This episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast features Burgandi Grace, principal project manager for artificial intelligence at Tyler Technologies, and Heidi DeVore, a CAMA specialist with the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Property Valuation Division, discussing how governments are working to connect fragmented systems and make data more usable across agencies. Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2026 in Las Vegas, the conversation combines a broad look at modernization efforts with a detailed statewide example from Kansas, where differences in processes and scale effectively created more than 100 disconnected systems across counties. They share how improving data access, consistency, and visibility is helping governments support better decision-making and performance tracking, while making incremental progress toward more connected operations despite ongoing technical and organizational challenges.
In this Tyler Tech Podcast episode, Burgandi Grace, principal project manager for artificial intelligence at Tyler Technologies, and Heidi DeVore, CAMA specialist from the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Property Valuation Division, discuss how governments are working to connect fragmented systems and make data more usable across agencies. Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2026 in Las Vegas, the conversation brings together both a broad view of modernization efforts and a detailed, statewide example of what it takes to align data across more than 100 local offices.
Like many government organizations, Kansas operated with systems that were technically standardized but functionally disconnected. While counties used the same property appraisal software, differences in scale, processes, and data practices meant the state was effectively working with 105 separate systems. That fragmentation made it difficult to share data, report consistently, or provide timely insights across jurisdictions.
Together, Burgandi and Heidi offer a grounded look at how governments are improving access to data, supporting better performance tracking, and making incremental progress toward more connected operations — while balancing technical, organizational, and operational considerations along the way.
This episode also highlights the 2026 State CIO Priorities Playbook, designed to help government leaders turn strategy into action. The playbook provides practical insights, real-world examples, and actionable guidance across top priorities like AI, cybersecurity, modernization, accessibility, and digital services.
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Heidi DeVore: Having that one aggregated database lets us report on data much, much easier and faster than we ever did before. We used to have to run queries 105 times. Now we run them once.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, this is the Tyler Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Henderson.
Today's episode explores how governments are moving beyond fragmented systems and siloed data to build more connected, insight driven operations that improve performance and transparency across the public sector. Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2026 in Las Vegas, I'm joined by Burgandi Grace, principal project manager in artificial intelligence here at Tyler, and Heidi DeVore from the Kansas Department of Revenue's Property Valuation Division. Burgandi works with governments navigating modernization at scale, while Heidi brings a real world perspective from a statewide property valuation system that has worked to unify and better leverage data from across over 100 local offices.
Together, they break down what it really takes to move from localized transformation to enterprise-wide change, covering everything from data quality and process alignment to change management, adoption, and the role of cloud technology in making integration possible. Let's get into it.
Burgandi, Heidi, welcome to the podcast. Thank you both so much for being here.
Burgandi Grace and Heidi DeVore: Thank you. Hi.
Josh Henderson: Great to see you in in Las Vegas, Nevada. When you look across the organizations you work with, where are most governments today in their modernization journey?
Burgandi Grace: First off, I want to say that we see a wide variety of maturity levels. So wherever you're at, you're in the place that you should be. But generally speaking, what's most common is that everyone is sitting in a localized position where they're doing transformation on this really small scale, and it's transitioning that over to, like, an enterprise approach where now you're combining different organizations or departments altogether into one. Really, the challenge isn't the idea, but it's operationalizing it responsibly, and and that's what we're gonna be talking about today. So I'm really excited.
Josh Henderson: And now, Heidi, to bring that down to the real-world experience of it all, when you think back to where the organization was a few years ago, what did your systems and data environment look like day to day? Where were you feeling the most friction internally at that moment?
Heidi DeVore: Well, as you probably know, Kansas is known for being on the cutting edge of technology.
That was a joke.
But they actually did quite a bit of forward thinking, I believe, a number of years ago, back in 1985, when they passed laws that said that all of the county appraisal offices would use the same software to appraise property.
That sounds great in theory, but what we found over time is that, in practice, we didn't really have one system. We had 105 systems. We have 105 county offices, and they range in size from, very small, less than about 3,000 parcels to more than 250,000.
So their interests are different. The way that they shaped their data was different. And so while, yes, we were put in a position to have a great dataset, it was all siloed out, and there was no good way to either get the data out for state purposes, which is what I'm interested in, or for sharing within the counties, in between the counties.
Josh Henderson: And now one of the most persistent challenges is fragmentation. We hear that a lot at Tyler across departments and systems. Burgandi, what are the biggest barriers governments face when trying to break down those silos and share information more effectively and efficiently?
