Tracking the Spend: Child Support Services’ Q1 IT Goods Purchases

The state department that helps parents who are going through the child support process made 38 purchases of IT goods from Jan. 1 to March 31, 2023, and spent well over $8 million on the top five.

The California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) spent exactly $8,544,764.32 on its five most expensive such purchases, nearly half of that with one vendor. This compares somewhat favorably with the same period in 2022. During the first quarter of 2022, DCSS made more IT goods purchases, at 59 buys, but spent just $2,642,730.82 on its five most expensive such purchases, less than half as much. Here, with rounding, is what that money paid for, based on data in the State Contracting and Procurement Registration System:

• $4.2 million to Allied Network Solutions Inc. for examples of IBM’s Db2 Advanced Edition product on Virtual Processor Core with the option of a Virtual Processor Core License. DCSS made the purchase Jan. 1.
• $1.5 million to Zones LLC, likely for Microsoft’s Core Infrastructure Suites (CIS), with standard core, for all languages. DCSS made the purchase March 21.
• $1.2 million to Granite Data Solutions, most likely for examples of Dell’s OptiPlex 7000 Micro Form Factor computers. DCSS made the purchase March 13.
• $850,000 to Ablegov Inc. for “Unified Enterprise Support” for one year. DCSS made the purchase March 22.
• $823,000 to Optm West for examples of Palo Alto Networks’ PA-5250 Enterprise Firewall with redundant AC-current power supply. DCSS made the purchase Jan. 26.
  

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.