The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will be asked this week to authorize a proposed $918 million agreement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise that would extend the company's management of the county's IT services and telecommunications through at least 2023.
The county’s help desk, desktop, network, data center and applications have been managed entirely by a private company since 1999. The county began outsourcing in 1999 with Computer Sciences Corp., and then Northrop Grumman Corp. took over in 2007 after winning the contract rebid. In 2011, Northrop Grumman transferred ownership of its $700 million contract to Hewlett-Packard ahead of the agreement’s 2013 end date.
For this latest rebid, San Diego County released a competitive RFP in February 2016. The county said it received two qualified proposals — from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM. The county entered into negotiations with both.
The agreement includes $12 million in one-time spending to consolidate the county's data and applications into a single data center, and for new technology and projects. The existing agreement was scheduled to end in 2018; the proposed new agreement would be amended to begin immediately and continue through seven years, until 2023. The contract also could be extended through 2028.
Under the agreement, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the county will co-fund a new innovation office that will "act as an incubator for new ideas to use technology to streamline and improve county business and service to the public." The partnership also will develop a structured project management office and new privacy and security requirements.
"HP provides IT services to the county through five distinct frameworks: Help Desk, Applications, Desktop, Network and Data Center. HP has close to 300 people supporting the county’s IT and Telecommunications services. In addition to the team here in San Diego, HP also manages two remote Data Centers and one Help Desk facility which provide support to the county’s operation," the county explains on its website.
San Diego County's public-private partnership with technology vendors has been widely praised over the years. The county is believed to be the first big municipality in the U.S. to outsource all its IT functions. The CIO of San Diego County is Mikel Haas. The county's estimated IT budget is about $102 million, according to Center for Digital Government research.
