The state’s IT leadership has seen changes in the last year, with the former executive director of the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA) Bryanna Pardoe appointed acting CIO in October and subsequently made permanent. However, the use of technology to improve the government experience remains central to IT strategy in the state.
Pennsylvania leadership on Friday announced the $37 million in cost savings within the Office of Administration (OA) — the umbrella office for state IT — as the result of modernized legacy technologies and smart financial management.
The methods through which OA achieved these savings include assessing and rightsizing recurring IT procurements, increasing the use of cloud hosting and storage, obtaining vendor discounts, and insourcing projects with Pennsylvania staff and technology when possible.
The state’s work reflects a challenge many states are facing with system modernization. Many of the systems powering Pennsylvania government’s work across agencies were purchased or developed decades ago and have limitations that modernization can address, as the state’s announcement outlines. Investing in modernization and efficiency can decrease the speed at which technology costs are growing.
The $37 million in savings included $10 million by CODE PA. This office’s work on various projects had considerable financial impact. One example is the Discover State Grants tool, with which users can find grant programs across 24 state agencies, resulting in $1 million in savings. The Track Your Permit Application for the Department of Environmental Protection, letting applicants monitor application progress, delivered $835,000 in savings. PAyback, a money-back guarantee system that offers refunds for applications not processed within the standard timeline, brought $800,000 in savings.
Legacy systems can be costly to maintain and they come with cybersecurity risks, as Pardoe noted in a statement.
“By focusing resources on modernization, we can realize meaningful cost savings while moving faster to deliver secure, reliable digital services to Pennsylvanians,” she said.
Officials attribute these significant cost savings to investments leadership has made, and officials are continuing to invest in IT in the state's 2025-2026 budget.
It includes $10 million in new funding for cybersecurity, another area for which OA is responsible. The budget also includes about $11.5 million for CODE PA — representing a 40 percent increase over the prior fiscal year — for the continued development of enterprise platforms and a single, secure online login.
Pennsylvania government will work in 2026 to continue modernization projects that are underway, such as permitting and grant processes, Pardoe told Government Technology in November. Expected progress on the single sign-on initiative “will improve not only employee experience, but also our constituent experience.” The CIO said she expects to deliver Pennsylvanians “more wins” this year.
