Ensono saves State of Kansas $1.8 million annually and more

The midwestern state of Kansas governs over 2.9 million people. Centered at the state capital, Topeka, this legislative body has a stated aim to deliver world-class digital government. The state’s IBM mainframe runs mission critical applications for multiple agencies which are connected over a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Their vision towards a digital government was being hindered by outdated infrastructure.

Based on a mainframe environment, the IT infrastructure had not been upgraded for many years. The State wanted to reduce costs, improve efficiency and mitigate operational risk while migrating away from the mainframe platform. Some of the mainframe staff members had retired and others were approaching retirement age, so the State needed to be proactive in planning for this ahead of time.

The State of Kansas also faced two critical requirements:

• All services, resources and data had to be kept onshore in the U.S.
• Since the mainframe contains federal tax identification information (or FTI), the state was required to notify the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of any changes to the handling and ownership of the sensitive information.

Ensono is helping the state realize annual savings of 20%, or approximately $1.8 million per year. Together, Ensono and the state are implementing many cost reduction and efficiency boosting strategies, including:

• Consolidation of operational support resources to eliminate duplication of effort
• Leverage of Ensono’s existing software contracts and service provider purchasing structure to reduce software costs. The cost for IBM MLC, CA and Compuware software is included in Ensono’s scope of services, as is bringing this software up to current levels.
• Elimination of the need to build/buy additional data center capacity to host the mainframe
• Improved support and reduced operational risks
• Migration of workloads away from the mainframe