JITOC warns ERP program carries high risk after pause, unpaid invoices and uncertain costs

The Joint Information Technology Oversight Committee heard a detailed update July 29 from the legislative fiscal office's IT consultant on the state's enterprise resource planning (ERP) project, which integrates HR, finance (Vision), and budget systems.

Lisa Gav, JFO IT consultant, said the ERP work was placed on pause in April after officials concluded the HR and finance components were too tightly integrated to split into separate go‑lives. She presented invoices and spending figures and warned the committee that money already spent cannot be recovered: “So based on this, as of early April, it was 12,000,000, the grand total.” Gav said GuideHouse (the implementation vendor) had invoiced about $4.9 million with $1.6 million outstanding and that Workday license payments had been made over multiple years.

Gav told members JFO's independent review earlier identified risks and flagged duplicate staffing costs in some budgets, producing a top‑end JFO estimate of about $71,000,000 if gaps are not addressed. She said the state deferred some subscription payments rather than eliminating them, and that pausing the project does not return previously spent implementation funds.

Committee members asked when cost bids and vendor prices become visible; Gav said the state sees cost bids but those details are not public until contracts are signed and noted uncertainty whether the state has identified all funding for all components. She emphasized that a gap analysis is required to quantify remaining cost and schedule risk and that JFO will review the CIO's independent review and the Attain amendment before issuing final assessments. The committee agreed the ERP remains a top oversight priority and is likely to return for more detailed inquiry.