The civil court trial for California's suspended payroll system modernization project is scheduled to begin on June 13. After the trial's outcome is resolved later this year, state officials want to identify a new approach to restart the project.
The State Controller's Office intends to complete IT assessments of the troubled 21st Century Project, also known as MyCalPays, that could lead to alternatives for moving forward.
Last week an Assembly budget subcommittee voted to approve the Controller's plan to spend $2.7 million to support staff positions that will finish the assessments.
The first of those assessments, completed last fall, determined that it could cost anywhere from $107 million to nearly $200 million to pay a system integrator to complete California’s statewide payroll system.
"Upon obtaining a settlement or finalizing the litigation, the project will be terminated, staff will complete the remaining two assessments as closeout activities and begin the business process re-engineering," Tom Yowell, chief administrative officer with the State Controller's Office, told the Assembly subcommittee on May 19.
The scope and methodology of those IT assessments could be changing. The Assembly budget subcommittee concurred with a recommendation from the Legislative Analyst's Office to require the State Controller's Office to report to the Legislature about possible alternative approaches for the project.
LAO also has recommended that the state not go forward with an assessment looking back at the project management of the 21st Century Project given the amount of staff turnover that has occurred as time has gone on.
The State Controller's Office is having internal discussions about using agile methodologies if it restarts work on a new state payroll system, State Controller Betty T. Yee told the Legislature in March.
The trial beginning next month between the State Controller's Office and SAP in Sacramento Superior Court likely will take two or three months to finish. The trial date recently was pushed back three weeks.
SAP was the system integrator for MyCalPays. The project was suspended in 2013.
If the state wins the trial, California could be awarded as much as $156 million. SAP reportedly is seeking $55 million for work it did on the 21st Century Project.
