I substituted for Georgia Technology Authority Director Patrick Moore at the state's Digital Government Summit yesterday because Moore had 1.2 billion reasons not to be there at the appointed hour.
He was alongside Governor Sonny Perdue to announce the signing of a pair of contracts intended to consolidate and outsource the state government's IT operations. The larger of the two, worth $873 million over eight years, was awarded to IBM to take over infrastructure -- from the raised floor data centers, mainframes, services and disaster recovery to PC and laptops. The other will pay AT&T $346 million over 5 years to manage network services for the state. Both contracts have two one-year renewal options.
The state estimates that it will save an estimated $180 million over the term of the contracts but it comes at a cost to state employees, 92 of whom will lose their jobs in May 2009 and 322 others will be offered jobs with IBM and AT&T.
IBM and AT&T were effectively sole bidders after two other companies withdrew their bids before the apparently successful vendors were announced.
The award comes on the heels of a decision late last month by the state of Texas to suspend an $863 million outsourcing project with IBM to transfer state records to a centralized computer system. In a letter to state IT officials, Governor Rick Perry said the company had failed to backup the data of more than 20 state agencies.
As for my presentation, you can download it here [11-08CDGStealThisIdea1.6.pdf].
He was alongside Governor Sonny Perdue to announce the signing of a pair of contracts intended to consolidate and outsource the state government's IT operations. The larger of the two, worth $873 million over eight years, was awarded to IBM to take over infrastructure -- from the raised floor data centers, mainframes, services and disaster recovery to PC and laptops. The other will pay AT&T $346 million over 5 years to manage network services for the state. Both contracts have two one-year renewal options.
The state estimates that it will save an estimated $180 million over the term of the contracts but it comes at a cost to state employees, 92 of whom will lose their jobs in May 2009 and 322 others will be offered jobs with IBM and AT&T.
IBM and AT&T were effectively sole bidders after two other companies withdrew their bids before the apparently successful vendors were announced.
The award comes on the heels of a decision late last month by the state of Texas to suspend an $863 million outsourcing project with IBM to transfer state records to a centralized computer system. In a letter to state IT officials, Governor Rick Perry said the company had failed to backup the data of more than 20 state agencies.
As for my presentation, you can download it here [11-08CDGStealThisIdea1.6.pdf].
Its a shame that 92 employees will lose there jobs, I find it hard to believe sometimes, they say they will save $180 million dollars, paying off 92 workers does not save you that amount. It seams to be the way of most governments these days that they will just pay for someone else to do all the work instead of having there own infrastructure. I am unsure whats best? what do you think?