With more than 70 statewide term contracts from Mississippi’s IT Hardware Express Products List (EPL), it’s evident that the IT hardware category is a hot one in today’s market. The state took one solicitation and created 70-plus contracts offering a wide range of products including desktop/mobile-based computers, GIS-level workstations, monitors, printers/scanners, servers, storage, and video-conferencing equipment.

Mississippi has 77 approved manufacturers and 99 resellers on the IT Hardware EPL. While there is no confirmed spend value for statewide term contracts since they are based on purchases over the course of a contract, vendors may see large returns; statewide term contracts offer a large range of products and are available for use by all Mississippi agencies, universities, colleges and governing authorities.

The state has a purchase limit for users of $200,000 per project, per fiscal year for the IT Hardware EPL, which notes the anticipated high value. Mississippi also requires customers to obtain quotes from at least two EPL sellers if their purchase will be more than $50,000, which increases vendor competition. Another benefit to the EPL is that new sellers can submit proposals to get in on the action every six months.

Mississippi’s EPL Interactive website provides in-depth contract, vendor and pricing information, specifically for the IT Hardware EPL contract, but is not as robust with spending information. The site allows users to search by category, manufacturer, and seller name. You can also search by manufacturer reseller group, where a manufacturer sets a not-to-exceed price that resellers must obey; from there, some resellers will offer discounts on that manufacturer’s price. They keep this updated as the manufacturer changes any products on their website to make sure it meets state requirements.

Displayed in Table 1 are the different IT hardware categories offered under the EPL. The audio-visual components class is offered by 20 manufacturers and 66 resellers, the most of all categories. Interactive devices, which include whiteboards, voting devices and displays, is a close second with 18 manufacturers and 64 resellers. Some vendors offer both of those top contracts, like the Visix Term Contract. Deltek’s State & Local Term Contract resource has a searchable, saveable, living record for each of the more than 70 Mississippi IT hardware contracts, and 1,200 IT hardware term contracts throughout the United States.

Key take-aways

The IT Hardware EPL contract is set to expire in June 2014, and the state has indicated a replacement RFP will be released in April 2014. If IT hardware vendors don’t want to wait for the new solicitation, they can get on this contract in the next update cycle – the due date for proposals is June 4, 2013.

Forty-six states are using term contracts as an approach to purchase IT hardware. To explore more term contracts and gain insight into competitor contracts and pricing, check out Deltek’s State and Local Term Contracts resource. Not a Deltek subscriber? Click here to learn more about Deltek’s GovWin IQ database and take advantage of a free trial.

• Software/Applications  – 258 solicitations
• IT Hardware/Computers/Peripherals – 227 solicitations
• Maintenance & Support Services – 152 solicitations
• Implementation/Integration Services – 125 solicitations
• Cloud/Data Center/Big Data Solution/Services – 99 solicitations
• Wireless & Telecom Equipment/Solution/Services – 63 solicitations
• IT Professional /Staffing/Consulting/Project Management Services – 44 solicitations
• Content/Document/Records Management Systems – 35 solicitations
• Education Data/Learning Management/Student Info Systems – 24 solicitations
• ERP/Human Resources/Financial Systems – 18 solicitations
•  Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence/Analytics – 17 solicitations

In his FY 2013-2015 Executive Biennium Budget, Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie highlighted the daunting challenges that faced his administration during the last biennium, including a $1.3 billion potential budget shortfall that threatened deep programmatic cuts to department operations statewide. The governor utilized a fiscal strategy to only address pressing needs while investing in the state’s future, with goals to improve government efficiency and transparency. For this biennium, Hawaii’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase by 2.4 percent in 2013, while unemployment rates continue to decrease.

The new biennium budget (seen above in Figure 1) has several areas of investment, including:

• Early learning and early childhood health
• Education IT and digital curriculums
• Increased resources for Hawaii’s aging population
• Environmental sustainability and protection

The biggest gains by department from FY 2013-2014 include the Department of Human Services ($309 million), Department of Budget and Finance ($251 million), and Department of Transportation ($52 million). The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands saw a budget decrease of $140 million. Investments for FY 2014-2015 include $151 million for the Department of Human Services and $91 million for the Department of Budget and Finance.

