Meanwhile, In Other Leagues...

What takes more chutzpah than hiring a seat management contractor? How about the state of Connecticut's $1 billion plan to outsource every element of its IT work to a single contractor, potentially displacing 1,000 state employees? That could be why it has taken more than two years for Gov. John G. Rowland to get the contract in place.

Once the contractor is chosen from among the four bids (including one from the Connecticut State Employees Association, teamed with Computer Sciences Corp.), the state auditor will study the contract and the legislature will get an opportunity to overturn it. But perhaps by next July, the seven-year outsourcing program will get under way. It's likely to begin with the data centers and move gradually into other aspects of IT operations, according to a spokesman for Rock Regan, Connecticut's chief information officer.

Like federal agencies that have adopted the seat management approach, Connecticut officials are aiming to improve the state's use of IT, rather than cut costs substantially. The state is spending about $300 million a year on technology.

Across the continent, California has chosen a team of Pacific Bell and MCI Telecommunications Corp. to take over the state's telecom network, CalNet. "Running a telephone company is not a core competency of state government," says Peter Stamison, the state's director of general services. The network serves 300,000 users in state and local agencies and schools.