New York CIO To Trim Custom Financial SystemsNew York CIO To Trim Custom Financial Systems

A patchwork of financial-management systems means New York likely pays too much for products and isn't getting the right services, state CIO James Dillon says.

But he has a plan for changing that: Cut back on customization. That's one of the guiding principles for Dillon, who's determined to implement standardized IT systems for functions that cut across the state's numerous agencies. The first goal is to find a financial-management system to replace the multiple systems that New York agencies have today.

"We need more aggregated information about how agencies are doing their business, so we can get the best cost possible--not just for IT, but for any service or product," Dillon says. The diverse mix of financial-management systems means the state is probably paying too much for many of the products it buys, isn't getting the right services, and isn't properly assessing total cost of ownership for IT, he says.

In addition, rampant customization of financial-management systems has created other problems. When state workers with common fiscal and budgetary titles are transferred from one agency to another, they don't always have knowledge of the systems in different agencies. "Consequently, there's a great hit on resources we have to put into training those people," Dillon says. A common financial-management system would eliminate that problem.

The problem has gotten so bad that the state has imposed a moratorium on upgrading existing financial-management systems while state agencies provide input for the process of selecting a new financial-management system. Says Dillon, "You can't just impose a standard without considering budgetary implications on individual agencies."