Review of State Information Technology Consolidation Efforts

State governments spend billions of dollars annually on information technology (IT). Individual agencies frequently purchase and operate independent systems to do similar work throughout state government—which is inefficient and adds to costs. For example, state agencies often operate their own mainframes and redundant payroll systems, costing the state more and hampering information sharing and statewide analysis. Recognizing these problems, a number of states have moved to consolidate these systems.

The two most frequently undertaken types of IT consolidation are physical consolidation and application consolidation. A review of states by NGA found that at least 42 states have undertaken consolidation initiatives in recent years; 32 have implemented physical consolidation and 26 undertook application consolidation.