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eWIC-MIS Experiences Changes, Remains Under Budget

The Women, Infants and Children Electronic Benefit Transfer project has seen several changes in the last few weeks.

The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Electronic Benefit Transfer project has seen several changes in the last few weeks.

The project is meant to integrate WIC benefits into the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system, under a federal mandate.

The eWIC MIS was combined from the two separate eWIC MIS and eWIC EBT projects into one after the California Department of Technology’s (CDT) approval of a Special Project Report, the second of the project’s lifespan. The reports are a regular piece of a project’s life cycle, offering the CDT insight into any budget or management changes necessary to keep the project on time and on budget.

And the eWIC MIS project is on time and on budget, even with a leadership change, as Tammie Lopez leaves her role as assistant project director over the buildout.

“Even though the Assistant Project Director has been reassigned to another project, the eWIC MIS Technical Manager has assumed the Assistant Project Director role, and the Assistant Project Manager has filled in the primary Project Manager role,” Bill Maile, spokesman for the Office of Systems Integration, wrote in an email to Techwire. “The eWIC MIS project timeline has not been impacted at all due to these experienced resources acting in the interim.”

Originally the eWIC-EBT project had a $46 million budget with a Dec. 31, 2019, deadline. The eWIC-MIS project had a March 21, 2021, deadline and a budget of $90 million.

“The next key milestone date for the eWIC MIS project is contract execution for the MIS System Integrator, which is estimated to be in April 2018,” Maile wrote.

New dates and budget numbers are not yet available from the Office of Integration.

Kayla Nick-Kearney was a staff writer for Techwire from March 2017 through January 2019.