The ghost of failed computer projects past reared its head again as the state unemployment system slowed to a crawl earlier this week, leaving Coloradans seeking benefits frustrated and confused.
The state’s techies got on the case and restored the system to normal operation within two days, which we were glad to see.
The episode, however, raises questions about whether Colorado will ever be free of the antiquated networks and legacy of botched prior contracts that have so beleaguered the state’s information systems.
The answer is not entirely clear at this point, though progress has been made. But there are certainly some lessons to be learned from the recent computer troubles at the State Department of Labor and Employment.
Don Mares, executive director of the state labor department, said CUBline Online, the system that dramatically slowed down, is just five years old.
However, it is an overlay to a database system that is two to three decades old. Mares made a point of saying that the old, underlying system was still functional and the entire system worked adequately until it had to deal with a “tsunami of claims” created by the recession.
It’s clear, however, that it must be replaced. The $24.2 million Genesis project, started in the administration of Gov. Bill Owens, was supposed to be that replacement, but the overly ambitious project was scrapped in 2005 because it didn’t work.
That maddening outcome was one of several revelations at the time about the wretched condition of the state’s information systems.
The failures included a paycheck system at the Department of Transportation, the state welfare benefits system, an auto registration system, and an electronic voter records system.
In November 2007, Michael Locatis, who had just been hired by Gov. Bill Ritter, said Colorado had wasted up to $300 million on computer systems that did not work.
We groaned then upon hearing that news, and time has not tempered that response.
Mares said his department has started a “technology savings account,” made possible by legislation that passed in the last legislative session, that will allow his department to save enough money to replace its computer system.
“We’re not sitting on our hands,” he said.
That approach to a high-cost replacement project is a good one, we think, in these difficult economic times.
Locatis is the overarching architect of the state’s IT rehab project, and to hear him give a run-down of projects, challenges and progress is alternately daunting and impressive.
He is taking on the projects bit by bit, and has had victories along the way, small and large.
We are hopeful that this experienced information systems specialist ultimately will solve Colorado’s systems problems so the state doesn’t have the kind of meltdown experienced by those seeking unemployment benefits.
Taxpayers have waited a long time for the fixes they paid for years ago.
