California proposes open source project planning

California's biggest IT project – one that's supposed to help state government better manage its dollars – has money and staffing problems.

The Financial Information System for California (dubbed FI$Cal, get it?) has cost taxpayers $62.6 million so far, with a final tab estimated at $1.6 billion over 12 years.

Promoters say the system will eventually replace a patchwork of antiquated government computer systems that hinder efficiency. Sac Bee

It is now recognized that anything more complicated than a toothpick will ave enormous over runs inn California government.

CalPERS is more than $500 million into a project that was first estimated at about half that. It launched two years late in September and still needed tweaking.

Step one of the new open source plan is to publish the requirements. Any conctrator who can observe a complete solution to the project will defint eh projectt plan and technology in an open source blog collaboration.

The state of california will start this program as soon as I can locate the documents. It will be conducted as a blog round table. Software geeks will have first shot at hourly contracts as the project unfolds.

Imagisoft has its imaginary staff on the project!

I can tell you the most likely solution. Spreadsheet widgets in browsers that talk Cal_XML.

So, get an accounting and xml experts adn create the defining definitions of what we know about California government accounting. These are the Cal XML definition. he just start grabbing chart, spreadsheet widgets, adopt an sql scheme, let the cal CIO fuck with the scheme like he has some useless control. Bingo done. Estimated total labor cost $3 million.

Imagisoft will be letting out open source contracts on behalf of California.

http://www.fiscal.ca.gov/ this is their reference site. I will go through their white paper.

FI$Cal will provide the state with a centralized, integrated system for fiscal information that
employs standardized data definitions and modernized data management processes. By
standardizing business processes, FI$Cal will eliminate or minimize the need for redundant
manual input, time-consuming reconciliations, and auxiliary systems and spreadsheets, thus
enabling the state to realize ongoing operational savings. These changes will also increase
the timeliness and flexibility of data reporting, improve financial management and enhance
transparency. In addition, FI$Cal will replace hundreds of legacy systems, technologies, and
applications, which are expensive to maintain, and thus enable the state to avoid the multibillion dollar exxpense of replacing multiple antiquated fiscal systems in numerous state
departments

MySQL or equivalent open source. Capture all their unique acouting rules into XML. ($1 million)
COTS ERP for public govrnments:

A growing number of federal, state and local government
organizations are either implementing or planning to implement commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) systems. These projects are undertaken
to replace aging systems and to re-engineer operational
processes for greater cost-effectiv

A growing number of federal, state and local government
organizations are either implementing or planning to implement commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) systems. These projects are undertaken
to replace aging systems and to re-engineer operational
processes for greater cost-effectiv