California commission calls for consolidating IT

California Performance Review

As part of a review and overhaul of the California state government, an appointed commission recommended that officials condense the state's technology policy and operations into a single entity.

The California Performance Review's report contains more than 1,200 recommendations for the state's government. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched the review in February to resolve the state's fiscal crisis.

The commission found that the state must change its performance from the bottom up.

"We can begin to eliminate the fat within the government, but we need to go a step further — we need to make permanent changes in how the state does business," the report states. "If government isn't fundamentally changed, it will continue to experience the boom and bust cycles of spending and taxing with which Californians are all too familiar."

The performance review addresses many of the same issues as the Bush administration's President's Management Agenda, including information technology, procurement, human resources, financial management and performance-based budgeting. IT received attention in 32 areas — each with anywhere from one to more than 10 recommendations — on reorganizing the state's technology functions, creating a statewide enterprise architecture and improving information security.

Technology changes and enhancements also run throughout each of the other areas, with recommendations for consolidating financial systems; creating new systems to track and manage contracts and contractors; and using federal contracts, including the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Service schedule contracts through the GSA Advantage online procurement system.