53 Comments - Give Me A Break - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 9:53 am: This is the type of thing many hoped a Rauner admin. would bring to the table given his focus on improving the way Illinois does business. Instead, outside of this, we have gotten a war on labor and social services. Too bad they have chosen this path instead of one they could be pursuing. - Skeptic - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 9:58 am: So if you’re doing the same thing as you were before using the same equipment in the same place reporting to the same person getting paid by the same agency but with a different ID badge, is that really “consolidation?” - walker - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 9:59 am: If I’m reading into this correctly, a lot of initial steps have been taken, which will prove valuable as more of the state agencies and employees actually participate. A good-looking start. Kudos to everybody working on this. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:04 am: I hope the improvements stick. IDHS rolled out the new system with go live on Monday. It seems to be a decent system. But DHS service coordination is SUPER complex stuff. I’m frankly terrified that we’re going to fly right into the mountainside. Training has been shoddy and substandard but luckily caseworkers are a hardy bunch and we’ll figure it out on our own. I’m not kidding with this. Please pray for our customers through this transition that they might get the help they need. - Ole' Nelson - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:05 am: Just a taste of the improvements Illinois could see under a successful businessman-turned governor. Too bad 90% of his focus is on the personal vendetta he has against unions. - walker - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:08 am: I continue to hear that many his appointees are doing the fundamentals well. Most (not all) are seen as a step up, even in a terribly challenging and painful environment. - JS Mill - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:13 am: This is good. And lots more is needed. It needs to quickly happen at the ISBE. They are in the stone ages and, the most recent “improvements” have mostly been a step backwards. - Earnest - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:14 am: >This is the type of thing many hoped a Rauner admin. would bring to the table given his focus on improving the way Illinois does business. >Instead, outside of this, we have gotten a war on labor and social services. Too bad they have chosen this path instead of one they could be pursuing. That’s just what I wanted to say and much better than I would have said it. I see glimmers of what my best hopes were for him, but so much has been much more than my worst hopes for him. He’s so intelligent and strategic and effective at that he chooses to do. - Ron - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:23 am: The public employee unions are waging a war against social services with their insatiable appetite for tax dollars. - Johnnie F. - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:28 am: Positive changes can occur with proper priorities and resources dedicated to them. Sad to see how many depertments are being starved of resources and have numerous fiscal roadblocks put in place to halt progress. At the same time, departments are blamed for an inability to get things accomplished. That manufactured inefficiency cycle is then used as the rationale for the master outsoucring plan. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:28 am: –The public employee unions are waging a war against social services with their insatiable appetite for tax dollars.– What does that have to do with this post Ron? And no I’m protecting the poor, disabled and elderly every day. But what would you know. I imagine you haven’t done a day of public service in your life. - Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:30 am: Ron is waging a war against reality with his insatiable appetite for absurdity. - Jocko - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:31 am: Ron (@10:23) could teach Bruce a thing or two about single mindedness. - Earnest - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:32 am: >The public employee unions are waging a war against social services with their insatiable appetite for tax dollars. I think the only place that is really applicable is what AFSCME is negotiating for their new contract. The thing causing the crisis is us failing to make our share of the pension payments for umpteen years. I see no point in fighting about that. Let’s fight about how we go about doing it…lots of room for debate there. - Ron - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:37 am: Honeybear, look at the first comment here. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:39 am: In general I really appreciate the efforts to modernize our IT. I am however concerned about the centralization of IT into DoIt. I’m laughing because it strikes me as collectivist! HA! But seriously, I’d like to see more individual agency control of the improvements. I’d also like for the state to use LESS outside contractors and internally develop more programming capacity. I’m sure DoIT is doing that in a sense but I’d love to see their contractor list to confirm it. Otherwise it’s just a massive play to privatize a huge part of state government. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:39 am: Watch for IES “Go Live” on Monday state wide! Badly conceived and executed - what could possibly go wrong? - Red Line - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:40 am: Not to take anything away from the Rauner administration but both the “cloud first” initiative and the VOIP expansion were begun under Quinn. See the two following executive orders signed by PQ: https://www.illinois.gov/Government/ExecOrders/Documents/2010/execorder2010-10.pdf https://www.illinois.gov/Government/ExecOrders/Documents/2012/execorder2012-03.pdf It does take sustained effort over a number of years to implement changes like these in state government. - Piece of Work - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:41 am: Honeybear, you ever figure out what your major was at Northwestern? You never responded. - Bluegrass Boy - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:43 am: ** Bhatt is a hired gun who never stays in one place long enough to reap the reward of his handiwork ** This is not unusual - especially in the Public Sector where making claims about something is seen as the equivalent of it actually being real… Steps to Advancement 1) Leverage previous imagined/claimed successes to get a great new job title 2) Create new projects and disarray (distractions and disorientation) 3) Immediately declare success and self-promote (Get awards, attend