he said. "You come in and make sure all departments can deliver high-end services to residents and determine how to make ourselves resilient.

I was in the Army Reserve for 24 years, so I always think that government has to be the last one standing."