In his blog The Risk Factor, blogger Bob Charette wrotes about Wisconsin's four-year effort to consolidate networks to save money and improve administration. The state auditor has some results:
- Consolidating servers was supposed to cost $12.8 million, but the initiative has cost the state almost $91 million and if completed as predicted next year will cost $110 million.
- Wisconsin has consolidated e-mail systems at a cost of $13.4 million - a bit more than the estimated cost of $2.6 million.
- The state wanted to create the Integrated Business Information System to replace much of the existing administrative software used by state agencies. The estimated cost: $135 million, with predicted savings of as much as $91 million over a ten year period. But in April 2008 Wisconsin suspended work on the system because state financial problems kept agencies from providing IT personnel to staff the project. About $9 million had been spent on the project.
Says Charette:
Given the previous overruns of nine and five times over planned budget on much simpler IT projects, taxpayers in Wisconsin should probably heave a huge sigh of relief at the IBIS suspension.
COMMENTS
How could the original estimates and work plans be that flawed? Do people just not know how to plan and estimate work any longer, or ???
How is government supposed to be trusted on really hard things (e.g. health care) when it makes such a mess of relatively simple things like consolidating servers?
The folks of Wisconsin should be reading someone the riot act. To the extent that Federal matching funds were used on this mess, so should the rest of us.
Wonder if the civil servants involved will get their lunches eaten? Or the contractors?
arclight 09/23/09 06:41 am ET