State CIO outlines IT project status, ROI approach and procurement lessons under HB10

Kevin Gilbertson, the state chief information officer, presented a detailed status report on HB10 projects across state agencies and described a two-part return-on-investment framework that pairs cost-benefit calculations with an assessment of public value.

Gilbertson walked the committee through agency examples: the Department of Justice's Merlin replacement for licensing and registrations (delivered with better citizen experience), ongoing DPHHS modularity work, the child welfare information system and an enterprise Snowflake data integration effort. He flagged procurement pitfalls from prior procurements where incomplete requirements added unexpected costs and emphasized the value of incremental releases and minimum viable products to gather user feedback early. "Working software in front of users as fast as you possibly can is certainly something that we are pushing very hard on," he said.

He also said requests for IT project funding for the 2027 session are due to the Office of the CIO by the end of the month and that his office will produce a stack-ranked list of requests in April and meet with administration leadership about any cut line.