<p dir="ltr">Historically, CIOs have struggled to realize IT investment values and planning involved. In the IT industry, these issues have become a critical C-level topic (Haffke, 2016). Since the establishment of the position of the State Chief Information Officer (CIO), CIO roles have expanded and evolved tremendously as new modern technologies became a part of organization’s information technology (IT) enterprise infrastructure. Multiple State CIOs struggled with modern IT technologies, but successfully completed projects to meet customer business needs and requirements and furthermore, IT investments involved an arduous effort to prepare, execute, complete, and assess for return on investment (ROI) and value realization (NASCIO, 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, implementation of remote collaboration technology allowed the workforce to perform at remote locations to prevent spread of the virus. Academic research on the topic of State CIO’s involvement in IT strategic planning is limited and yields scarce search results compared to other subject areas. State CIOs’ involvement in IT strategic planning was further researched for enabling remote collaboration for the new remote workforce. Scholarly databases and more than 100 various sources of articles were reviewed for search results that addressed the problem and purpose of this research.<b> </b>Grounded theory research, data triangulation, and Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis software (CAQDAS) were used to analyze the resulting articles. The research deliverables included a document analysis of State CIO involvement in IT strategic planning to enable remote collaboration. There were significant involvements of State CIOs in IT strategic planning to enable remote collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic across the analyses. This study developed a course of actions (COAs) for State CIOs, and recommendations for future research.</p>