Although the numbers in Figure 2 look as if Hawaii has invested millions in information technology, the numbers actually represent more transparency into Hawaii’s IT reporting. Deltek was able to gather more data on the total value of IT projects in the state for the biennium budget. Health IT was a major investment, including $2 million for its health information exchange (HIE), $45 million for Medicaid IT initiatives, and $15 million for an electronic medical record (EMR) system. The Department of Taxation is also investing nearly $32 million into its tax system modernization project for FY 2013-2015.

Despite tough times that followed the economic recession, Hawaii has laid the groundwork for a stable foundation and is continuing to increase both its GDP and IT spending. Vendors working in the education, health, and environmental space should check out Deltek’s analysis on Hawaii’s budget here, and brush up on the Aloha State in our state profile application. For a free trial, please click here.

The most common terms appearing in justice/public safety and homeland security solicitations during April were fire alarm and alerting, camera/surveillance and radio. The below word cloud provides a visual interpretation of key term frequency.

• Number of Public Safety Bids: 1,400
• Top three states (by number of solicitations released): California (175), New York (95) and Pennsylvania (75)
• Top three keywords:  fire alarm and alerting, camera/surveillance and radio

Frequency of terms:

• Radio: 8 (4 state, 11 local)
• 911: 1 (3 state, 1 local)
• Computer Aided Dispatch (1 state, 3 local)
• Records Management System (1 state, 2 local)

Like March, April was a slow month for justice and public safety (JPS) procurements; and while numerous solicitations were released, there seemed to be little movement on projects in the early development stages. Many governments are waiting on funding to move forward with projects, and agencies widely differ in their approaches to how much work they put into a project prior to securing funds.

While some states are hesitant to spend a lot of time planning and developing specifications for projects that may never receive funding, others like Georgia work to have a nearly completed plan in place so that a project can move forward quickly once funding is secured. Vendors should be aware of these different approaches and have patience with governments that are unwilling to spend large amounts of time consulting with vendors early on. 

Many governments further along in project planning took big steps in April by releasing RFPs or RFIs, many of which were large in scale. Waukesha County, Wis., released an RFP for a trunked radio system, while Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, released one for a new 911 system. These major projects, which have been in the works for several years, are likely to be among the most expensive these entities will undertake for some time.

Numerous entities also released solicitations for smaller projects, such as Cook County, Illinois’ inmate telephone audit and the Florida Department of Corrections’ inmate telephone system. Given the fact that inmate phone systems tend to be paid for by users rather than the government, these projects often require less lead time; therefore, vendors would be wise to contact project managers sooner than later to share their expertise before a solicitation is released.

Analyst’s Take

Vendors should gear up for a couple busy months as late spring and early summer tend to be extremely active for projects before the summer lull strikes in July and August, which tend to be slow due to vacations and scrambles to cover holidaying colleagues. For entities with July budgets, these months also act as planning weeks when solicitations and projects are worked on behind the scenes as agencies decide what to do with their funding. Many states and localities are also waiting to find out if they have received money from grant applications submitted in spring, such as the Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program, for which applications are due May 30, 2013. Therefore, vendors should work particularly hard in the next few months to identify and make connections for projects that may be waiting on money from grants and the next budget cycle. 

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April saw the release of a tenth round of Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) Establishment Grants, awarded to Arkansas ($16.5 million), Hawaii ($128.1 million), Illinois ($115.8 million), New Hampshire ($5.4 million), and Rhode Island ($9.8 million). Details about states’ plans for these funds are explained here. On a related note, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) also announced the availability of new funding to support navigators in states with federally-facilitated or state-partnership HIX models. Activity also picked up in states that received funding for model design through CMS’ state innovation model (SIM) initiative, including Texas and Iowa.

Notable solicitation releases in April included:

• The District of Columbia Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) released an RFP for a Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) State Self-Assessment (SS-A). Deltek will provide updates about the future procurement of a Medicaid management information system (MMIS) here.
• The Rhode Island Department of Administration, on behalf of the Department of Human Services (DHS), released an RFP for maintenance and operations of the InRHODES eligibility system.
• Three states released RFPs for pharmacy benefits management (PBM) services, including the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), Mississippi Department of Health (DOH), and the Indiana Department of Administration (DOA).
• New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) released an RFP for SIM planning services.

Notable contract awards in April included:

• The Mississippi Department of Health (DOH) awarded its Patient Information Management System (PIMS) contract to Siemens Medical Solutions for just more than $3 million.
• The Hawaii Department of Human Services awarded the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program contract to Xerox for nearly $9 million.
• The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) awarded its Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) Call Center project to Xerox. Deloitte is building the state’s HIX through  a contract awarded in October 2012 for more than $100 million.
• The Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation awarded the Integrated Health Record System contract to CoCentrix.
• The Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange awarded its Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) project to HealthPass.

