DHHS seeks $15 million to retire mainframe; officials say full migration tied to child welfare and child support procurements

The Department of Health and Human Services asked the Appropriations - Human Resources Division for $15,000,000 in the upcoming biennium to retire legacy mainframe technology and migrate data from feeder systems. Department IT officials and the deputy commissioner described the request as funding to address technical debt rather than to buy a new system.

Sarah Stolt, deputy commissioner, explained the purpose: “the 15,000,000 is not about purchasing a new system… The 15,000,000 is addressing existing systems where we have already, procured and are implementing a system. So for example, spaces is our integrated eligibility system but we have 4 to 6 different technologies that are still floating on the mainframe that hold old eligibility data that's still accessed. We need to migrate that data off and then turn off those old systems.”

Committee members pressed on timeline and cost - Representative Murphy asked why retirement and migration could take 3 to 5 years, noting time is money. Stolt and other IT staff explained the longer timeline is driven primarily by two large systems—child welfare and child support—where procurements have not yet been completed and federal approvals are required. Stolt: “we know from IT's perspective that it's gonna take anywhere from 3 to 5 years to fully get everything off the mainframe and that's really because of child support and, the child welfare system.” - Chairman Nelson and members asked for a breakdown of what the $15 million would fund in the first biennium. The department said decision packages already break the request down by system and offered to provide further detail showing what can be accomplished in the 2527 biennium and what would remain.

Dependency on federal approvals and procurements - Department witnesses described a multi-step procurement and federal-review process for major health-and-human-services systems: scoping, federal review of requirements (several months), RFP, vendor demos, protests and contract negotiation, and then development/design/implementation phases (DDI). That sequence explains why replacing large systems can take multiple years. - The department said retiring the mainframe and migrating non-child-welfare/child-support technical debt can be accomplished in the first two years, but the child welfare and child support replacements will likely keep key data on the mainframe longer.

NDIT and budget implications - The department noted that NDIT (state IT) did not receive additional funding in its budget to undertake mainframe work, so the DHHS request is tied to departmental appropriations. Committee members asked for a schedule and periodic updates on progress and costs. Dirk Wilk, interim commissioner, agreed to provide progress updates.