The Board of Equalization says it has successfully implemented the first major rollout for its Centralized Revenue Opportunity System (CROS), which provides data warehouse infrastructure.
The CROS project will replace the current Integrated Revenue Information System and Automated Compliance Management System, and create an enterprise data warehouse and business intelligence capability, among other improvements.
The board's acting CIO, Scott Capulong, said at a meeting last week that the second rollout will center around sales tax and related program functionality. Subject matter experts at the board will be working with the system integrator Fast Enterprises to participate in design sessions to capture business requirements and identify process improvements.
Personnel turnover continues to be a challenge on CROS. Capulong was elevated to acting CIO when Brenda Fleming took on the role of the board's acting chief deputy director in late 2016. Project director Chris Caietti is no longer on the project, board officials said.
The board also voted 3 to 2 last week to approve agreements with two vendors that will work on the CROS project — a $4.1 million contract with Grant Thornton for quality assurance and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), and a $3.4 million contract with International Network Consulting Inc. for senior-level programming services for data remediation activities.
The BOE approved an $85 million contract with Fast in August. Fast will be a paid through a benefits-based approach, although BOE officials said the contract itself is fixed-cost.
