Got a Deficit? Outsource IT Jobs

Could what is playing out in West Virginia (and already in other states) be an omen for federal information technology workers?

About 35 West Virginia IT workers marched on Gov. Joe Manchin's office on Tuesday demanding he not outsource their positions to a private company as a means to save money. From The Charleston Gazette:

Earlier this month, chief technology officer Kyle Schafer told legislators that any talk of outsourcing the information-technology jobs is "extremely preliminary." He said outsourcing is only one possible option to cut the state's $35 million annual spending for IT services, with in-house consolidation also a possibility.

Outsourcing, some protestors said, isn't working too well in other states that have done it:

Several speakers Tuesday called on Minchin to heed the experiences of states such as Indiana and Texas, where similar attempts to outsource IT operations have been fraught with service glitches and failures, and sizable cost overruns.