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March 6, 2013 By Amy Stewart
The California State Controller’s Office (SCO) 21st Century Project, also called MyCalPAYS, made headlines recently when a multimillion-dollar software agreement with Pennsylvania-based SAP, the company hired to implement the project, was cancelled.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) recommended on Wednesday, March 6, that ongoing problems call for pausing the program entirely for at least a year while state government evaluates its oversight procedures. The non-partisan fiscal and policy agency also questions whether or not integrating the state’s payroll systems is even feasible.
“After the termination of the project’s contract with its primary vendor, the state has spent roughly $260 million on [MyCalPAYS] with few tangible deliverables,” the LAO report states.
The LAO recommended the SCO, the California Technology Agency (CTA) and the Department of General Services, which also have some oversight over the program, to assess their own oversight procedures and how to fix these issues. The report also calls for CTA to contract with an independent firm to access SAP’s performance and the potential of simplifying the state’s payroll practices.
SCO issued a notice to SAP on Oct. 15, 2012, citing 13 grievances and prompting SAP to fix problems regarding planning, quality assurance and inadequate scheduling. Ultimately, the contract with SAP was terminated on Feb. 8, 2013.
“The SCO worked with SAP in good faith to go through the errors and ensure that SAP was addressing them,” wrote Jim Lombard, SCO’s Chief Administrative Officer, in a Feb. 8 email to SCO employees. “However, eight months of payroll runs have yet to produce one pay cycle without material errors and have instead exposed a system riddled with grave errors.”
Lombard also said the SCO is rolling back the first wave of 1,300 employees on MyCalPays to the legacy system that is working reliably to pay the state’s other 240,000 employees.
In a Feb. 8 Los Angeles Times article, SAP spokesman Andy Kendzie said the company was “extremely disappointed” about the contract termination. “SAP stands behind our software and actions,” Kendzie said in a statement. “SAP also believes we have satisfied all contractual obligations in this project.”
This story was originally published at Techwire.net
Photo of California Controller John Chiang, who axed the $89.7 million contract with SAP in early February, courtesy of AP Photos/Rich Pedroncelli
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So, why don't the states collectively figure out how to manage technology projects... create a realistic model to move government into the digital world and share the expense and rewards. Is there such a vehicle? Anyone have any ideas?
The public doesn't want to pay salaries that attracts (and KEEPS) decent talent, then wonders why things like this happes. Pennywise and pound foolish. Talent costs money. Lack of talent costs more.
Mike you're right. While the public has fun bashing public employees and doing everything they can the reduce our salaries and benefits, they will see the light when they aren't getting the services they want. It is only going to get worse. At our department, we haven't had a raise in 20 yrs now and through attrition cannot support the workload because we can't hire good talent. No one good will work for such low wages. Some of us hang on as we are close to retirement but being able to hire talent isn't going to happen.
Mike and Ron are both correct. Until California gets serious about long term workforce and succession planning in the IT realms, including recruiting, retaining, and homegrowing the next generation of executives and leadership, these debacles will continue to play out. Also, the procurement, project management, and general oversight of such major next-gen IT projects could use some improvement.
One of our chief concerns is succession planning, particularly in the IT section. Budget constraints and attrition are our primary hurdles. The only solution, in our view, is collaboration between agencies. We have formed collaborative committees to focus attention on common areas of concern. So far it has shown positive results. As the institutional knowledge and experience drains away, we pursue short term solutions by appealing to other agencies. The long term solutions are problematic.