Weld government renews contract with Dallas computer company

Bill Jackson, (Bio) bjackson@greeleytribune.com
May 8, 2008

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Weld County government has renewed a contract with a Dallas-based information technology company for $60 million to provide IT services.

Under the contact, which the county signed for a seven-year period with the option of extending it to 15 years, Affiliated Computer Services Inc. will provide application support, help desk, personal computers, Geographic Information Systems, Web development and network support, according to a press release from ACS.

Monica Mika, Weld director of administration services, said the county has been associated with ACS since 1993. But that association has had some rocky times.

In 2004, a Weld jail inmate, with a valid identification card, obtained personal information on Weld employees, internal documents and policy manuals. In 2006, an ACS computer was stolen that had a database that contained personal information on more than 1 million Colorado residents on the state's child-support enforcement division database.

The county added security measures following the 2004 incident.

Weld contracted with Web Sense, a third party brought in to do 24-hour surveillance. Security vulnerability checks are conducted monthly. ACS also invested $500,000 into the county in firewalls and updated networks in addition to hiring a full-time security officer.

Mika said those measures remain in place and since then, the county has become an example on computer security.

"We definitely learned something, but since we've put in the security measures a lot of people are coming to Weld because they see us an example of what needs to be done as far as security is concerned," Mika said.