Consolidation Is Catching On.

• Author: Greenberg, Pam
• Position: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

When ranking their top 10 priorities for this year, state chief information officers put consolidation of government IT services and governance at No. 3, according to a recent National Association of State Chief Information Officers survey.

Why is consolidation so important? Budget pressures and the need for greater efficiency have prompted the movement in most states. And the effort is paying off. Oklahoma's comprehensive statewide technology consolidation reportedly saved the state more than $372 million annually. Ohio reported savings of $50 million in just the first two years of its consolidation.

Consolidating IT resources across a state, though not an easy process, is clearly the favored path. The chief information officers association surveyed state ClOs in 2016 about the status of data-center consolidation. Forty-two percent said they had completed consolidation, 47 percent said consolidation was ongoing and 11 percent said it was planned.

Consolidation can take different forms. Some states merge physical IT offices and servers and create a single agency to serve the IT needs of all state departments. Others consolidate applications, so that agencies have the same software for common business processes such as payroll and accounting.

Another model is a federated approach, with data centers and infrastructure housed in a central IT organization, but with staff and managers remaining in each state agency or department.

Legislatures have driven consolidation in many states. Louisiana lawmakers created the Office of Technology Services in 2014. The new law authorized the state CIO to oversee operation of information technology and resources, and to coordinate all IT systems across the executive branch. It also required the CIO to report on progress to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.

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