States march forward with high-profile projects

Georgia state officials overseeing the pending award of the state's $1.6 billion technology infrastructure outsourcing initiative learned a valuable lesson from a failed outsourcing effort under a previous administration.

Instead of letting the process drag on month after month, they are moving it along at a steady clip to keep vendors keenly interested in the opportunity and avoid the frustration that stems from a protracted award process, said Tim Brett, senior manager of state and local information services at market research firm Input Inc.

The race to award the Georgia Infrastructure Transformation (GAIT) 2010 project is like a marathon with no stop for rest, Brett said.

GAIT calls for consolidating information technology infrastructure and shifting infrastructure and telecommunications to private-sector providers.

On April 21, state officials issued requests for proposals to EDS Corp., IBM Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. to bid on the infrastructure services work, according to the Georgia Technology Authority's Web site. It also issued RFPs to EDS, Northrop Grumman and AT&T to bid on the managed network services portion.

Brett's remarks were part of a presentation on state and local market opportunities given Wednesday at Input's State and Local MarketView conference, in Falls Church, Va.

Because they drive savings and improve efficiencies, infrastructure consolidation, shared services and enterprise resource planning initiatives at the state level are among the hottest state opportunities for systems integrators and other technology companies, he said. Other areas that will produce substantial business opportunities during the next few years are health information technology and justice and public safety, he said.

Besides the costs savings involved, another impetus for consolidation, shared-services and enterprise resource planning projects is the need to tap the private sector for IT skills in the wake of state government staff retirements.

Input's top 10 state and local RFP opportunities this year are:

• GAIT.
  
• Pennsylvania shared infrastructure services.
  
• Illinois shared services.
  
• California financial information system
  
• ERP projects in Colorado, West Virginia and Hillsboro County, Fla.
  
• Medicaid management information systems opportunities in California and New York.
  
• Oregon health record bank.
  
• Health IT opportunities in Connecticut, District of Columbia and Kentucky.
  
• Justice and public safety opportunities via various grant programs.
  
• Oregon wireless interoperability network.