Burgandi Grace: I think that there's, you know, two big spheres where we see the most common challenges, and the first is in the data, which tends to be in various levels of of quality, different systems.
And that'll be across agencies, organizations, localities, and then processes is the other piece. So the data and the processes, which I would argue are sometimes even more hard to change. Secretary Bassett is going to be talking about this. He's from the Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing and during our breaking down silos session, the panel session that we're doing here at Connect, and he was telling us the story about one of his key initiatives when he became secretary was taking 23 different departments and bringing them all under one roof, one agency. And he ended up using Tyler systems and talks about this during our we'll be talking about this during our session of how to address both using Tyler to address both of those problems, the data and the process.
Josh Henderson: That's great. And now, Heidi, going back to the your your day-to-day operations, in Kansas, were the biggest challenges more on the technical side, or were they more about people and process? And how did you start to bring together those different teams?
Heidi DeVore: I would say the challenges were more technical in nature. The project that we undertook that is aggregating the data, has different modules, different pieces to it.
Some of the pieces relate more to a state oversight agency, things that we're interested in. Some of them relate more to things that the counties are interested in. So we made sure that everybody was getting something they wanted, and that really helped with the organizational issues. So I would say, really, the challenge was more technical. And again, it goes back to just 105 different systems that had to be gathered together and put all of the round data into square holes.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. Not a small task. No. Not a small feat whatsoever. Now, Burgandi, in practical terms, what does a truly connected environment look like inside a government organization, and what have you learned sort of about how to scale that over time?
Burgandi Grace: So taking that first question, what does good look like? I I think any organization – being well prepared with good documentation and and using automation to do the heavy lifting. That, like, that that's what good looks like.
You can go find the processes you need, and you have automation taking care of maybe the more repeatable, tedious tasks, so you're really delivering accuracy at a speed. As far as how to scale that, I mean, shameless plug, I'm going to say us at Tyler, we're so experienced working with our different government organizations that, you know, using experts in the field who have been working with government for a long time and are used to the barriers and challenges they have, is a great way to scale. And practically, for department or an agency, I'd say just start with one big pain point, going back to what Heidi was saying about, you know, reminding people about why we're doing this and the value that they're going to have is is so critical because, you know, what what's the technology for if not for making everybody's life better and for solving problems and keeping that at forefront makes these programs more successful.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. Important to remember, definitely. And, Heidi, as things started to connect with you and your team, what changed for your team in terms of the visibility or collaboration elements of your workflows?
Heidi DeVore: The county started to see the value in what we were doing. It's sort of a fine line that we walk because the data doesn't belong to us at the state, although it lives in our software; software that we provided. So, I mean, technically, we did what Burgandi just said. We relied on her and her team and their expertise.
Once the counties started to see the results and that their lives were going to be made infinitely better because of this, they all agreed that maybe they hadn't in the past wanted to share all of their data. They were willing to do that now.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. It's amazing how easily you can get buy-in when you understand that it's going to make your life easier. It's going to make your job easier.
So, Burgandi, over to you again. Once those systems are connected, the next step is actually using that data. Hopefully, it's great data to begin with, but sometimes you have to kind of work through that as well. But how are governments turning better access to data into better decision making along the way?
Burgandi Grace: That's a great question. I think one of the stories that comes to mind is another session we're having here at Connect using tech to improve government performance. We're talking with Nanise Tomlinson who was the open data manager for Roseville, California. And one of the stories that we were discussing and we'll be discussing at this panel is they use Tyler to centralize their data for capital projects.
And by doing that and using our tools to make the data more transparent, accessible, use measures to track the progress, they actually were able to start shifting resources proactively as opposed to reactively and were addressing problems before they became big and were able to take care of actually more capital projects than they had before. So it was an acceleration factor also.
Josh Henderson: And now, Heidi, how can you speak to what kinds of decisions are easier or faster now than maybe they were before an implementation?
Heidi DeVore: Without getting too technical and making everybody's eyes glaze over, I could talk property taxes all day if you want.
One of the necessary pieces of data for us to do our jobs is sale information. When properties sell, we need to know as much as we can about them.
In the past, in order to collect that data and provide it to the counties, for commercial properties, our staff would do the legwork to track down all of the information on sales that had occurred. It would take them about a year to do that.
We would then put all that information onto CDs and physically mail it to the 105 counties.
With our new system, we're able to give them direct access to comparable properties that have sold, instantaneously. They can look them up themselves. No CDs necessary.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. As somebody who loved burning CDs, at one point in my life, I understand how it's, like, a better situation now, but that's a little bit of a nostalgia for sure.
