State planning more multi-billion dollar information technology projects

The State of California, which has an almost unbelievable record of failure on big information technology projects, is planning to spend billions more on upgrades to its information technology infrastructure. While California Chief Information Officer Clark Kelso credits the forward momentum to “California’s political leadership” the practice of sole source contracts, cronyism and small business lock-outs has continued under the Schwarzenegger administration. A recent special report in Washington Technology covered some of their most recent plans:

According to California Chief Information Officer Clark Kelso, some 177 information technology projects worth roughly $5 billion are already under way throughout the state. The projects are in various stages of development. Within the next 12 to 24 months, California will be conducting an additional 60 or 70 procurements, large and small. In aggregate, Kelso estimates, potential contract value should amount to at least another $2 billion.

“We have a series of modernizations that have to take place,” Kelso said. Kelso credits the forward momentum to California’s political leadership, which has come to a consensus that a patchwork approach to IT won’t work. The new emphasis is on shared architectures and infrastructure. Although complex and initially expensive, these solutions avoid the pricier alternative and compounding costs of the status quo.

One such example is a project for a statewide, integrated financial and administrative system based on enterprise resource planning software. Once it is fully implemented, the project, named FI$Cal, will manage resources and dollars for a wide array of administrative processes, from budgeting and procurement to cost accounting and human resources activities.

Later this year, the state will draw up a request for proposals, with a contract awarded sometime in 2008. Its value could run as high as $1.4 billion in eight to 10 years.

Jens Egerland, managing director for California state and local government with Accenture Ltd., said two major trends are at work in the state. One trend involves modernizing and updating longtime legacy systems, and the other concerns enterprise initiatives like the FI$Cal project. “California is a great marketplace to be in for IT right now,” he said.

California also will be implementing what it is calling a Spatial Data Infrastructure, comprising framework geospatial datasets, systems, standards, policies and practices. By this summer, the state plans to set up a Geospatial Services Office. By integrating the state’s extensive datasets on human enterprises with maps of California’s natural terrain and geography, leaders hope to optimize economic development and other business-related activities.