Big news surfaced in Louisiana with the cancelation of a $29 million contract with Deloitte for the replacement Medicaid Eligibility Determination System (MEDS), originally awarded in April 2011. The state’s Office of Contractual Review cited the original RFP included a preference for a .net solution while Deloitte's contract proposal uses Microsoft Dynamics. The Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) asked for an additional requirement for the system that was outside the original scopeand warranted a new RFP release. Prior to becoming the secretary of DHH, Bruce Greenstein was managing director of Worldwide Health for Microsoft. Greenstein also hired another Microsoft employee, Zachery Jiwa, to be DHH's chief technology officer, but he left the department in November 2012. DHH now plans to release a new RFP for the replacement MEDS.

Looking to May and the upcoming summer months, we anticipate activity will pick up in states participating in the SIM initiative as CMS approves states’ proposals, of which many have now undergone changes after initial review from CMS. We also anticipate an influx of contract awards for HIX navigator programs, particularly with CMS’ announcement of the availability of federal funding for navigators. States in federally-facilitated or partnership HIX models may also begin to draft legislation and plan for takeovers of additional HIX functions in the future, such as the recently enacted House Bill 1508 in Arkansas.

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Last April, Deltek utilized the Federal Communications Commission’s PSAP Registry to give vendors an overview of public safety answering points (PSAPs) in counties nationwide. Now, we’re using the current registry to detail information on consolidation efforts and other changes that have taken place across the country in the last year.

Consolidation projects have been taking place for the last few years as cities and counties work to become more efficient and, ultimately, save more money; however, the total number of PSAPs actually increased by 64 from 2012 to 2013. Still, of the 8,393 PSAPs, only 7,485 act as the primary call-taking location – 908 are considered “orphaned” and are no longer utilized. These orphaned PSAPs will not be included in future filings with the FCC.

Just as in 2012, Texas has the most PSAPs (667), followed by California (587) and Illinois (422) – all three states also saw slight increases in their total number of PSAPs year to year.

New Hampshire still has the fewest PSAPs (5), and Delaware’s nine puts it second from the bottom. Washington, D.C. held that spot in 2012, but an increase from seven to 11 PSAPs now ties the district with Vermont and Hawaii for having the third lowest number.

As of April 2013, a total of 719 PSAPs have changed name, state, county or city compared to only 679 that had as of April 2012. The majority of these took place in California, followed distantly by Nebraska – providing further evidence that dispatch centers in many locations are consolidating efforts and working to cover a wider geographical span.

The below chart provides a visual representation of PSAP locations by city and county in 2012 and 2013, as well as information on where vendors can find the most opportunities.

Analyst’s Take

The number of dispatch opportunities in each of the regional areas has remained steady since 2012, with nine solicitations in the works in Los Angeles and Boston, and 12 within 100 miles of Chicago and 21 within 100 miles of New York City. This should provide some hope for vendors that cities and counties are still interested in purchasing dispatching technologies despite the tough economic climate.

Dispatch technologies are among the most vital tools that police use, and localities have little choice than to purchase new ones once they reach the end of their life cycles. This trend, along with increasing number of PSAPs, is likely to continue as individuals’ ability to report where and when crimes take place becomes easier. 

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• Governors’ renewed interest in performance-based management, particularly in education
• More effort to cut corrections and incarceration costs by investing in probation, parole and electronic monitoring programs
• Heavy focus on Medicaid expansion (both for and against), and how to reduce its costs
• Increased dedication to developing a strong future workforce by establishing a wealth of present educational opportunities, led by digital learning platforms
• Amplified justice and public safety initiatives due to natural disasters (Hurricane Sandy) and national tragedies (the Newtown shootings)
• Continued plans to streamline and consolidate government operations through technology

• 2013 by vertical
• 2011-2013 comparison by vertical
• 2008-2013 average by vertical
• 2013 Agenda Item Popularity vs. 2011-2013 average by vertical
• Top 25 cross-over agenda items
• Agenda items with mention of technology, 2013
• Agenda items mentioned by state, 2013
• Community development, economic development/regulation, natural resources/environment, and transportation agenda items, 2013
• Education agenda items, 2013
• General government services and public finance agenda items, 2013
• Health care and social services agenda items, 2013
• Justice/public safety agenda items, 2013

Every April, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week celebrates the work that telecommunicators engage in every day to keep their communities safe. These individuals are often the first line of defense in the face of tragedy and work to keep everyone calm on what may be the worst day of their lives. When a call comes in to 911, they are the ones charged with gathering salient information, determining which agencies are best to respond, and dispatching first responders.

