The state technology department has spent many millions on IT goods so far this year, with its top five most expensive purchases combined reaching nine figures.
From Jan. 1 through Thursday, the California Department of Technology made 258 purchases of IT goods, more than 60 of which were with the same vendor. To date in 2021, CDT has made 69 IT goods purchases with Crayon Software Experts LLC, a familiar vendor to the state. And it spent $139,809,922.47 on its top five most expensive purchases — all of which were with Crayon Software Experts.
Each of those top five purchases appears to be via Microsoft Volume Licensing, most likely for Microsoft Office 365 government community cloud E5 shared servers for all language. Four of the purchases happened March 1 and are for a five-year term ending Feb. 28, 2026. They range in value from $18,936,022.50 to $29,909,685.60. The fifth and largest, at $41,810,982.07, is for nearly as long a term. It took place June 1 and ends March 31, 2026. Information on past state purchases is available through the State Contract and Procurement Registration System.
A CDT spokesman said the year-to-date purchases are tied to the department’s main Microsoft Office 365 E5 five-year shell contract. CDT’s top five purchases of IT goods in March looked much the same. In response to a similar question then, a CDT spokesperson said the cost of the department’s top five purchases of IT goods that month was due to a longer contract term which reduced the unit costs, as well as an upgrade to Microsoft’s product suite focused on security, compliance and communication.
Crayon Software Experts, which is based in Oslo, Norway, also accounted for CDT’s single most expensive IT goods purchase of 2020, a purchase of nearly $16 million made in February that appeared to be a volume licensing purchase of Microsoft 365 E3 government community cloud shared servers. The company has more than 2,000 employees in more than 50 offices in 35 countries, and 12 U.S. locations.
