OVERVIEW
The Kansas Office of Information and Technology Services (OITS) is reshaping how state agencies deliver digital services. With a long‑term goal of consolidating IT services and creating more secure, accessible, and consistent online experiences, OITS migrated 27 aging, unsupported websites onto a modern Granicus platform — and has since expanded to support more than 37 agency sites, with even more preparing to join.
By standardizing with Granicus Service Cloud solutions, OITS has built a sustainable enterprise model that simplifies support, strengthens conformance with ADA requirements, and gives agencies of all sizes access to reliable, user‑friendly tools. The result is a more resilient statewide digital ecosystem that can grow with Kansas’s needs.
For years, Kansas agencies operated in a fragmented digital environment, relying on outdated technology and inconsistent hosting approaches that were difficult to support and nearly impossible to scale.
OITS was maintaining a legacy on‑premise infrastructure that the team could no longer sustain — and with updated ADA requirements approaching, staying on unsupported systems posed significant risk. “If we had been facing that with our prior solution, it would have been a disaster,” said Ludwick.
At the same time, many agencies lacked the resources to modernize independently. OITS needed a centrally supported solution that delivered modern functionality without requiring agencies to become web experts.
Kansas adopted an enterprise strategy to support dozens of agencies under a single statewide agreement with Granicus. This consolidated approach provided the scalable foundation OITS needed; it also required a significant, multi‑site website modernization effort.
OITS approached the work as an opportunity to reset how digital services are delivered statewide. Extensive upfront planning helped the team anticipate challenges and avoid issues experienced in past projects.
Rather than treating the 27 migrations as separate efforts, OITS and Granicus ran them as one coordinated program, with dedicated project leads from both parties, plus multiple supporting project managers from Granicus, who stayed in constant communication. This structure kept timelines on track and allowed the project to move efficiently even as requirements shifted.
During the migration, OITS also worked with the governor’s office to introduce a standardized stylesheet, creating a more cohesive and modern look across state websites. By the project’s end, OITS had established a sustainable enterprise model: a modern CMS environment managed centrally but used flexibly by agencies. OITS manages one solution and vendor, while agencies benefit from having documented processes, shared templates, and a support structure built around a single platform.
With legacy systems replaced by a unified Granicus platform, Kansas now operates with a far more stable, secure, and accessible digital foundation. ADA compliance has improved significantly. What once would have required costly manual redevelopment is now maintained at the product level.
“We chose Granicus as our partner because of their insight on government needs for communication tools that prioritize accessibility and availability,” said Ludwick.
Agencies are also seeing stronger day‑to‑day reliability. The shift away from outdated or improvised hosting environments has reduced technical risk and made it easier for contributors to focus on content rather than troubleshooting. With every site running on the same CMS, OITS can quickly identify patterns, address issues, and provide more responsive help than agencies could access individually.
The success of the initial 27‑site migration has sparked broader adoption. Additional agencies have joined the statewide platform, bringing OITS’s portfolio to more than 37 sites — with several more preparing to come online. This momentum reflects renewed confidence in OITS’s digital services and strengthens the case for continued statewide consolidation.
