North Dakota Hires Latvian Support For Our Outdated Technology.
At least our doctors aren t still using leeches for our annual blood lettings. But North Dakota s Unemployment Insurance Program is running on a platform so old that we have to go to the medieval heart of Eastern Europe to find druids that are learned in it s ancient ways. We re talking about mainframe computers that are so old, a Commodore 64 can probably process circles around it. (Please note, if you get that reference, than you too are so old ).
Governor Doug Burgum made his fortune on riding the tide of technology. This is more like a mud puddle of machines. For years now, and at a considerable cost, the state has been able to maintain the system. The Grand Forks Herald reports that according to Duane Schell, chief technology officer for the North Dakota Information Technology Department, much of that considerable cost is maintaining the service of Latvian scientists that are familiar with it s outdated mainframe