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February 14, 2013 By Colin Wood
An IT upgrade in progress for seven years at the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) -- dubbed the IT Modernization project -- was canceled Jan. 31.
The $208 million, two-system project was created to upgrade legacy hardware systems for the DMV's driver's license system and vehicle registration system. While upgrades to the driver's license system are “nearly finished,” according to Christine Lally, assistant secretary for communications and legislation at the California Technology Agency, "minimal work" has been done to upgrade the vehicle registration system.
Electronic Data Systems, now owned by Hewlett-Packard (HP), was contracted to assist in the project for about $76 million, approximately $50 million of which was paid out before the agency canceled the contract on Jan. 31.
“We appreciate the work of Hewlett-Packard in helping us complete important upgrades to the state’s driver license system,” said Acting DMV Director Jean Shiomoto via email. “Minimal work has begun on the vehicle registration portion, so this is a natural breaking point for the project. We will now work with the Technology Agency to develop a new plan for finishing the last remaining part of this project.”
The scheduled deadline for the vehicle registration system upgrade was May 2013, and the vendor contract was scheduled to end in November 2013. Technology Agency officials determined that the vehicle registration system upgrade would not be finished by these deadlines.
This cancellation, Lally said, allows for the Technology Agency and DMV to "take a fresh look at planning the vehicle registration system upgrades.”
While HP is among the largest suppliers of hardware to the state of California, this cancellation represents at least the second major contract with the state that the company has lost in recent years. Formerly the contractor for the California Medicaid Management Information System, Hewlett-Packard lost a 10-year, $1.6 billion contract renewal to a Xerox subsidiary in 2010.
Since HP took over the DMV's IT Modernization project, it says it has worked with the state "to help millions of Californians experience the benefits of a modernized system," the company said. "HP values its relationship with the state of California and is committed to the success of our clients' IT modernization."
At this point, the California Technology Agency and DMV will re-evaluate how best to proceed.
Techwire.net's Bill Maile contributed to this story.
You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/e-government/DMV-IT-Modernization-Project.html
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This is what happens when you allow a service provider with rampant management neglect, a 'profit-at-all-cost' mentality (i.e: off-shoring mission critical skills/functions to inexperienced kids fresh out of school), along with total disregard for customer needs, to provide IT solutions for your business. If you think HP IT Services looks bad from the outside, you should see it from the inside. Exiting contracts like this are the norm, and not the exception.
Not to mention the fact that HP purged many employees with the skill set needed to do this job when they acquired EDS. There's a reason that HP is basically still just a hardware company.
In early 2003, CT signed an agreement for EDS, now HP, to build a data warehouse for Medicaid Claims data. The data would come from an MMIS that EDS was already running for the state. Phase 2 was to add Eligibility data from a separate mainframe system, just for the Medicaid cases, and Phase 3 was to add Elig. data for the other programs on the mainframe. Phase 2 was to be completed "no later than 10-31-05" and Phase 3 "no later than 10-31-06". HP is just now, Feb. 2013 finishing up on implementing Phase 2. California was right to get out when they did.
This fiasco has been going on for 25 years, and Frank Zolin has still got a job as DMV Director. Check out the following websites ..... http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/bp/app/alter/student/useful/ch12cdmv.html http://articles.latimes.com/1994-04-28/news/mn-51501_1_computer-parts If Frank Zolin was employed by a public company and the mistakes were made under his 'watch', he would be standing in line at California's Employment Development Department (a.k.a., the unemployment line)
California civil service pays rock bottom price for bottom of the barrel talent. You get what you pay for.