Virginia Is For Outsourcing

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State CIOs are in a jam. Like their private-sector counterparts, most are trying to deliver new applications and services and modernize aging IT infrastructures on no-frills budgets. Yet, political considerations rule out a cost-cutting tactic widely employed elsewhere: offshore outsourcing.

Virginia says it has an answer, one that could serve as a model for other states. Virginia last week became the first state to hand over the bulk of its IT operations to one vendor through a 10-year outsourcing agreement that will pay defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. more than $2 billion. The deal, if approved by state legislators, is designed to save the state $200 million, upgrade its IT systems, spur economic development and IT education, and save state tech workers' jobs.

Technology Secretary Huang says "the appetite just wasn't there" for increased IT spending.

"This partnership will provide high-tech jobs with good salaries," Gov. Mark Warner said at a news conference in Lebanon, Va., last week. A possible candidate for president in 2008, the outgoing Democratic governor needed to find an approach that would solve many of the state's biggest IT problems without sending tech jobs overseas.

And the problems are extensive. Virginia's IT services are delivered piecemeal to departments, rather than statewide. Many of its IT workers are approaching retirement age, and its infrastructure is creaky. "Our data center is over 20 years old and is a security risk," Secretary of Technology Eugene Huang says. He contends that Virginia's $220 million annual IT budget isn't keeping pace with its needs. "We tried to get increased funding for IT projects, but the appetite just wasn't there," Huang says.

In a bidding process that involved well-known IT outsourcing specialists, including EDS and IBM, Northrop Grumman, best known for its work for the military, was the surprise choice. "They not only are going to manage operations within our current budget, but they're providing us with new and improved infrastructure," Huang says. Northrop Grumman will operate and maintain Virginia's mainframe, server, desktop, and network operations. The state also is set to tap CGI-AMS to roll out new applications designed to modernize the delivery of numerous services to Virginia residents. Northrop Grumman is partnering with Hewlett-Packard and Gateway in the implementation.

	Virginia Gov. Warner contends the deal "will provide high-tech jobs with good salaries." Photo by Andre Teague/Bristol Herald Courier/AP

With no offshore component, the agreement also defuses a political bomb that has brought down other state outsourcing deals: More than 900 state IT workers will be offered jobs at Northrop Grumman with 4% salary increases and signing bonuses. The company must retain the workers for at least a year.

Other states have tripped up as they've tried to navigate the political sensitivities of outsourcing. New Jersey and Indiana have drawn opposition over plans to use low-wage IT contractors in India. Connecticut in 1999 scuttled what was supposed to have been a comprehensive deal with EDS worth up to $1.5 billion. Protests from labor, combined with intense public scrutiny, ultimately killed it.

Virginia officials courted employees before proceeding with the Northrop Grumman contract, a strategy that seems to have paid off. "Taking care of employees is both the morally right thing to do and the smart business thing to do," says Bryan Drake, a state IT employee and member of the Virginia Governmental Employees Association.