A large district in California suddenly found itself without an Executive Officer (ExO) of Technology. It had started a nationwide search, but realized it could be months before the position would be filled.
As it has done in several districts, ViKiwi provided a seasoned executive to serve as the interim ExO while the district proceeded to search for a permanent replacement.
The interim ExO moved quickly to bring the “fire drills” under control and then directed his attention to longer-term strategic issues including strengthening the server and network infrastructure to improve performance and reliability, determining upgrades to major data systems, redesigning business processes to improve service and decrease costs, and bringing the contractor-employee ratio down to a sustainable level by aggressively filling key vacancies.
As the assignment stretched beyond the initial 3 months and eventually to 7 months, the interim ExO took responsibility for developing the following year’s budget, and integrating the functions of the project management office, and full responsibility for several major technology projects, into the Technology Services department.
In addition to a technology strategic plan, the interim ExO helped transition to the permanent executive by passing on a carefully maintained list of projects, issues, risks and fire drills with next steps, due dates, and responsibilities.
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