Input: Virginia leads in IT

Input report

The state of Virginia exemplifies the future of state and local information technology consolidation and practices, officials from the market research firm Input say.

Every state is looking for methods and policies that will allow them to conserve funds and still serve their employees and citizens. IT consolidation appears to be the inevitable trend, and Virginia is far out in the front of the pack, thanks to programs that officials began as far back as 2001, according an Input report released this week.

"As many states are beginning to slowly recover from fiscal crisis and determine where to cut their overhead, Virginia has been implementing best-of-breed IT practices to optimize technology functions across the state," said Marcus Fedeli, manager of state and local opportunity products at Input.

The full organizational consolidation effort within the state culminated with two new laws in 2003 that dissolved several existing IT-related organizations and created a single Virginia Information Technology Agency. The change will still take the rest of this year, gradually bringing all of the existing organizations together from the smallest to the largest, and will affect 92 agencies across the state.

Virginia officials are also seeing significant savings from their electronic commerce initiative, the centralized eVA procurement Web site that officials launched in 2001, and they are now beginning to see what savings can be gained through reverse auctions under the eVA portal.

"Many states are closely observing the strategies and policies utilized by Virginia for success so that they may also apply similar techniques," according to the report. "While e-procurement needs no proof of legitimacy, [Virginia's] foray into alternative funding strategies, IT consolidation and best-in-business goals provide a great example for state and local governments."