‘Tremendous Change’ for Colorado’s IT Department

PHILADELPHIA — When Colorado Chief Data Officer Amy Bhikha left the state of Colorado in February, it seemed like a fundamental change in how the state handled data and artificial intelligence — a responsibility Bhikha had added to her portfolio by CIO David Edinger in 2024. But there was more to the story. As the National Association of State Chief Information Officers Midyear Conference got under way, Edinger explained to GovTech that the departure of the chief data officer was part of a bigger restructuring of the state’s whole approach to IT.


“We can’t afford to have unnecessary bureaucracy slowing us down,” he said. “This is really streamlining around these two areas, security and infrastructure, digital and delivery … the models, they’re the modern way of delivering technology that the private sector has embraced for years.”

There’s a fiscal crisis requiring billions in cuts — actually a series of them — that serve as part of the motivation for the overhaul. Some of that is related to changes to Medicaid while other pressures stem from the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). Passed in 1992, TABOR limits how Colorado can collect revenue, requiring refunds to residents when revenues exceed a strictly defined formula related to inflation and population change.

But Edinger says there are three reasons for the structural change to the setup for state IT. It wasn’t just the current budget picture, which of course puts pressure on state operations across the board. Equally as important was the need to align IT more closely with the agencies they serve as well as provide IT services using the product model that prioritizes user-centered work that helps agencies with their core missions.

Video transcript: We no longer have a technology office. We no longer have a data office. We no longer have a chief operating officer and the offices that reported into that role. So we're talking about most of the organization, not just the data office has undergone tremendous change starting in about February of this year, to simplify and streamline our operation around really two teams. The first is digital and delivery. The second team is security and infrastructure. With digital and delivery, we're moving towards a product model. So that's things like agile product methodology, cross-functional teams, user-centered design — really embracing that and trying to make that the way we get closer to the agencies and think less about traditional project metrics like scope, schedule, budget, and more about how do we deliver in a way that helps these agencies achieve their missions, whether it's human services or safety or natural resources. We have to get closer to them.  That's one of our big gaps, is we're doing too many things that are in what I would call the shared service model that isn't delivering what the agencies need in terms of strategic partnership. The other thing we're trying to do by reducing all these offices within the Office of Information Technology is reduce the organizational friction that's occurring, that's keeping us from moving as rapidly as we need to move to get things done.