He knows the risks, but he still wants to give it a shot. Karl Kaiser, CIO of the city of Minneapolis, is issuing an RFP to outsource “the break-and-fix business”?all the city’s desktops, networks, help desk and support staff. “I’ve decided that 60 percent of my money and management go into that break-and-fix business,” Kaiser says. “I want to refocus on becoming an information services provider rather than a maintenance organization.”He has the same compelling argument the state of Connecticut and San Diego County used to promote outsourcing: that a single vendor could beef up the city’s IT infrastructure and simultaneously reduce the cost of doing business by as much as $12.5 million over seven years.But Kaiser also faces the same challenges that have crippled those other initiatives?changing the way government does business and selling the change to powerful labor unions. So far, Kaiser has persuaded a majority of the City Council to at least support his outsourcing RFP, which was supposed to hit the streets in April. If all goes as planned, Kaiser hopes to return to the council with a winning bid and a contract proposal in July.The Minnesota Public Employees Association, which stands to lose 45 members (including its chapter president) through outsourcing, is bracing for a fight, however. “They’re powerful?labor does have a strong influence on who’s elected,” Kaiser says. But he feels his business case for outsourcing is even more powerful. “The state government is in a $2 billion deficit and is actually trying to get money back from the cities,” Kaiser says. “Our timing couldn’t be better.” But, then, Connecticut and San Diego County felt the same way. And today they know better. Related content feature Expedia poised to take flight with generative AI CTO Rathi Murthy sees the online travel service’s vast troves of data and AI expertise fueling a two-pronged transformation strategy aimed at growing the company by bringing more of the travel industry online. By Paula Rooney Jun 02, 2023 7 mins Travel and Hospitality Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence case study Deoleo doubles down on sustainability through digital transformation The Spanish multinational olive oil processing company is immersed in a digital transformation journey to achieve operational efficiency and contribute to the company's sustainability strategy. By Nuria Cordon Jun 02, 2023 6 mins CIO Supply Chain Digital Transformation brandpost Resilient data backup and recovery is critical to enterprise success As global data volumes rise, business must prioritize their resiliency strategies. By Neal Weinberg Jun 01, 2023 4 mins Security brandpost Democratizing HPC with multicloud to accelerate engineering innovations Cloud for HPC is facilitating broader access to high performance computing and accelerating innovations and opportunities for all types of organizations. By Tanya O'Hara Jun 01, 2023 6 mins Multi Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe