Recently in Information Technology Category

Soruce: Kathleen Hickey, Federal Computer Week (LA), Sep 01, 2010

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's technology outsourcing cost the city an unnecessary $1 million more than if the work had been done in-house, according to a new report from Ed Quatrevaux, the city's inspector general.

The report, issued Aug. 30th, found the city's contract with Telecommunications Development Corp. wasted more than $750,000 in an eight-month period from salaries alone.

Source: By Rosalind S. Helderman and Anita Kumar, Washington Post (VA), Thursday, September 2, 2010; B01

RICHMOND -- The data storage unit that failed in a warehouse outside of Richmond last week, wreaking havoc in the computer networks of a number of Virginia agencies for more than a week, is a ubiquitous bit of technology used by virtually every major company and government in the country.

The crash -- still baffling to state officials -- exposes the vulnerability of modern, massively complex interconnected computer networks, and is being closely watched by information technology professionals across the country.

Source: By Phil Kabler. Gazette (WV), August 9, 2010

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Legislators Monday continued to grill state Chief Technology Officer Kyle Schafer about prospects for outsourcing nearly 600 state information technology jobs -- and Schafer continued to stress that discussions are extremely preliminary.

Schafer told the legislative Joint Committee on Technology that outsourcing is just one option to reduce the state's $35 million annual cost to operate various IT services for state agencies.

Source: By Chad Vander Veen, Government Technology (VA), Aug 18, 2010,

When Bob McDonnell took office as governor of Virginia in early 2010, he brought with him renewed hope that the state's troubled IT outsourcing contract with Northrop Grumman could be salvaged.

......On March 15, McDonnell signed legislation that restructured the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) and put the state's CIO directly under the governor's authority. Shortly thereafter, McDonnell appointed longtime Virginia lawmaker Sam Nixon to this post. Nixon, who has several decades of IT experience, was one of the lawmakers who helped write VITA into existence in 2003.

Source:
Rick Orlov, Contra Costa Times (CA) 08/10/2010

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation wasted $855,000 and went over budget by nearly $2.5 million on a contract to equip parking enforcement vehicles with GPS systems, City Controller Wendy Greuel said Tuesday.

A new audit found that Transportation Department officials failed to properly oversee the $1.5 million contract with Integrated System Resources. As a result, the company eventually received $4 million.

Source: GovTech,  Jul 28, 2010, By Matt Williams, Associate Editor

The difficulties in Texas and Virginia haven't discouraged all states from considering IT outsourcing. In fact, as IBM and Texas worked in July to salvage their partnership, North Carolina set in motion a statewide IT assessment that could ultimately result in the state partnering with one or more vendors.

Source: By KEN KUSMER, Associated Press (IN), July 21, 2010

 Indiana's human services agency says it found problems with IBM Corp.'s takeover of welfare intake services early in the project and suggested delays, but yielded to the company's wishes to expand the project.

IBM, meanwhile, claims the Family and Social Services Administration seized more than $9 million worth of its computers, servers and office furniture without paying for them after Gov. Mitch Daniels fired the technology giant last year.

Source: by Glenn Pasanen, Gotham Gazette (NY), Jul 2010

..... The CityTime computerized payroll project, significantly over budget, is "a prime example" of mismanagement, according to the comptroller. Juan Gonzales in a June 4 Daily News column pointed out that this system has already cost $700 million, 10 times its original estimated cost. It is not near completion, and the mayor is spending another $100 million on it this year

Earlier in the year the Daily News found that 230 private CityTime consultants received an average of $400,000 each this year. (City computer technicians cost an average $77,000 a year.) At a June 16 labor rally outside City Hall, Lillian Roberts, executive director of the city's largest union, District Council 37, argued that a 15 percent reduction in city consultant contracts would save over $316 million and thus eliminate all service cuts and preserve city jobs.

Source: ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News (TX) Tuesday, July 20, 2010By

Agencies that help Texans renew their automobile registration, draw unemployment benefits and apply for food stamps and Medicaid face crushing demands, even as their technology contractor can't provide mundane services, a top state official said Monday.

 .....  Referrring to a troubled $863 million state contract with IBM, Swedberg described to a House budget panel "a major backlog of work requests" that he said haven't been heeded by the contractor.

Many, he said, are day-to-day requests, such as adding memory to a server, restoring a file or resetting a password. It's "frustrating ... and more importantly, affects the agencies' ability to serve citizens," he said.

Source: Chad Vander Veen, Governing, June 1, 2010

..... There's a lot that can go wrong in a huge government IT outsourcing deal--too much, according to many critics and experts who track these partnerships. Even those at the helm of IT outsourcing efforts seen as paradigms for other agencies to emulate agree that traditional outsourcing arrangements may be on the way out. Key among the reasons these mega-projects are trouble is the weak governance used to oversee such projects, and lack of focus on the actual goal for outsourcing IT

..... States and localities are in a unique but difficult position thanks to numerous and varied stakeholders and, often, no single authority to which a public enterprise must answer. In the private sector, all roads lead to the CEO. In government, the reality is different, which is why outsourcing pieces of the enterprise--usually multiple, alternative methods--is growing in appeal.