What to Know:

• DIR Deputy Executive Director Steve Pier has been appointed executive director of the Texas Workforce Commission.
• Pier's move comes amid broader leadership changes at DIR, including the departure of Executive Director Amanda Crawford.
• Pier joined DIR in 2019 and played a key role in agencywide initiatives, including government relations, risk management and strategic planning.

What to Know:

• Texas DIR will no longer award cooperative contracts based on specific brands, focusing instead on solutions and specifications.
• The new model is intended to increase vendor competition, reduce brand lock-in and improve pricing for agencies.
• Vendors can still submit offers if their products meet the functional requirements outlined in future solicitations.

What to Know:

• Casey Kennedy, former CIO of the Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA), has joined Mission Critical Partners as a project manager.
• He brings more than 30 years of IT and public-sector experience, including 15 years leading statewide judicial technology initiatives.
• Texas OCA has not named his replacement as of this writing.

What to Know:

• Texas Chief AI and Innovation Officer Tony Sauerhoff will become president of the GovRAMP Board, succeeding Arizona CIO J.R. Sloan.
• GovRAMP supports government data security and risk‑based decision-making, and the leadership change reflects efforts to expand its reach and collaboration across states.
• Sloan will continue his state IT leadership in Arizona and take on a new role as president of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.

What to Know:

• Texas State Technical College will receive $3.5 million from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund to expand its Accelerated Semiconductor Technician Training Program in Hutto.
• The program will prepare students for semiconductor fabrication careers in just 10 weeks, with training in wafer processing, gas control systems and cleanroom environments.
• This is the latest in a series of awards issued under the Texas CHIPS Act to grow the state’s semiconductor workforce and infrastructure.

Oracle’s DB@ partnerships refers to initiatives in which Oracle offers its flagship database products as managed services running directly within other major cloud providers' infrastructure — AWS, Azure, & Google.

This year marked the inception of BMC Helix as an independent company. And we’re not just growing. We’re building for the future, boldly and for the long term. That’s why being recognized as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Service Management, Q4 2025 report is more than recognition.

Whether launching a customer-facing app or a cloud-native platform or integrating emerging technologies, effective quality assurance (QA) ensures software performs flawlessly, consistently, securely and swiftly. With AI, this strategic pillar of modern enterprises is undergoing a transformation — evolving into intelligent QA that delivers greater speed, precision and adaptability in testing.