Computer Audit Would Reduce State Technology Costs

Computer Audit Would Reduce State Technology Costs

The Associated Press, June 12, 2005

Computer and telephone systems that can't communicate with each other and outmoded technology within government agencies are raising the state's costs and causing inefficiency, lawmakers were told Sunday. Kyle Schafer, who was appointed to lead the Governor's Office of Technology early last month, said the state's technology costs could be cut while simultaneously improving performance.

"We need to conduct a complete inventory of our assets that we have available," Schafer told the interim Joint Committee on Infrastructure. "If we don't have a clue what the assets are, it's going to be very difficult to manage our costs."

Schafer, a former technology director for NiSource Corporate Services, said there is little centralized technology planning within the executive branch of state government.

"My first week on the job, I asked for a list of all our e-mail servers and the operating systems those servers were running," he said. "I was surprised to find a number of servers were using N4, which hasn't been supported by Microsoft for some time."

Those servers are vulnerable to viruses and other problems because Microsoft has stopped offering security patches or updates, Schafer said.

Schafer argued that the state needs to move away from a lowest-bid approach to technology purchasing because that can lead to problems with compatibility and reliability.

"We think we're getting a good price up front, but we have to throw manpower at it behind the scenes," Schafer said.

The state employs about 770 information technology specialists and another 250 contractors.

Schafer acknowledged that streamlining and centralizing the state's technology goals is not a short-term project.

"I realize that standardization is going to take years to achieve," he said. "But what we're going to have to do is drive a stake into the ground and move on from here."

Members of the committee congratulated Schafer on his cost-cutting goals, but cautioned that wrenching control of technology issues from the various state agencies is not going to be easy.

"I think people will hold their information very close to their vest and try not to share things with you for fear that down the road you're going to come back and take it away from them," said Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley.

Schafer is not the first to tackle state government's tangled technology.

The Legislature passed a bill sought by former Gov. Cecil Underwood in 1997 to create the office to coordinate the design and use of computer and other high-tech systems among state agencies. Sam Tully, who served in the post under Underwood, and Keith Comstock and Ed Staats under former Gov. Bob Wise also tried to make state technology more compatible.