Jones, who left state government in November, will be a delivery manager for Microsoft's state, local and education consulting business.

Jones, who was named the state's chief technology officer in 2017, is returning to the private sector, she announced.

The pandemic is accelerating states' IT modernization efforts, but institutional challenges are also encouraging state IT leaders to upgrade incrementally.

The two states have entered a unique resource-sharing partnership that their CIOs say is providing immense value.

Amy Fecher will lead a new department that includes the state IT agency, GIS mapping, personnel management and the budget, as part of a statewide reorganization pushed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

On Season 4, Episode 1 of Priorities, top tech officials from Kansas and Arkansas share challenges and goals of centralizing and outsourcing IT functions.

The state already has a chatbot, but Arkansas CTO Yessica Jones says she wants to expand it and consider additional chatbots going forward.

The contract would replace the state's government-assistance enrollment software that it first attempted to replace in 2013.

The technology office says it doesn't expect to be immediately affected by a project that will touch all aspects of government.