FROM LT. GOVERNOR PHIL BRYANT:
The Mississippi Senate passed yet another piece of legislation aimed at more efficiency in state government.In a unanimous vote today the Mississippi Senate approved SB 2785 that calls for reorganizing the state’s information technology system and possibly outsourcing services.The adoption of SB 2785 comes a few days after passing the Smart Budget Act of 2010, a performance-based budgeting system where resources are allocated based on results. Lt. Governor Phil Bryant said, “In these challenging budget times we must think outside the traditional forms of government and find ways to operate more efficiently. I believe technology was designed for efficiency, and this IT reform effort proves that we continue to look for cost cutting measures in government.”
Under the legislation state agencies and institutions will merge their technology services with similar functions and services provided by MDITS to achieve economies of scale. This efficiency will be accomplished through consolidation of duplicative information technology hardware, software, services and personnel in state agencies and institutions.
The legislation addresses several IT related function across state government:
Ø Mandating virtualization of servers.
· Virtualization is a form of shared services where a large server replicates the services of smaller servers.
Ø Authorizes ITS to require state agencies to move virtualized services to the State Data Center.
· Server virtualization can be viewed as part of an overall virtualization trend in enterprise IT that includes storage virtualization, network virtualization, and workload management.
Ø Directing ITS to study the feasibility and desirability of moving to a highly service oriented single platform.
· The whole key here is recognizing the state is one enterprise, not 100 plus separate agencies, boards, and commissions.
Ø Moving most of the 964 non-ITS information technology-related employees under the jurisdiction of ITS.
· ITS should then be required to study the need for each type of position and determine which positions should be eliminated, which positions should remain with the state, and which positions are capable of being transferred to the contracting company.
· Currently, the state has over 1,100 IT related employees, 87% of which do not work for the Department of Information Technology Services.
Ø Requiring all state agencies to provide online services when available.
· The key here is taking more government products such as procurement laws, health standards, and state budget information placing them online thereby giving the citizens of this state greater access to government. Meanwhile, the state can become greener, reducing the costs of generating those documents and disseminating them easier to the public.
Ø Identifying opportunities for, and require, increased shared services among agencies, such as the purchase of computers.
· The use of shared services is the internal version of outsourcing. Under outsourcing, the state would contract with a 3rd party to provide IT services. Under a shared services system, the state is able to consolidate the IT needs of Education and Transportation and other state agencies under ITS.
Ø Changing procurement regulations to ensure that agencies may not avoid the required shared service or mandated data center usage requirements.
· This would eliminate any loop holes in procurement regulations that might allow agencies to escape IT oversight and avoid use of the State Data Center
Ø Giving ITS the power to plan for outsourcing of services where economically feasible.
· Such outsourcing should ensure that ITS would have the power to conduct all necessary oversight activities to ensure effective and efficient delivery of services to state agencies. To assist in this outsourcing effort, ITS should retain a third-party advisor to prepare a comprehensive plan for implementing the outsourcing/consolidation efforts.
Principal author and Senate Subcommittee Chair Merle Flowers said, “I appreciate Lt. Gov. Bryant’s leadership on information technology reform. SB 2785 unanimously passed the Senate and will provide the roadmap for technology cost efficiencies, agency reorganization, and increased online government services accessibility for the taxpayers.”
SB 2785 was drafted after a Senate Subcommittee studied the state’s IT services in 2009. The subcommittee was tasked with analyzing current IT needs of state government. The subcommittee also considered whether those needs would be better served by contracting out to the private sector or continuing to use individual state agencies for that purpose.
Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant requested the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in October 2009 to conduct a comprehensive government-wide analysis of IT services. The Subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Merle Flowers, R-Southaven, was asked to identify opportunities for innovation, consolidation, and savings.
Senate bill 2785 now heads to the Mississippi House of Representatives for consideration.
|
