Mike Hussey

“The big takeaway was you can take all of your plans and intentions and goals at the beginning of the year and toss them out the window and start over. But really, we had a lot of great momentum on many projects and many of those projects worked well into the hand we got dealt, teleworking being one of those.

“We’re all-in on teleworking and we’re going to continue teleworking well into the future, even after the pandemic is over. We’re seeing a lot of benefits in our state with regard to air quality and congestion on the roads and our ability to recruit away from a physical workspace, so it opens some opportunities for rural parts of our state. We also learned about some of the holes we have in digital government where you’re challenged on trying to provide those services online and not in line.

“And when the pandemic hits, you really see what we missed because lines are forming and people are not taking advantage, or you haven’t provided the service online. So what we’re doing now is taking this opportunity on digital government to improve and perfect ourselves and deliver better services to the citizens.”

Mike Hussey is chief information officer for the State of Utah.