Oklahoma issues RFP for IT consolidation
To help reduce costs and increase efficiencies in its technology infrastructure, the Oklahoma Information Services Division of the Office of State Finance (OSF) is soliciting ideas from the information technology community through a request for proposals (RFP). The closing time and date for questions concerning the solicitation is 3 p.m., Central time, on June 12, 2012. The closing date for the RFP is July 3, 2012.
The RFP initiative comes on the heels of a study released last year that found the state could save more than 15 percent by consolidating nearly all aspects of its 130 agencies’ IT operations. The study also found that Oklahoma, at the time, was the only state that had not consolidated its wide-area network to a single network. The state, instead, was maintaining multiple networks for state agencies.
In a statement regarding the consolidation efforts, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallinsaid, “When we put an emphasis on IT consolidation a year ago, we found that within our state agencies there were 129 e-mail and Blackberry servers, 25 agencies running their own e-mail accounts and 30 data center locations. Since discovering this, we have taken steps to modernize our technology infrastructure, which has already given a significant return on our efforts and saved taxpayers’ money.”
Fallin added, “I look forward to the next phase of our consolidation plan, which will reduce complexities, improve customer service and again spend fewer Oklahomataxpayer dollars.”
Oklahoma is looking at six categories for IT consolidation: application development, networking, server virtualization, desktop administration, storage and document imaging. “We’ve already found that some savings can be even greater than we expected with cooperation from consolidated agencies,” said Alex Pettit, Oklahoma’s chief information officer. He has projected savings through consolidation in excess of $180 million over seven years.
Pettit added, “We have been given the charge of reducing the size of government, measured in terms of total dollars spent, through the use of technology. It will mean a reduction in personnel, but so far, that has occurred mostly through attrition.”
The purpose of the IT RFP is to hire a vendor or vendors to achieve savings through consolidations and find more savings in related areas. The state plans to solicit responses annually in different categories that will aid in building an information technology infrastructure.
Interested parties can access the IT RFP, which has been posted on the chief information officer’s website, by following this
link. Amendments to the RFP solicitation will be posted on the IT procurement solicitations
web page.
