Florida drops Accenture help-desk agreement

Florida has canceled a seven-year, $86.7 million technology services help-desk contract with Accenture because the contract wasn't meeting state agencies' needs, said Simone Marstiller, Florida's chief information officer.

The service offering, known as the Enterprise Technology Services Desk, was structured in a way that really wasn't doing what it was intended, Marstiller said today.

"For various reasons, we weren't able to get the level of service to the agencies that they needed," she said.

"I reached the conclusion, and Accenture understands and concurs, that at this time, the best thing for Florida to do is terminate this exhibit," she said.

In accordance with the contract terms, the Florida State Technology Office provided Accenture Aug. 18 with a 90-days written notice that it was terminating the contract for convenience.

Marstiller's letter to Accenture, which Washington Technology obtained from the State Technology Office, gave no rationale for the decision.

The agreement, or "exhibit" as Marstiller referred to it, is part of a comprehensive, statewide, technology outsourcing contract known as MyFlorida Alliance that the state inked with Accenture of Hamilton, Bermuda, and BearingPoint Inc. of McLean, Va., last year.

The enterprise technology services help-desk contract was one of three in effect under the alliance. The other two agreements, for applications management services and statewide data center operations, remain in effect.

Accenture is performing statewide applications management services under a seven-year, $46.7 million contract, while BearingPoint is performing statewide data center operations under a seven-year, $126 million contract.

The state wants to regroup before proceeding with another version of the contract, Marstiller said.