Indianapolis IT board hears progress on Windows 11, AI pilot and data governance; vendor SLA lapse reported

Joseph O'Connor, chairman of the Information Technology Board for Indianapolis and Marion County, opened the Sept. 23 meeting with an enterprise IT briefing from Colin Hill, chief information officer for Indianapolis and Marion County and director of the Information Services Agency (ISA).

Hill told the board ISA is advancing a number of modernization efforts across the city-county enterprise, including a pilot for passwordless authentication, a nearly completed Windows 11 migration, a Copilot for M365 cohort, and stepped-up data governance work using Microsoft Purview. "This has been a a year long effort by us to look at artificial intelligence, particularly gen AI, and decide how time to kinda level up everyone's understanding and and prepare for usage and governance within the city county," Hill said.

Why it matters: the projects Hill described touch core operations for multiple agencies — from public safety systems to payables and permitting — and are intended to improve security, compliance and automation across city-county services.

Most significant program updates

- Passwordless authentication: ISA continues vendor testing for a passwordless authentication capability intended to improve access and CJIS-related compliance. Hill said two vendors remain under consideration and ISA expects to update the board on direction at a future meeting; the team has a target date near the end of the year.

- Windows 11 migration: Hill reported the majority of enterprise endpoints have been upgraded. Three large agencies remain — IMPD, the Sheriff’s Office and IFD — and ISA is coordinating with each to meet an October 15 deadline called out during the briefing.

- Communications and calling: ISA completed a migration from a Cisco-based unified call system to Webex Calling for staff previously on that platform. Avaya systems remain outside that initial migration and are being tracked separately.

- PeopleSoft (ERP) cloud migration: ISA has an RFQ in the market to support a PeopleSoft cloud migration; Hill said an RFQ process was ongoing and ISA will return with updates as procurement advances.

- Artificial intelligence pilot: ISA, led by AI cohort leads and Kate Coaten (chief digital officer), is running a Copilot for M365 cohort with roughly 160 city-county users to evaluate usage, governance and operational effects.

- Data governance and Purview: ISA continues to implement Microsoft Purview features, including sensitivity labels and data-loss-prevention identification in Outlook, to better classify and protect enterprise data.

- Enterprise GIS and master address database: the enterprise GIS upgrade was reported complete; ISA is now planning a separate master address database project to improve spatial address data across agencies (no completion date announced).

Capital projects and operational items

Hill also reported on capital networking purchases. Network equipment for the solid-waste garage has been procured and will be installed with DPW; similar equipment for the ACS shelter has been ordered. ISA said it is supporting HVAC-related moves at the City-County Building as part of a restock effort.

Vendor performance and support metrics

Hill said ISA's vendor partners met most service-level agreements (SLAs) but that in July Bell missed two SLAs: a P-3 ticket resolution SLA and the average speed-to-answer metric. ISA described a set of contributing factors — HVAC moves, an increase in MFA-related support requests during DPW's transition, and temporary personnel gaps at Bell — and said Bell has adjusted coverage to prevent recurrence. "I wanted to be transparent and report it to you," Hill said. Hill added ISA's customer-satisfaction score remains about 98 percent.

Finance and supplier diversity

Hill reviewed ISA financials, noting chargebacks are current and that ISA typically increases spend late in the calendar year. On supplier diversity, ISA said it directs eligible vendors to the Office of Minority Women and Business Development (OMWBD) for certification and is tracking vendor spend across minority-, women-, veteran- and disability-owned suppliers. Quarter-to-date figures show progress but some variance from internal goals; ISA said it will continue to work with agency partners to increase certified vendor participation.

Board questions and next steps

Board members asked for follow-up on Copilot licensing limits, ID verification costs in DocuSign discussions, and how 75 DocuSign seats would be allocated across roughly 46 agencies. ISA said allocation will prioritize migration of existing forms to avoid duplicate licensing and that agency-specific needs (for example, ID verification) will be clarified with vendors.

Parting recognition

Near the end of the meeting Hill acknowledged Ryan Click, an ISA staff member who will leave city-county employment in October after roughly 12 years of service; board members and staff offered thanks for his work.

The Information Technology Board's next scheduled meeting is Oct. 28, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 221 of the City-County Building.