As someone who sold computers to Virginia universities for many years, I can testify that the latest problems showing Virginia will pay $9,000 over the life of a laptop are nothing new.
In the late eighties when I first submitted one of Apple Computer's bids in response to Virginia's Department of Information Technology (DIT) requests for bids, I was amazed that a process which in theory was designed to hold costs down had become warped in Virginia to the point that it actually increased the cost of computing.
DIT in its wisdom specified only certain bundled equipment that could be ordered by state institutions. Unfortunately DIT was staffed by people who were on the trailing edge of technology while university customers were on the leading edge.
Universities switched quickly to high speed ethernet networks. DIT required them to buy low speed AppleTalk connectors with each computer even though they did not need them. It added fifty or sixty dollars to the cost of each computer. There was one of the departments at the University of Virginia which had a closet filled to the ceiling with unused AppleTalk connectors.
The worst abuse of DIT was the drawn out process of bidding and the contract itself. In a world of technology where products rarely lasted more than six months, the DIT process was designed for products that were around for eighteen months.
I solved Apple's problem by just no longer bidding on the state contract. At that point state agencies did individual bids or signed contracts directly with us which lowered their costs.
This latest outsourcing of IT fits the pattern. Plenty of United State government organizations have in one way or another tried outsourcing their information technology. Unfortunately I also got to see how poorly those worked. The most infamous case was the Department of Navy outsourcing to EDS.
I noticed that the EDS contract has been extended. That comes as no surprise since once you implement one of these contracts, you no longer have the staff to do it yourself. In fact you do not even have the people to evaluate whether or not the contract is saving you money or costing you money.
Typically these contracts have tons of modifications which keep driving the costs up.
My favorite example of a bad contract was NASA's Outsourcing Desktop Initiative or ODIN. NASA signed the contract for its computer procurement. It resulted in second class, out of date technology in the hands of scientists who needed leading edge equipment. The contract had some real quirks that drove costs up. Because it required external monitors, the vendors supplied useless 15" external monitors with each iMac. The iMacs had a built-in monitor. Scientists used them the extra monitors for doorstops.
Virginia's $9,000 laptop contract is particularly sad since my experience with Virginia taught me that some of the brightest minds in information technology are in Virginia. Virginia state universities have had to learn how to do more with less, and with just a few exceptions they have done just that.
Perhaps the state should have tasked one of its universities to manage its information technology. Certainly Va. Tech did a better job of lowering telecom costs than the state which tried to force universities to pay more for telecom just to help fund DIT.
The idea that a laptop, which is essentially a disposable item these days, could cost $9,000 to deploy and support over five years is laughable. It is a great example of government outsourcing gone bad.
I wonder how much it costs to support my $849 HP laptop that I bought two years ago? The one thing I do know is that I could buy the same laptop with better specifications for under $600 today.
Even if prices did not drop more I could buy a new laptop each year for five years and throw the old one away and still come in $6,000 cheaper than Virginia's contract. At $40 per hour for support, with my $6,000, I could buy 150 hours or 30 hours of support per year.
If you need thirty hours of support a year to run a modern laptop, you need to retire and let someone else have your job.
I would think if your laptops are costing $9,000 over five years, then just maybe you should evaluate what operating system you are using and perhaps consider some alternatives.
Perhaps you should look at Apple products which cost more upfront but have been demonstrated to be nearly self supporting or Linux software which has been shown to be far more reliable and inexpensive than Windows products.
Even Apple laptops do not cost $9,000.
At this point, I suspect Virginia is out of options, they will have plenty of $9,000 laptops but fewer and fewer rest stops.
It is a sad commentary on what was once viewed by many as one of the most high tech of states.