The Digital States Performance Institute (DSPI)

Behemoth California IT Operations May Consolidate

Mar 8, 2009

California IT is huge with its $3 billion in annual expenditures - a virtual goldmine for vendors seeking contracts - and it might soon be under one person: California CIO Teri Takai.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's IT reorganization plan, if passed by the California Legislature, will consolidate the Office of the State Chief Information Officer, Office of Information Security and Privacy Protection, Department of Technology Services and the Department of General Services - Telecommunication Division under Teri Takai, potentially saving the state $1.5 billion over five years.

Takai would have authority over all IT procurement and enterprise IT management and all software contracts, office automation tools, data centers/computer rooms, servers, storage and networks would be consolidated under her over the next five years.

The plan was a result of the Little Hoover Commission (LHC) report ‘A New Legacy System: Using Technology to Drive Performance."

The LHC approved of the plan after hearing supporting testimonies from P.K. Agrawal, director of the Department of Technology, and Mark Weatherford, executive officer of the Department of Information Security and Privacy Protection and ‘lessons learned' from Utah CIO Stephen Fletcher.

The legislature will review the plan within the next three months and reach a decision.