Northrop Grumman says it’s willing to mediate dispute

Ok Beenthere,  I’ll type slower.  You sound like a current NG/Vita person.
Agencies ask for their systems to be covered by the SWCESC backup center.  This is done by a Request for Service.  VITA won’t even ask NG to price that service, because NG isn’t willing to tell VITA how much they will charge to provide that service, so the agency can not get that service.  But the real point is that this bill of goods was sold to the state that all state IT would be better off with a backup center that did not exist prior to the contract.  What was missing in the deal was the requirement for NG/VITA to provide the backup service to any IT system that did not have an existing backup contract that was transferred to NG.  The end result is that new systems and any old systems can not get VITA and/or NG to provide a cost estimate to obtain that service.

It seems the defenders of corporate welfare have come out to defend Northrop Grumman without any knowledge of the issues, or a willingness to dismiss them whatever the cost to taxpayers.

This contract was sold as consolidation (and should have been a good thing), but what was created was a monopoly for one vendor.  It should have been obvious that mandating every executive agency acquire all IT equipment and services through a single vendor would cause increased costs and reduced services.  And now that the state has a huge budget hole to plug, agencies will be forced to cut services because their IT budget is no longer under their control.  Not only that, but proposing new automation to improve efficiency is a non-starter, since any changes or updates to systems is now prohibitively expensive.  The state’s IT is frozen in time in 2003.  What’s the point of rolling out new workstations all loaded an OS that’s 8 years old and so much management software that 3/4 of the workstation resources are dedicated to non-business functions.

NG is a defense contractor, and have learned that cost overruns are rewarded with increased budgets.  There are some competent technicians working for NG, but it seems when they determine how to meet an agency’s requirements, they are never allowed to implement those solutions.

I’m not surprised at applications that needed expensive re-writes to work in NG’s environment.  Every agency is dealing with this because NG has a data center built for military applications, where unique customization, hardened and inflexible directory structures, and siloed, stand-alone applications are acceptable and desirable.  Agencies have spent years integrating applications and authentication because they learned that it improved productivity and reduced costs.  Now NG comes along with their DoD infrastructure where everything is going to be a silo again.  NG has even divided up their own tech services into “towers” that seemingly rarely coordinate their activities.

Not that NG even has much of track record with their core competency.  Let’s not forget the Coast Guard patrol boats that NG took $100 million to renovate and handed back boats that cracked up after 2 weeks at sea.  Or the submarines they built for the navy with disabled weapons rooms that can’t fire torpedoes.

Maybe somebody needs to figure out that this contract needs to be torpedoed, before NG breaks anything else.

Correction to previous posting - make that the fourth word.

So Beenthere you have switched to today to pass of your “its the agencies fault” theory on this one.  As a former NG and former VITA contractor I am sure you can convince all these fine people and citizens that it is all the states fault.
Calling people names will not change any of the facts that NG is in violation of their contract and should be taken to court over it. $400 million is much less then continuing to pay the almost $3 billion this will cost.  By the way what ever happened to the asset inventory that was supposed to have been completed by now?  You know where NG is supposed to account for all the equipment it is maintaining?  Bet it is not finished yet.  Time for munber 8.
But again with your 5 years working with the contract you know more than anybody else.

So what is the price of disentanglement based on NG’s breach of contract?

In October, the cost was estimated to be $400 million. Now Mr. Coulter says it could cost $400 - $650 million. Most likely, the cost is much less than either of those estimates. There are many alternatives to bring excellent IT service back to the Commonwealth at substantially lower costs.

The Commonwealth should exercise its rights by immediately issuing a notice of termination based on breach of contract. The next administration should begin plans to resolve this fiasco during the two year disentanglement period. The state should never be in a position where it appears that a “corporate giant may have us over a barrel!“