IT inefficiencies are pound foolish

The delay in processing the new vehicle fees, besides costing the state $19.2 million in revenue, represents only the latest evidence of the toll that Hawaii’s horribly outdated information technology systems has taken.

It’s a history that the state’s newly appointed chief information officer hopes to correct, but the dimensions of the problem boggle the mind.

In this case, it was the city that was embarrassed — or should have been — by the inefficiency of recalibrating the IT systems on each island that are used for fee collection. The city Department of Information Technology maintains the antiquated computers and postponed launching the laborious task until officials were absolutely certain that Gov. Neil Abercrombie wasn’t going to veto the bill raising the vehicle registration fees and weight taxes. And by "antiquated," we mean dating back more than 40 years, to the dawn of the computer age.

The wisdom of the city’s postponing its computer chore is debatable, but at the very least the result proves a valuable general point. Hawaii’s long-standing philosophy on IT — put off investing in it for as long as you can — can only be described as penny wise and pound foolish.

Vehicle fees help replenish coffers for highway maintenance and repairs, so the funding-collection lag means pushing off the state Department of Transportation’s goal of spending $86 million annually on fixing state roads. Those are repairs, and jobs, the state badly needs, but the delay is not a fatal blow.

The real problem is that kludgey computer systems erode far more than the state’s geek quotient, especially so because this ailment afflicts many, if not all, government agencies.

Consider the stark example provided in recent years by the state Judiciary, in which the labor-intensive task of entering data into computer systems created a mammoth backlog in issuing bench warrants. That compromised public safety: Police may stop a person and then release them without realizing that there are outstanding warrants.

What has been most lacking is a single-minded advocate for IT, one who’s got the official backing to make the needed investments. The fact that the state’s new CIO, Sanjeev "Sonny" Bhagowalia, answers directly to Abercrombie, gives hope that Hawaii’s technological paralysis may be ending at last.

This is a long-term project, and it will require a long-term commitment, from lawmakers and the executive branch alike. Bhagowalia heads the new Office of Information Management and Technology. It received $3 million in seed money, a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Omidyar Ohana Fund. But those start-up funds came with the condition that state lawmakers will budget annually for a $1.2 million line item going forward, covering operating costs for the office’s seven-person staff.

They will start by drafting a plan that envisions an information system that is easily accessible to citizens in today’s mobile, digital environment. The CIO cites a survey by the market research firm ForeSee that indicates three-quarters of the public wants this digital interface from the government. People have grown out of their aversion to technology and now expect that’s how services should be delivered.

Bhagowalia, who is still in the process of hiring staff, has dubbed his team "The Magnificent Seven." That’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but let’s hope that he chooses well. Hawaii has an enormous technological mess, and we’re going to need a determined geek squad to straighten it all out.