Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the House Bill 10 Technology topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State CIO outlines digitization, tech-debt and ROI priorities during House Bill 10 hearing
Summary
Kevin Gilbertson, Montanastate chief information officer, told Subcommittee F that House Bill 10 focuses on digitization, reducing technology debt and piloting innovations such as artificial intelligence while developing ROI measures to guide spending.
State Chief Information Officer Kevin Gilbertson told MontanaSubcommittee F that House Bill 10 contains technology priorities aimed at digitization, reducing tech debt and testing innovations such as artificial intelligence.
"Research is showing right now is that you can save about 3 hours a week using AI," Gilbertson told the committee, adding that pilot projects could free staff for higher-value work as systems mature. He described a two-part approach that weighs financial impact alongside public value when prioritizing projects.
Why it matters: House Bill 10 would authorize or fund information technology work across state agencies. Legislators pressed Gilbertson on how the state will measure outcomes and ensure fiscal responsibility for multi-million-dollar IT projects.
Core themes: digitization, tech debt and measurable ROI Gilbertson told lawmakers digitization aims to reduce the time and effort it takes residents to complete transactions with state government and to collect data that informs policy decisions. "When we talk about digitization... it's about taking and actually developing a process to get the citizen to the person that needs to answer their question or do something about that as fast as possible," he said.
On "tech debt" he said shorthand is "anything you do now that you have to pay interest on later," and that older systems can grow costly to maintain or insecure. His office is developing a return-on-investment methodology that pairs financial impacts with public-value measures such as compliance, transparency and service delivery.
Oversight, external review and procurement strategy Gilbertson said the office uses external vendors and peer networks to evaluate major procurements. "We have a contract with Gartner, who I regularly work with," he said, and the state also consults with the National Association of State CIOs. He described efforts to bundle procurements, negotiate better prices and prioritize projects with clear expected outcomes.
Legislators asked for clearer outcome measures. Representative Tuss and others asked for agency-level lists of needs and for measurable targets so the Legislature can judge whether funding achieved the promised results. Gilbertson acknowledged some agencies are farther along than others and said he is working to define outcomes up front so projects can be measured and cancelled if they do not meet objectives.
Security and public reporting Committee members raised security and audit concerns. Gilbertson said IT security is already subject to regular audits and that some review work must happen outside public microphones for operational security. He said the department welcomes audit involvement on fiscal and security questions and that additional KPI work has been slow but underway.
Next steps No formal vote on House Bill 10 was recorded in the hearing excerpt. Gilbertson and committee staff agreed to provide additional documentation about ROI methodology and project outcomes to legislators as the session proceeds.
All direct quotes in this article are taken from the transcript and attributed to identified meeting speakers.
