Last year, San Francisco instituted a local level computer "store" - a preferred bidder contract system that provides PC-related tools through a "best services and price" contract. Three technology vendors, selected through a competitive bid process, compete to provide hardware, software, peripherals and support through bundled pricing packages. The computer store offers each of the 60 agencies and departments of San Francisco the autonomy to select the best systems for individual applications and countywide standardization by limiting the types of tools sold.
Deborah Vincent-James - staff director for San Francisco's Electronic Information Processing Steering Committee (EIPSC) - and initiator of the computer store - said, "This is a win-win situation. The store provides flexibility to agencies and departments while establishing city- and county-wide standards for technology implementation."
The three vendors provide the agencies and departments the same price for hardware/software bundles from a stock of at least nine different standard computers. Users help support the store by paying a 1.9 percent fee for administration of the contract to the EIPSC.
Departments and agencies of San Francisco say that the best part of the computer store is the built-in delivery process. The contract provides for the delivery of products within 7-14 business days. In addition, each vendor has one account representative assigned to the city that is required by contract to service technical problems within four hours. "Satisfaction has been above 80 percent for those departments and agencies taking advantage of the computer store," said Vincent-James.
Vincent-James and her staff anticipated the computer store would service $5 to $6 million in contracts during the first year. The computer store exceeded those expectations and did over $8 million in business. "This is just a small portion of future business," predicted Vincent-James, as the number of agencies and departments taking advantage of the store continues to increase.
Seeing The Benefit
San Francisco's drive to ease the initiation of information technology has helped agencies and departments take an aggressive stand toward automation. No longer do they have to fear or dread the purchase order process and the long-term analysis and vendor selections that were previously commonplace.
Instead, agencies and departments are free to concentrate on implementing the correct solution for a particular effort with the knowledge that these demands will be met in short order. Among those already taking advantage of the computer store are the Department of Human Resources, the Department of Health, Department of Public Works, Emergency Services and many more.
In the last year, the Department of Human Resources has fully migrated tools and applications from an outdated legacy system to a distributed local area network (LAN) environment. Currently, the system is operated by 100 users supporting more than 28,000 government employees.
San Francisco police, fire and EMS groups are consolidating automation efforts to build a technology-driven emergency operation center. The computer store will help these groups find common ground in requirements.
In the near future, the Department of Public Works will be using the computer store to select a geographic information system (GIS) to create a citywide GIS.
The Department of Public Health has just embarked on an effort to build an integrated managed care system. This network is designed to link 3,000 to 4,000 user PCs and workstations located at about 500 different clinical treatment sites. These sites include full-function ambulatory care clinics, outpatient specialty clinics, and clinical research areas. Public Health is implementing a suite of enterprise-wide systems that will provide a central online clinical database of medical records that includes clinical, demographic, and financial information on all patients.
David Counter, director of information systems for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, explained, "The store has helped us expedite the implementation of PCs and workstation hardware as well as local area network hardware and software and stay on target with our schedules."
Counter added, "Without the computer store, it would have taken many more months to select a bidder that could meet all of our requirements. Now we are assured of having three very good choices and whichever we choose will meet the demands. It has enabled us to stay within a reasonable time frame for automation."
Already, Counter and his staff have been able to turn around purchase orders in two weeks, a big change over the previous four to six month process.
The Drive to Change
San Francisco's computer store procurement process is a key part of a changing business philosophy going on throughout the city and county. San Francisco spends about $25 million annually on information technology that has been regulated by EIPSC for more than a decade.
Three years ago, under the guidance of Vincent-James, that role began to change from a dictatorial role to a more democratic role. Vincent-James explained, "The idea is to put power back into the hands of the agencies and departments that understand what they need from technology. The computer store grew out of this idea."
Vincent-James said she and the committee retain a certain degree of control over the process and the selection of tools for each of the departments and agencies. "We are an information technology policy committee and therefore need to keep a close watch on standards, policies, approvals for funding, and strategic direction of the city/county as a whole," Vincent-James pointed out. "At the same time, we've put much of the power for selection of tools back into the hands of our users - where it belongs."
This is only the beginning according to San Francisco officials. Vincent-James said that only 75 percent of the agencies and departments have taken advantage of the store, and that number will continue to rise over the coming years as agencies and departments garner funding and increased demands on existing systems.
Piggyback Clause
Besides the advantage to local government agencies and departments, San Francisco has built in a piggyback clause that allows other counties to participate in the store. Already, surrounding counties are moving to take advantage of the San Francisco computer store through the clause.
San Francisco leaders confess that even the computer store won't put them on the leading edge of technology because of limited budgets. But it will keep them from getting stuck implementing outdated technologies that are two and three generations old. Vincent-James said, "Information technology is the backbone to support our business requirements, particularly in this age of downsizing and diminished financial revenue. Speedy processes like the computer store get the right tools in place as quickly as possible, driving better service to our constituency."