Heidi DeVore: Can your computer even take one?
Josh Henderson: No. I wouldn't even know where to play one at this point.
Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
The National Association of State CIOs or NASCIO has released its top ten priorities for 2026, and they're as relevant as ever.
AI at number one for the first time, cybersecurity is holding strong, and the focus doesn't stop there. Cloud, modernization, accessibility, data, and more are all top of mind for state CIOs.
Jade Champion: And Tyler has a companion to that list, the State CIO 2026 Priorities Playbook, to help agencies take the next step from strategy to execution.
Josh Henderson: You'll find real case studies, honest insight into where progress stalls, and practical first steps across all ten priorities.
Jade Champion: It's free, it's actionable, and it's ready for you right now in the show notes.
Josh Henderson: Go download the State CIO 2026 Priorities Playbook and start turning priorities into progress.
Jade Champion: Now let's get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Josh Henderson: So how has your ability to measure performance or track progress changed as your systems have evolved, and are there things you're able to report on or share today that you potentially couldn't in the past?
Heidi DeVore: It made it all much easier. Counties have direct access to various metrics that allow them to gauge their own performance.
And primarily, what it's done for us well, it's it's it's done a few things for us. One, having that one aggregated database lets us report on data much much easier and faster than we ever did before. We used to have to run queries 105 times. Now we run them once.
But we're now aware of data inconsistencies that we weren't aware of before. Things that need to be cleaned up. So, yes, our lives are better, but we have some to-dos.
Josh Henderson: You've opened up a whole new can of worms, so things are better, which is which is what we like to hear. A lot of this progress is being enabled by advancements in technology, obviously. So, Burgandi, what's changed in recent years that's made this kind of an integration and insight more achievable for organizations?
Burgandi Grace: I think the cloud is a game changer. Like, the fact that everyone used to have all of their data in CDs, in, you know, servers, physical hardware. You had automation systems that were often pretty complex to put in place.
Now that we're starting to see more and more data be available on the cloud, it's making it much easier to to connect.
Josh Henderson: Fantastic. And for organizations trying to move forward, what are some of the most important lessons or best practices you've seen from those who are doing this well?
Burgandi Grace: I think of, you know, the three secrets of French cooking are butter, butter, and more butter. I would say that the three secrets of a good project is communication, communication, more communication.
It starts off at the executive sponsorship level. Making sure that there's a clear vision and drive that's getting communicated to everybody that it touches, which is most likely just about everybody in an organization.
Second, plan message planning early and often for excitement, generating that grassroots, and also keeping the benefits forefront. We've mentioned this a few times now, both of us, but truly, it's like, why are we doing this? And it's something that you can go back to and point to, you know, when things get hard and when there's challenges because they're almost inevitably will be. Practically, I just wanted to also add, forming an early adopter group. When Heidi and I worked together on the connecting the 105 counties together to the state, having a small group of early adopters that were just engaged and excited and were deeply knowledgeable about their field as subject matter experts really, I think, put us off on a good foot, not only from the perspective of, like, garnering support at the grassroots level, so there was starting to be chatter and buzz, but also identifying what the problems were going to be when we scaled.
You know, throw a detractor in there, I think, is always good too. Great to have a whole bunch of champions. Have someone who's going to pick out every single problem with what you're doing, and it's just going to make you that much better when you roll it out across the organization.
Josh Henderson: Thank you both so much. This has been such a great conversation. Really appreciate you taking the time.
Burgandi Grace and Heidi DeVore: Thank you.
Josh Henderson: As we heard today, modernization in the public sector is ultimately about turning fragmented systems and siloed data into a more connected foundation that people can actually use to make better decisions. For the Kansas Department of Revenue, this has meant moving from dozens of disconnected county systems to a more unified environment where data can be accessed faster, shared more consistently, and used more effectively across both state and local levels. Heidi shared how that shift has made reporting and access to information significantly more efficient while also surfacing new opportunities to improve data quality and consistency across counties.
And Burgandi highlighted how the real momentum in modernization is coming from combining better data foundations with cloud, automation, and a focus on solving real operational pain points before scaling.
If you'd like to learn more about the solutions discussed in this episode, check out the show notes for additional resources. We'd also love to hear your feedback. Fill out the listener survey linked in the notes or reach out anytime at podcast@tylertech.com. And be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the show so you never miss an episode.
For Tyler Technologies, I'm Josh Henderson. Thanks for listening to the Tyler Tech Podcast.