Virginia to begin IT outsourcing evaluations

Virginia will begin detailed evaluations next week of proposals from three integrators for its ambitious state IT outsourcing.

The detailed review starts Monday and will take about 90 days to complete, said Virginia CIO Lemuel Stewart. After that, the finalists will have 60 days to respond in another round of proposals, he said.

"From there, we will decide if we want to move to the next phase of actually negotiating an agreement," Stewart said.

The project, known as the IT Transformation Initiative, will include an IT infrastructure component as well as an enterprise resource planning component. The IT infrastructure part encompasses everything from data center operations and disaster recovery to enterprise messaging and help-desk support.

Although state officials have not yet put a price tag on the project, analysts and industry officials said it could be a multibillion-dollar deal.

In November, the state selected three integrators to advance to the final stage of the procurement. IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., and Northrop Grumman Information Technology of Herndon, Va., were selected to compete for the IT infrastructure component, while CGI-AMS of Fairfax, Va., and IBM will compete for re-engineering statewide ERP components.

The IT Transformation Initiative will be structured as a public-private partnership where the contractor shares the risk with the state by investing financial resources in the initiative.