IT training goal to reduce
consultants
By SHERRY HALBROOK
Eight state agencies and 28 PS&T Unit employees are participating in a new
pilot program to train the employees to take over IT (information
technology) work now being done by private consultants.
The Joint NYS and PEF Professional Development Committee (PDC) that
administers funds provided under PS&T Contract Article 15 is funding the
pilot program, including all training and course materials. The agencies are
giving their employees release time for the training.
According to the PDC, the pilot’s primary goal is to reduce agency spending
on IT consultants by teaching state PS&T employees the technical skills to
assume some of the consultants’ duties.
“This is an important pilot program for PEF and the state to begin returning
the day-to-day work of state government to the very capable hands of state
employees,” said PEF President Ken Brynien. “If it’s successful, it could be
the first step in ending decades of New York’s over-reliance and
over-spending on private consultants.”
PEF has waged a vigorous campaign for two decades to end state agencies’
reliance on private consultants to do work that could be done for less cost
and with greater accountability and quality control by state employees.
The new Information Technology Certification Pilot Program was developed by
the PDC with the chief information officers of the participating agencies
and a PEF IT subcommittee led by Executive Board member Mike Blue and
Division 263 steward Mario Chiarello and assisted by Secretary-Treasurer
Arlea Igoe.
Which agencies are in it?
The Governor’s Office of Employee Relations recruited the state Offices of
Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, Temporary and
Disability Assistance, and Children and Family Services, as well as the
state Departments of Health, Motor Vehicles, Transportation, and Labor to
participate in the program.
What’s being taught?
Oracle DBA is the focus skill area for the pilot’s initial round of training
and certification.
The 28 employees are being divided into two groups of 14 for training that
begins this month. Whether it’s Oracle 10 or 11 and how long it takes will
depend on how much experience the individual participants already have. The
classroom training could take up to 20 workdays spread over a few months and
should be completed by early next year.
The employees will complete a competency-based curriculum to earn their
certification. They each will be assigned to work with a specific consultant
to reinforce the training and complete the knowledge transfer.
More to come?
“This is the initial pilot for this program,” Igoe said. “More pilots may be
added later and the specific technology or topics taught would depend on the
needs of our members and the participating agencies.”
If your agency is not participating but you would like to take part, let
your agency’s chief information officer know.
For more information about this or other PDC programs, e-mail Cliff Merchant
at cmerchant@pef.org or Kim Loccisano
at kloccisano@pef.org.
TRANSFERRING TECHNOLOGY — Consultant Gerard Uffelman
of SAQUUS and PEF member Anthony DiVirgilio review an IT issue at the OSC in
Albany.
OSC on track with historic shift
from consultants to state employees
By SHERRY HALBROOK
Change is beginning to ripple through state
agencies, and it’s hitting their information technology (IT) units first as
they start to strip away their heavy reliance on private consultants and
transfer the technology and responsibilities to state employees.
Faced with huge budget deficits, they are doing it
to save money, and it’s just what PEF has been urging for many years.
The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) started
planning for the change in 2007, and is now well into a painstaking effort
that involves approximately 21 PEF members. They are learning technical
skills and knowledge from 15 consultants representing seven different
private contractors.
“Historically, our state comptrollers have called
for agencies, especially the state Transportation Department, to reduce
their reliance on expensive consultants,” said PEF President Ken Brynien.
“It’s part of the state comptroller’s mission to audit how state agencies
function and recommend ways to improve.
“Now, we commend Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli for
recognizing the need for this change in his own operation. It’s appropriate
for the OSC to lead the way to a more efficient and cost-effective way of
operating.”
Breaking old habits
Mike Blue and Mario Chiarello, co-chairs of the
PEF Region 8 IT Committee, are excited about the project, which they see as
the most promising effort yet by a state agency to rely on its own staff to
meet a big share of its current and future IT challenges. They give much of
the credit to Deputy State Comptroller Kevin Belden, who is also the
agency’s chief information officer (CIO), for masterminding the shift.
“There’s a lot of difference between saying you
want to do it, and actually doing it successfully,” Chiarello said. He
believes the effort at the OSC will succeed because it was thoroughly
thought out in advance.
