Florida’s transition toward centralized IT procurement

Deltek Analyst Randi Powell reports.

Florida is making the transition to centralized management of its IT services, systems and procurements. Introduced by Governor Rick Scott as one of his many efforts to aggressively cut costs, a bill handing IT procurement authority from the Department of Management Service’s (DMS) Division of Purchasing to the Agency for Enterprise Information Technology (AEIT) was signed into law on May 26, 2011. AEIT is housed within the governor’s cabinet and is headed by State Chief Information Officer David Taylor. Though DMS will continue to handle the technical procurement process, AEIT has been charged with taking the lead role in assessing, planning, implementing and managing statewide IT needs and initiatives moving forward. This responsibility includes the state’s ongoing data center consolidation efforts, desktop user support services, and email services. The objective is to save the state money by consolidating efforts, sharing services, and optimizing systems.

During an August 4, 2011 AEIT town hall meeting, the agency presented its preliminary 2011-2012 work plan, which outlined how the agency would transition this new statute to applicable procedure. In relation to state enterprise IT purchasing and procurement standards, AEIT looks to perform the following:

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