Texas' Department of Information Resources has hit the re-set button on an outsourcing scheme gone awry: It's asked IT companies to submit bids by Jan. 5 for the work that an IBM-led consortium, Team for Texas, has performed since 2006 under a 7 1/2-year, $863 million contract.
Yes, it's only 2010. Welcome to Texas state government and its recurring pain with high-tech privatization. You can click here to get all the information about this re-procurement.
Suffice it to say there's already grumbling among technology companies and their Austin lobbyists. They're complaining about:
1) A lack of details and a more general approach in the request for bids than was expected. While there had been talk the state might break the work into smaller pieces, you can see there are two things being bid, "service delivery" and "service integrator." That's a lot of stuff for 29 state agencies. One IT giant's lobbyist said "that suggests the plan is to hand it off to all the subcontractors, and keep the people who created the mess." Department spokesman Thomas Johnson responded, "I can't comment on an open procurement."
2) Any award of the work may not happen until August, after lawmakers have gone home -- or at least, we hope. That has raised some eyebrows. Why 8 months? Johnson replied, "I can't comment on an open procurement."
3) The links and documents about the re-procurement weren't posted on the department's website until Friday night, between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., Central Time. "That's probably about right," Johnson said, when I asked about the nocturnal posting.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/11/state-rebids-ibm-deal-thats-go.html
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