New Mexico IT agency outlines modernization push and expansion of public-safety radio system

DUIT Secretary Manny Barretas told the Science & Technology Committee that the Department of Information Technology has accelerated statewide modernization efforts and significant public-safety radio expansion.

"We serve over 90 state, local, tribal, and federal agencies," Barretas said, describing a system that now supports roughly 23,000 users and carried about "2,200,000 calls per month" in 2025 with "99.997 uptime." He said radio coverage now reaches about 80% of the state and DUIT is working toward 90% coverage.

Why it matters: committee members pressed DUIT on the sustainability and cost of that expansion. Barretas said the legislature approved $5,000,000 to subsidize subscriber fees and that the subsidy covers users through fiscal year 2027. He estimated a potential future subscriber fee of about $20 per month per user if agencies must pay after subsidies end.

Beyond radios, DUIT described cybersecurity and productivity work partly centered on Microsoft 365. "We have onboarded more than 20,000 employees into our secure Microsoft 365 environment," Barretas said, citing identity, device management and enterprise security controls the agency has deployed. DUIT also emphasized a completed ADA accessibility review of agency websites and a new digital communications push.

The agency is piloting ServiceNow as a statewide IT service-management backbone to reduce fragmented "data islands," centralize tickets, approvals and asset tracking, and provide real-time leadership dashboards. DUIT said a move to a unified enterprise backup (private cloud, public cloud and Microsoft 365) on Cohesity/HPE will reduce duplication and improve ransomware resilience; presenters cited SB 42 as alignment for backup standards.

On procurement and oversight, presenters pointed to recent legislation they said enables more flexible IT purchasing (citing HB 217 and SB 132). DUIT staff described proposed NMAC rule changes to eliminate the large monthly Project Certification Committee (PCC) in favor of more frequent, focused meetings and a targeted approach to independent verification and validation (IV&V) for higher-risk projects. The aim, DUIT said, is to reduce cost and delay while preserving oversight for large or complex efforts.

Committee pushback focused on verification, oversight and vendor risk. Senator Ed Thornton asked for details on funding and the long-term plan for subscriber fees; DUIT said future subsidy requests will come to the legislature but acknowledged there may be a point when agencies cover part of the cost. On concerns about AI and vendor lock-in related to Microsoft Copilot, DUIT said it would not be vendor-locked and is developing governance, policy and training to manage evolving tools safely.

Next steps: DUIT offered to follow up on training access for legislators, to share ServiceNow adoption plans, and to provide further budgetary detail about long-term subscriber costs and coverage projections.