Calling himself both a “tech geek” and a “hard-headed rationalist,” Fuller brings an equal measure of each to his position in front of the state’s IT organization. He loves tinkering with the latest tech tools, like generative AI, but he has to make sure that there’s a positive return on any investment of taxpayer funds.
Exhibit A is a capability that predates Fuller’s tenure as CIO: online vehicle registration renewals. Noting that most Utahns take care of this task digitally, Fuller said that despite population growth of more than a third, the state has not had to build any new DMV offices.
Long a leading state when it comes to IT, Fuller was tasked with building on Utah’s foundation by further streamlining and modernizing state government. Priorities include improving the overall customer experience and lowering the cost of services by finding new efficiencies via updated infrastructure.
Two-thirds of Utah’s applications have been moved to the cloud, Fuller reports. And their application inventory has gotten smaller too, as each was evaluated against best-practice criteria to prioritize investments. They also held a retirement party for their mainframe — one of a handful of states to have entered a post-mainframe era.
Utah’s citizen portal is bringing a standard look and feel to state websites, and a customer experience project has created a robust feedback loop between residents and the state. More than 10,000 pieces of feedback come in every month now about state services, providing a clear to-do list for high-impact improvements.
Fuller is currently working on a state-endorsed digital identity project that he views as key to unlocking future capabilities in digital government.
“I believe that solving that problem will be foundational and critical to really moving to the next level in terms of digital delivery of government services,” he said.
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Government Technology magazine. Click here to view the full digital edition online.
