Tim Bottenfield

“We were taking steps in digital transformation in many areas, but when this hit, I could read off a laundry list of use cases we have put together across our enterprise with our agency partners, processes we’re digitizing and automating. We were on our way to doing that, but it wasn’t going to happen at the light-speed rate that basically took place in a matter of months.

“We were able to be very nimble and agile when this COVID-19 hit us. We actually have the ability to move quick. I hope that’s a lesson learned: that we don’t have to take forever to make a decision to move on a certain process or something that surrounds our IT environment. And I think we were better prepared for something like this than we would have ever imagined.

“In IT specifically, we were operating in a digital world already. We didn’t have to invent something to get people to work remotely. We had the tools and the capability of doing that all along.”

Tim Bottenfield is the chief information officer for the State of Montana.