Conferences, Twitter, Linkedin) before anything has actually happened (also, start next-job search during this time) 4) Be on to your next job and far far away when the consequences start occurring 5) Don’t worry, stable-workforce will work-through and clean up the mess best as they can - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:51 am: Your right Piece of Work and I won’t. I don’t know you and I don’t trust you. Sorry. Actually, I’m not sorry. I don’t want people trolling me on my personal social media because they are searching for me from clues on this blog. Call me paranoid. - Bluegrass Boy - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:54 am: Quick note to Honeybear We all know IT is more complex and evolving faster than ever. While I share your hopes and dreams of not outsourcing it, unfortunately it’s not realistic. The State cannot really afford to attract and retain the amount of resources needed to make technology leaps - they can’t compete with the Private Sector over the long term. They’ll always get some good folks - but never enough. If you’re going to make technology leaps it requires outsourcing - getting the people you need when you need them. The best you can do is ensure accountability from the companies you hire. - Just Chilling - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:55 am: ==Call me paranoid.== No, I’d call that sensible. And besides, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get ya. - Piece of Work - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:59 am: Honey, you are paranoid. I’ll let you know if I get trolled for giving out my college and major. Smile! - Last Bull Moose - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:59 am: Laud the effort. Will wait to cheer loudly when the results are in. Red Line is correct. It takes persistence and funding to make these changes. Not real sure where Rauner is getting the money for these changes. Going to the cloud instead of using state servers is relatively easy as that is almost entirely withing the technical sphere. Changing the operating systems that people touch is much more challenging. The new system needs to access the data from the old system and also needs to build in the work processes and data sharing restrictions for each agency involved. This is where it gets very tricky. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:01 am: - Piece of Work - If you’re more concerned about the education of a commenter, you’re losing your arguments. Do better. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:02 am: Bluegrass Boy, great name BTW. Really good point you have and I hope they do hire the best people. - A guy - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:09 am: More of this please….is right. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:10 am: Piece of Work- didn’t you notice the SPAM I sent your email last night? lol Why did you want to know so badly? I’ll admit I am paranoid but these are horrific and terrifying days for me. Never in a million years would I have thought so many would be battling for their economic lives so much. What state workers do is noble. It is public service. Why should I and my coworkers be such a hated group? I know people will deny it but I feel hated. Nobody can deny how one feels. Feelings are the sole property of the owner. I know I’m not alone in these feelings. - Liberty - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:17 am: Nothing but hype trade journalism. - JS Mill - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:17 am: =What state workers do is noble. It is public service. Why should I and my coworkers be such a hated group? ………I know I’m not alone in these feelings. = +1 Amen. Perfectly stated Honeybear. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:35 am: –The new system needs to access the data from the old system and also needs to build in the work processes and data sharing restrictions for each agency involved. This is where it gets very tricky.– Aye, there’s the rub. That is what is killing me this very second. - Last Bull Moose - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:40 am: One approach is to build client/consultant teams to develop the new systems. The client members can explain what the new system needs to do, knowledge they gained from operating the old system, and learn the technical features of the new system being developed. That way when the consultants leave, you have people maintaining the system that were involved in its development. - Piece of Work - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:44 am: Willy, this was a little back and forth between Honeybear and I going back to last week. Everything is cool and nobody is losing an argument. NB, I don’t hate you or state workers so please don’t lump me in with a certain group. - Anon Downstate - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 12:24 pm: “Going to the cloud instead of using state servers is relatively easy as that is almost entirely withing the technical sphere. Changing the operating systems that people touch is much more challenging. The new system needs to access the data from the old system and also needs to build in the work processes and data sharing restrictions for each agency involved. This is where it gets very tricky.” ————– Word! This is what is hard. Too many existing databases being utilized are older ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) running on networks and are basically functionally obsolete. These databases can still be used, but eventually all that data is going to have to be moved off their existing platform into totally new applications or it is going to be effectively lost. For example, a lot (and I mean “A LOT”) of these ODBC databases (think: ACCESS; dBase; etc.) were created with a single security layer (if that…) and part of the ’security’ was that you had to have client software installed on your local hard drive to use the application software, particularly if you were doing any form of maintenance. Which means you more than likely had to be on the network to do it, and likely had to have client software installed on your local hard drive to access records. Question: How many people these days have smartphones and tablets with local (C:) hard drives? Ans.: Not very many….. Also, Win 8, 8.1, and 10 are all mobile operating systems. The last ODBC drivers were written for Win 7. You can use work arounds to access older ODBC databases on Win 8, 8.1, & 10 machines, but there’s going to come a time (say, 5-7 years max) where everything has to be moved over. The concept of having to clean up, say, 35+ years of older ODBC databases is kind of mind bending, especially when you realize that it might have to be done in one fifth of the time that they were originally created. - Winnin' - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 12:28 pm: Don’t shoot the messenger, but broadband and technology were high among Pat Quinn’s priorities. Illinois invested heavily under Quinn, strategically and with capital dollars. Like lots of things, Rauner will try to capitalize on Quinn’s ideas. