Tracking the Spend: $99.8M on EDD’s Top 5 IT Service Buys in 2024

The Employment Development Department saw a significant jump in spending on IT services from 2023 to 2024 as the EDDNext modernization initiative continued ramping up.

EDDNext is the program designed to “completely transform the EDD customer and employee experience,” encompassing online applications and transactions, contact centers, the claims process, policies and procedures. The effort was spun up as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which exponentially increased the average number of weekly unemployment benefit claims from 56,000 to more than 1 million. That surge in demand was exacerbated by fraud; according to EDD, the department’s fraud prevention efforts have saved the state more than $125 billion.

From Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2024, EDD’s five largest purchases of IT services totaled $99.8 million. According to the State Contract and Procurement Registration System, the department spent $75.2 million on the five largest buys of IT services in 2023.

EDD’s five largest purchases of IT services in 2024, with rounding, were:

• $43 million for development and implementation of a document management system, purchased in a competitive bid from Deloitte Consulting LLP. That agreement started April 10 and runs through June 30, 2028.
• $36.5 million for data center services, purchased from the California Department of Technology (CDT) in a non-competitive interagency agreement that began July 1 and runs for one year.
• $10.5 million for EDDNext-related management consulting services, awarded in a competitive two-year agreement with The iFish Group Inc. that began April 24.
• $5.1 million for mail equipment maintenance in a three-year contract with DMT Solutions Global Corp. that began July 1. The award was non-competitively bid as it was for a proprietary product.
• $4.7 million for staff augmentation in a competitively bid contract with Mythics VIII LLC that began Feb. 1, 2024, and runs through Sept. 30 of this year.

During 2023, EDD’s top five buys of IT services, with rounding, were:

• $35 million for data center services from CDT in a non-competitive interagency agreement that began July 1, 2023, and ran for one year.
• $15.6 million for “transformation office service” in a competitively bid two-year contract with Guidehouse Inc. that runs through Oct. 29, 2025.
• $15 million for independent verification and validation services in a five-year, competitively bid contract with Public Consulting Group LLC. The contract runs through Dec. 20, 2028.
• $5 million for consulting services from Deloitte Consulting LLP in a two-year contract that runs through Oct. 12, 2025. This contract was an IT Master Service Agreement (IT MSA).
• $4.6 million for quality assurance testing by Acuity Technical Solutions in a two-year IT MSA contract that runs through July 19, 2025.

EDD Chief Information Officer Ajit Girn and Loree Levy, the department’s deputy director of public affairs, will be featured at a members-only Industry Insider — California Member Briefing on March 11 in Sacramento; registration and additional details are available online.

The periodic reports of spending on IT goods and services by agencies and departments in state government are compiled by Industry Insider — California as a way of highlighting procurements and trends.