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January 29, 2009 By Hilton Collins
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that California state government owes it to taxpayers to implement an IT consolidation to make government run more efficiently.
Schwarzenegger said the move would save $2 billion to $4 billion over the next five years and that CIO Teri Takai will elevate the state's status as an IT leader.
"We can take that money and use it for important programs whether it is in health care or whether it is in education, and so on," he said.
Schwarzenegger's comments were prompted by a question from Government Technology at a Sacramento Press Club event on Wednesday.
On Jan. 16, Schwarzenegger announced the Governor's Reorganization Plan (GRP), which includes IT consolidation among a list of cost-cutting moves. The consolidation would bring the work of 130-plus agencies under the Office of the State Chief Information Officer.
The GRP will be reviewed by the Little Hoover Commission (LHC), and the group will have 60 days after that to recommend further action to the state Legislature. Thirty days after being submitted to the LHC, the GRP will also be submitted the Legislature, which will have 60 days to let the GRP take affect or issue a resolution against it.
"With the next two, three years, she (Takai) will make the state of California No. 1, and I think that's where we ought to be -- is No. 1 -- because we're a high technology state," he said.
Schwarzenegger did not answer the question if there would be layoffs coming for state IT workers, but Takai said last week there were no layoffs planned.
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Perhaps the Governor should start with consolidating his own data center located in the Governor's Office. Consolidation would save the taxpayers millions of dollars and streamline IT. The Governor's office is a small agency in terms of employees, so there is no legitimate reason for the Governor to have his own IT operation when he is pushing consolidation for larger agencies. Consolidating the Governor's data center would save the taxpayers millions of dollars and eliminate unnecessary redundancies.
How long will the non-IT savvy decision makers continue to listen to the non-IT savvy bean counters who tell them how much money they can save by putting all their eggs into one basket WITHOUT thinking about what they will be doing to themselves? Ask your in house professionsals, for heaven's sake. IT consolidation in state governments is a terrible idea. Any money you save will be offset by the inefficiency that automatically follows any centrally administered governmental program. We see this time and time again - IF you go and ask the line animals, the IT pros and government workers. If you ask the always out-of-touch managers and directors they will happily tell you how wonderfull it is. Well, THEY get fast service, anyway... arnold, if you want to waste lots of time and money, go ahead