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 12:49 pm: Piece of Work, that’s fine if you don’t hate me or public servants but I don’t believe you’ve raised a finger to stop the savaging public servants get from the likes of Ron/Sue et al, nearly every day. I can’t read mind Piece of Work. How would I know what your intentions are. I mean if I went after your job, your pay, your healthcare, your integrity day in and day out, I’d think you’d get to the place I am now. Yep you guessed it. I made inquiries into a private sector position. So there’s that. I’m just tired of being scapegoated, of being Rauners sin eater. - Piece of Work - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:05 pm: HB, I have a small business that has experienced the ups and downs of recessions, bad governmental policies, high interest rates, 9/11, etc. I have experienced incredibly high costs of healthcare and you know what, I get paid last, if there is money left over at the end of the month. Many weeks I work 50-60 hours. The business is successful, but success is not a given, you have to be really good every day. - Chicago_Downstater - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:23 pm: Honeybear is right to be worried as there will more than likely be some bad snags as more upgraded state systems come online–I’m very curious about IES on Monday. However, as Anon Downstate did such a great job of explaining, it has to be done. In my opinion Rauner’s Admin deserves a pat on the back for getting us here and a watchful eye as implementation starts increasing. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:28 pm: Well, PoW, I do have a soft spot for small business having had one of my own a decade back. I do wish there was more that was done with and for small business. I have several good friends at DCEO and they all wish they had the staff to do more. - Piece of Work - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 1:52 pm: Nothing DCEO would do to help most small businesses. Legislation like Obamacare, running up $20 trillion in debt, building an economy out of a house of cards, GDP of barely 1%. A comment like—”If you have a business, you didn’t build it” doesn’t help. If I had to do it over, I definitely, 100% would have gotten a state job. I’d still have most of my hair!!!! - Mama Retired - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 2:15 pm: - Johnnie F. - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 10:28 am: - You made some very good & truthful points. - Fiercely Independent - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 2:16 pm: – I definitely, 100% would have gotten a state job. I’d still have most of my hair!!!! – Having worked at CMS for 10 years before I retired, I can state with certainty that you’re being very optomistic! - Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 2:37 pm: Fiercely—Many of my state worker friends are and were happy they worked at the state. Great schedules, wonderful benefits, incredible pensions. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 3:14 pm: –were happy they worked at the state.– Dude, past tense “worked” What about now? Schedule is still good, benefits meh, and tier 2, not good. - HB - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 3:31 pm: “are and were happy….” present and past tense. HB, how much vacation do you get? How many holidays do you get? How many sick days do you get? Describe your insurance plan, how many people it covers and the monthly cost. - Honeybear - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 4:57 pm: HB- this is what I’m talking about people going after state workers as horrible greedy people. Thanks grassbowl for perpetuating that stereotype. I’m sick and tired of people portraying us as the bad ones here when the Rauner administration gives 215million last year in EDGE tax incentives, totally unaccountable, to multinational companies who pay hardly a cent in taxes. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 5:12 pm: So if you’re doing the same thing as you were before using the same equipment in the same place reporting to the same person getting paid by the same agency but with a different ID badge, is that really “consolidation?” Exactly - that is all that has happened. The real IT consolidation was with CMS a few years back, and it has been nothing short of a disaster. Anybody with any sort of knowledge of the state IT system knows this is a joke - and a chance for the governor to appoint a couple of new agency directors and deputies. - Sick of it - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 6:46 pm: Well at least we moved from XP up to Windows 7! Actually I give Hardik some credit because they seem to want to do this consolidation right. Unlike previous attempts where they just wanted to do something as quickly as possible the new group seems to want to plan things out an try and get it right the first time. - RNUG - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 8:23 pm: == This is not unusual - especially in the Public Sector where making claims about something is seen as the equivalent of it actually being real… == In my day we described it as “resume stamping” - RNUG - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 8:28 pm: == The best you can do is ensure accountability from the companies you hire. == Not likely to happen. All the outsourcing to big companies I was involved in ended up being maybe 1 or 2 competent people and the rest were newbies; the companies viewed the State as a training ground for their employees. It got so bad we started asking in the RFx for actual names of the staff. - Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 8:47 pm: Huh. At my last agency, not under the Governor, but subject to CMS’ broad telecom powers, we brought VoIP up in 2007-08 with CMS’ reluctant approval. The technology worked great. To the other point, the Blago/Filan years were big on consolidations-all about power, turf, and money. Let’s see if Rauner’s that way or is into real integration-taking current resources buried in silos and breaking them free to collaborate. Time will tell. - Property of IDOC - Wednesday, Sep 21, 16 @ 11:02 pm: Our DoIT representative is the same iT person we had before DoIT’s inception; he has no formal education/ training in IT. So nothing has changed except the $100 price tag, PER PC, we are now paying DoIT MONTHLY for maintenance. Yes, the very SAME PCs we had before, all of which have been upgraded with ???? Windows 7. Yes, I know, very efficient . It’s a sham. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.