Original broadcast 2/11/26
Presented by Ping Identity & Carahsoft
For the State of Oklahoma, modernization isn’t a buzzword. It’s a necessity.
That’s the message from Dan Cronin, Chief Information Officer for the State of Oklahoma, as he outlines a strategic plan built around efficiency, citizen experience, and measurable value. Cronin frames the state’s technology agenda not as an abstract vision, but as a practical effort: making government services easier to use, faster to access, and more cost-effective to deliver.
When Cronin stepped into the CIO role, his first priority wasn’t chasing the newest technology trend. Instead, he focused on prioritization and value realization — a clear-eyed look at where the state was operationally, what legacy environments were holding progress back, and where modernization would deliver the biggest return.
One of the most consistent themes in Oklahoma’s strategic plan is the idea of citizen-centric government. Words like customer and citizen appear repeatedly in the plan, and for good reason. Technology strategy only matters if it improves the experience of the people it serves.
Cronin defines that citizen experience in simple terms: government services should be smooth, fluid, intuitive, and easy to understand. Whether the user is a colleague inside the state capitol or a citizen walking down the street, the goal is the same — reduce friction and deliver what people need without making them navigate complexity.
That focus leads to one of the most important phrases in Oklahoma’s modernization strategy: making complexity invisible.
Cronin explains that state government has accumulated layers of complexity over time — legacy systems, disjointed processes, and bureaucratic decision-making. While some of that complexity may be unavoidable behind the scenes, citizens should not have to experience it directly.
For Oklahoma, making complexity invisible is not just a technical challenge. It’s an organizational one.
Cronin offers a concrete example from inside the state IT organization: the intake request process. When someone submitted a help desk request or needed routing to the right support team, the process had too many steps. The result was elongated timelines and unnecessary friction.
Rather than accepting that complexity as just how government works, Oklahoma evaluated the process and redesigned it. The state simplified steps, whitelisted capabilities, and empowered teams to move faster without requiring layers of approval to do what was clearly the right thing. Removing bureaucracy from routine decisions is one of the most powerful ways to modernize.
This is an important distinction: modernization isn’t only about replacing systems. It’s also about replacing outdated ways of working.
Cronin’s approach reflects a broader shift happening in public-sector IT: the move from compliance-driven process to service-driven outcomes. The more the state can reduce internal friction, the faster it can respond to citizens, agencies, and changing demands.
Cronin describes how Oklahoma has brought in several professionals from the private sector and how that influx of talent is creating momentum. As the state communicates modernization progress across communities, the response has been positive. People are increasingly approaching the state and asking, How do I join the team? What can I do to help?
In many ways, Oklahoma is treating modernization as both a technology program and a recruitment strategy. If the state wants cutting-edge skills, it has to demonstrate that the work is forward-looking.
Cronin identifies the most in-demand skills clearly: AI and data science.
Oklahoma has large sums of data, and the challenge is not simply collecting it. The challenge is leveraging it in ways that benefit citizens and improve government operations. That requires both the technical foundation to manage data and the strategic discipline to apply AI responsibly.
Cronin highlights the state’s work on a maturing data platform — a foundation designed to be extensible so that every agency can tap into it. The goal is to create a shared resource that agencies can use, enabling them to access and use data when needed to improve citizen services.
AI cannot scale across state government if every agency operates independently with incompatible data systems. A statewide data platform creates the conditions for shared analytics, reusable capabilities, and consistent citizen experience improvements.
Cronin frames this as part of the state’s modernization journey: making sure citizen experience is supported by access to the right data at the right time.
The strategic plan spans several years, from 2026 through 2028. Cronin is clear about how he intends to measure success over that timeline. The primary metric is efficiency.
Cronin describes a continuous self-assessment approach: monitoring progress year over year, asking whether the state is getting better, whether services are being delivered faster, and whether citizens are experiencing improvement. By 2028, success will be measured by the state’s ability to look back and say it made a difference — in the lived experience of citizens interacting with Oklahoma government.
Cronin also addresses vendor relationships and cost.
Oklahoma has a large IT budget and significant interest from the contracting community. Cronin’s message to vendors is direct: state government needs cost-effective solutions, equitable pricing, and the best value for taxpayer dollars.
He acknowledges that in the technology industry, vendors sometimes have different pricing models for private sector versus government customers. Oklahoma’s expectation is that pricing should be fair and that government should receive the best bang for the buck when purchasing services and products.
This is a crucial part of modernization. Technology modernization is not just a matter of capability — it’s a matter of sustainability. If modernization efforts are not cost-effective, they become harder to scale, harder to justify, and harder to maintain.
Cronin says the state has already been having these conversations with partners, and he notes that the dialogue is producing adjustments.
Ultimately, Oklahoma’s modernization strategy is grounded in a simple promise: serve citizens better.
Modern platforms, streamlined processes, empowered teams, stronger data foundations, and smarter vendor alignment all support the same end goal — a government that feels easier to use, faster to navigate, and more responsive to the people it exists to serve.
For Cronin, modernization isn’t a future aspiration. It’s the work Oklahoma is doing now — and it’s work the state can’t afford to delay.