Council renews Gartner consulting contract while DTI reports progress on four‑year IT plan

The Legislative Council approved renewal number 1 of the Division of Technology and Information's (DTI) professional services contract with Gartner, authorizing an amount up to $262,700 while staff continue negotiations to remove a planned step‑up in the contract price.

Shay Wilson, chief information officer for the Legislative Affairs Agency, presented progress on a four‑year IT plan first outlined in April 2024. Wilson said the plan identified five priority initiatives — value/reliability/support; cybersecurity and information risk management; outreach and technological solutions; artificial intelligence/hybrid IT; and secure government cloud services — and that most associated projects now have at least one attached project. "In April 2024, when I presented the 4 year plan for DTI, we identified 5 key initiatives," Wilson said. He added that the agency expects the final renewal price to come in closer to last year's procured amount of $179,200, pending completion of negotiations to remove a scheduled step‑up.

Wilson detailed completed and ongoing work including a ticketing system to track metrics, migration of Microsoft security monitoring into the cloud, telephone system replacements across Capitol buildings, infrastructure and switch replacements (about 90% complete), a hardware refresh nearing completion, and AV upgrades completed for session. Tim Powers, chief technology and outreach officer, answered member questions about separate AV work contracted outside Alaska and the status of fob/keyless reader replacements in Anchorage.

The council approved the renewal by roll call, recorded as 9 yeas, 0 nays. Members asked staff to continue negotiating pricing and return with final contract terms as they are finalized.