Tracking the Spend: Child Support Services’ Top $10M in IT Buys So Far in 2023

The state department charged with helping parents who are going through the child support process made 113 purchases of IT goods from Jan. 1-June 30, spending more than $10 million on the top five.

The California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) spent exactly $10,445,246.44 on its five most expensive such buys, all of which were purchases, not contracts. This compares favorably with the same period in 2022. During the first quarter of 2022, DCSS made more IT goods purchases, at 121 buys, but spent less than half as much on its five most expensive such purchases, just $4,089,402. 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 (VPC) with the option of a Virtual Processor Core License. DCSS made the purchase Jan. 1.
• $2 million to NWN Solutions Corp., most likely for examples of the HP EliteBook 650 G9 laptop computer and accessories. The department made the purchase April 28.
• $1.5 million to Taborda Solutions Inc. for a Tableau implementation. Taborda Solutions and Enterprise Networking Solutions were purchased in August 2021 by Fulcrum Technology Group. The department made the purchase June 15.
• $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 Dell’s OptiPlex 7000 Micro Form Factor computers. DCSS made the purchase March 13.

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.