Public safety telecommunicators also provide key instructions for individuals calling in with an emergency, whether instructing them where to hide during a home invasion or how to give CPR and clear an airway.  

Telecommunicators rely not only on their extensive training and people skills, but also a complex network of technologies to ensure the appropriate help arrives at the correct emergency location as quickly as possible. In the past year, communities nationwide have recognized the importance of these essential technologies and have sought to upgrade or replace antiquated systems.

In the past year, several solicitations were released for the following technologies:

• 911 (Enhanced and Next Generation): 24 
• Records Management Systems (RMS): 19 
• Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD): 13 
• Automatic Vehicle Location Systems (AVL): 7 
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): 6

Many public safety priorities for 2012 and 2013 emphasize increasing utilization of these systems and improving first-response efforts, which rely heavily on cooperation of neighboring jurisdictions or agencies in the event of an emergency. Increased interoperability coupled with the ability to receive information in real time has greatly enhanced overall telecommunications.

While most state and local governments manage their own dispatch centers, there is likely to be a continued focus on consolidation and partnerships between agencies to curb costs and improve efficiency. Dispatch equipment such as CAD, RMS, GIS mapping and AVL technology are typically procured through a formal solicitation process. Usually, CAD and RMS equipment are procured together, but as most of these technologies require integration, agencies may choose to procure all equipment within a technology suite. This helps agencies save time and money and allows for simultaneous upgrade and implementation processes.

The upgrade or enhancement of 911 systems to next generation has been on the radar of many governments over the past few years due to many systems becoming obsolete. Next generation 911 advancements have put pressure on agencies to incorporate new capabilities into 911 systems, such as the ability to receive text-to-911, video streaming and picture messaging. Most 911 projects are implemented through a formal procurement process, and some agencies even prefer to utilize an RFI or hire a consultant prior to formal implementation. Despite tight budgets, agencies will likely continue to put forth the effort to ensure the most efficient and advanced dispatching technologies are purchased because, like dispatchers, these systems are central to the mission of public safety agencies.

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• Software/Applications – 320 solicitations
• IT Hardware/Computers/Peripherals – 222 solicitations
• Telecom/IT Maintenance and Support Services – 176 solicitations
• Telecom/IT Implementation/Installation/Integration Services – 136 solicitations
• IT Staffing/Consulting/Project Management Services – 72 solicitations
• Data Center/Data Warehouse and Data Management/Collection – 28 solicitations
• ERP/Human Resources/Financial Systems – 19 solicitations
• Content/Document/Customer Relationship/Records Management Systems – 16 solicitations
• Telecom Solutions/Equipment – 14 solicitations
• BI/Analytics/Performance Management Solutions – 7 solicitations

As written last week, Deltek’s Health and Human Services Team is taking an in-depth look at Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (SACWIS) across the nation. This week, we take a look at SACWIS plans shaping up in Big Sky Country.

In the FY 2014-15 biennial budget, currently winding its way through the Montana legislature, an appropriation for $350,000 exists for planning the replacement SACWIS (called the Montana Adult and Child Welfare Information System, or MACWIS). The planning appropriation contains a provision that the Department of Public Health and Human Services conclude planning efforts and report back to the legislature when it meets again in 2015. Deltek is anticipating a procurement process; however, specific plans are not yet known.

These planning efforts over the next few years line up nicely with the state’s human services technology priorities. In 2012, the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) awarded a contract to Deloitte for the combined health care information and Montana eligibility system (CHIMES). The MACWIS is next in line for replacement and will replace the current child welfare system, CAPS, which is nearly 20 years old and not SACWIS compliant.

Though the MACWIS project is now behind schedule, the allocation of funding is promising for Montana’s future protection of children from abuse and neglect. It is no small wonder that, as with most human services departments across the nation, DPHHS prioritized the replacement of legacy systems in an effort to expend state resources in an efficient and logical way.

Stay tuned this month for additional information on state efforts to replace SACWISs. Deltek’s GovWinIQ database contains a wealth of information about other SACWIS replacement and modernization projects across the nation. Not a Deltek subscriber? Learn more and sign up for a free trial.