STATE GOVERNMENT

IBM falling behind on data center work

State agencies complain of delays, poor service under $863 million contract.

IBM Corp. appears to have fallen far behind in its massive, $863 million effort to consolidate the data centers of 27 Texas state agencies.

A December completion date looms for IBM and its partners to get all the agencies' data center operations into two streamlined and upgraded facilities, a project that is intended to improve security and save money.

To reach that goal, a total of 619 computer servers were supposed to have been moved to the consolidated centers between January and July, according to the Department of Information Resources.

But only 75 servers had made that move as of July, the department reported.

Lara Coffer, who oversees the data center contract for the Department of Information Resources, said that the process is big and complicated and that the state's "primary goal is to ensure consolidation is done right."

Coffer said she still expects most agencies will be done by December.

IBM, not the state, bears the financial brunt if it misses the December goal, Coffer said.

The state agencies stuck in limbo by further delays say they, too, are shouldering a big burden because they're operating with aging equipment and software that could cause serious problems if it fails.

Ed Serna, assistant executive director for support operations at the Department of Transportation, said the lingering question is this: "Will we reach consolidation before the car breaks or not?

"Hopefully, nothing will happen until we get there," Serna said.

Company spokesman Jeff Tieszen said IBM is fulfilling its commitments under the contract.

"The state's information technology operations are more stable and secure now and have steadily improved since IBM began the data center consolidation project in 2007," Tieszen said in a written statement.

Tieszen added that an independent accounting firm found the project has saved the state $11 million in the past two years.

The promise at the inception of the agreement, however, was that IBM would save the state $25 million over the first two years and $178 million over the life of the seven-year contract, which began in April 2007.

It has been a rocky couple of years for IBM on this project.

Work got off to a slow start in 2007. Then last fall, the state warned the company that its contract was in jeopardy following some high-profile data losses that led Gov. Rick Perry in October to suspend the consolidation until the backup problems were fixed.

Seven agencies still have not signed off on IBM's proposed solution for ensuring data backups are being done, meaning that their consolidation process is being held back.

The agencies appear to be losing patience with the process and with the IBM-led group, known as the Team for Texas.

"There is little need to keep consulting the dictionary to come up with new terminology to address this relationship," wrote officials from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in a recent monthly customer satisfaction assessment. "If this feedback were truly being used to improve the (Team for Texas) product, everyone ... would be more satisfied. (Team for Texas) resources are either stretched too thin or managed inadequately."

A survey taken in the spring of the agencies' information technology directors found that 88 percent of them were dissatisfied with the services provided by IBM.

Tieszen said he would not comment specifically on the customer service results other than reiterating that the company is complying with its contract.

The situation might improve once all the agencies are operating in the consolidated facility, if the experience of the Texas Veterans Commission is any indication.

Officials from that agency, one of the three operating out of the new consolidated facilities, gave the service high marks in June and said the systems were available with no interruption.

kalexander@statesman.com; 445-3618