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CIO / CTO Advisory Services

  • Strategic IT AlignmentGuide the integration of technology initiatives with business objectives to foster innovation and growth.

  • Technology Roadmap Development Create customized, scalable technology roadmaps to support long-term business success.

  • Digital Transformation LeadershipLead the adoption of modern technologies to improve competitiveness and operational efficiency.

  • Risk & Cyber Security Management Provide expert strategies to protect against security risks and ensure compliance with industry regulations.

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CASE STUDY

Capability and Vendor Advisory for a State Data Modernization Programme

Client Overview

With the current-state assessment complete, the Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services faced the decisions a CIO actually has to make: which capabilities to build, what to buy versus build, in what order, and what depends on what. Acuvity Consulting advised on that through to July 2024, as a subcontractor to Ardent Technologies.

Challenge

Eight themes of problems, a fixed budget, a multi-year horizon and a set of systems that all depended on each other. Sequencing was the whole difficulty: several of the most valuable projects could not start until foundational work that no one would have funded on its own merits had been done first.

Solution

Define the capabilities the evidence demanded, evaluate the market honestly for each, then sequence by dependency rather than by enthusiasm.

  • Capability Definition

    Each of the 8 pain point themes was mapped to the capabilities needed to resolve it — one to many, because most themes needed more than one — producing 8 target capabilities, from data standardization and consensus-driven governance through to evidence-based program evaluation.

  • Vendor Option Evaluation

    For each capability, several off-the-shelf vendor options were evaluated and ranked in ascending order of suitability, each with its drawbacks stated as plainly as its benefits — where a comprehensive tool would carry a real learning curve, where customization would be complex.

  • Sequencing and Dependencies

    23 defined implementation projects, each with its direct and indirect dependencies identified, sequenced across four horizons: pre-planning, foundational, modernization and transformational.
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Results

  • Capabilities Tied to ObjectivesEvery capability was tested against the department's own objectives — reporting and oversight, the data collection framework, evidence-based decision making, and health equity — so it was visible which part of the mission each investment advanced.

  • Options, Not a Single RecommendationEach capability came with ranked alternatives and their trade-offs, so the department chose with the reasoning in front of it rather than accepting a single vendor recommendation.

  • A Fundable SequenceDependencies were mapped project by project, so the department could see which work had to be funded first for later projects to be possible at all.

ConclusionThe hardest part of technology advisory is rarely identifying what a client needs. It is telling them what has to come first, what it will cost them to skip it, and where the recommended product is genuinely harder to adopt than its alternatives.