While the pressure from a growing budget deficit
is on state agencies to find better, less expensive ways to provide
services, it is not easy to change behavior that has become
institutionalized over decades.
“Technology transfer is the buzzword now at many
agencies, but it doesn’t mean a thing if it isn’t done properly,” Blue said.
“I think everybody wants this to happen now, but it’s very hard for state
agencies to do it when they are constantly barraged with sales pitches from
vendors who want them to buy more services.”
Although Blue and Chiarello are IT specialist 3s
(the job title most involved in the project) at the OSC, neither of them is
directly involved in the project. Nevertheless, they are watching it closely
and see it as a model or template other agencies may want to emulate.
According to Belden, one of the agency’s major
goals is “employee empowerment and engagement” and it was up to him to find
a way to achieve that goal for the OSC’s IT staff, identify what was lacking
in terms of skills, experience and technology, and fill those needs.
“We want to shift the main focus to our staff
members and building their capabilities, while developing a defined,
strategic use of consultants,” Belden said. “Because we also must address
resource constraints and avoid layoffs, we need to implement our sourcing
strategy sooner, rather than later.”
Road map for change
His strategy has been to identify each consultant
working under a private IT contract, their duties, and the technology and
skills required to do them. He rated the technology each consultant uses on
a three-tier system: cutting-edge; current, and trailing-edge (soon to
become obsolete). The middle tier of technology is earmarked for the
agency’s own employees.
LEARNING EXPERIENCE — In Albany, PEF member Nick Sinkevich
reviews an IT problem with consultant Mike Haverly of CGI and Deputy State
Comptroller Kevin Belden, chief of information technology at the Office of
the State Comptroller. — Photos by Sherry Halbrook
Consultants with cutting-edge skills are used to
introduce the new technology and then transfer those skills and
responsibilities to the OSC employees. Each consultant is mentoring one or
more of the OSC IT employees (nearly all PEF members) in that process.
Belden said DiNapoli agreed to add some new staff
as the existing employees train and pick up work from the consultants.
Big challenge, but worth it
PEF member Tony DiVirgilio, a manager of IT
Services 1, heads a group of 24 OSC employees and consultants who design,
develop and maintain many of the software applications used for the agency’s
complex operations.
One such operation is
www.openbookny.com, which allows
other agencies, the media and the public to view information online about
state and local government agencies, such as their expenditures and
contracts, or how federal stimulus funding is being spent.
“Some of the tools, such as JAVA, for achieving
this transparency are very complex,” DiVirgilio said. “It’s very
challenging, but many of our employees are eager to learn the technology and
take over this work.”
Belden said the agency looks for consultants that
have 10 or more years of experience in JAVA, so it’s expecting a lot for
state employees just learning it to take over.
“It takes time to transfer that information and
knowledge,”
Belden said. “Sitting in a classroom or just watching someone else do it is
not effective. We’re using the consultants to leverage the capabilities of
our state staff. We want the contractors to be looking over the shoulders of
the employees, not the other way around.”
“The earlier we involve state staff in new
projects, the better,” DiVirgilio said. “We’re starting a new project now to
improve the public’s ability to search for unclaimed funds and file on-line
claims if they're eligible to receive them. Our state staff will be
responsible for developing and implementing this new capability. We’ve hired
a contractor to mentor them in the design stage, but it will be a big first
for our staff and us.”
Belden said the transition to relying on state
staff will be “an ongoing process.”
“We are trying to build standards to replicate
these models,” DiVirgilio said. “As we move toward standardization, it
greatly simplifies the environment.”
“We’re here from PEF to help,” Chiarello said.
“A key element of success for us is we have a good
partnership with PEF,” Belden said. “We all recognize the reality. Now, what
can we do about it?”
As for other agencies following the OSC models for
that transition, Belden said the greater their current reliance on
consultants, the greater the challenge.
“It helped us to put the transfer forward as part
of a comprehensive plan,” Belden said. “It’s not an easy fix, but it’s no
fix at all if you don’t get started.