In 2005, the Census Bureau awarded a contract for Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) support to the Harris Corporation (DMD, 2008). Harris Corporation was responsible for the procurement and installation of office and field automation hardware and software for the 2008 Dress Rehearsal and the 2010 Census Local Census Offices that were responsible for managing and implementing the field data collection operations.

For the 2010 Census, IT Deployment consisted of the installation of the office computing environment in one hundred fifty-one Early Local Census Offices that began opening in October 2008, and the implementation of a mobile computing environment that included: handheld computers, laptop computers, air cards, and secure digital cards that were used during the address canvassing field operation that began in January 2009.

In August 2009, the Census Bureau began opening an additional three hundred forty-three Local Census Offices that also required an office computing environment. The office computing environment included the following types of equipment: computer workstations, printers, network electronics, servers, infrastructure cabling, and telecommunications that effectively supported field operations, payroll, e-mail, word processing, and a document repository.

For the 2010 Census, there were four different office sizes that required different amounts of equipment. The number of personal computers that an Local Census Office received ranged from 19 to 25, depending on the office size and the projected workload. To mitigate the risk of telecommunications failure and to ensure continuous communications capability, the Census Bureau installed two additional T-1 lines in each Local Census Office.

De-installation of the office computing environment began in September 2010 and was completed by November 2010. IT de-installation consisted of the removal and sanitization of the equipment and telecommunication lines from the Local Census Offices. All equipment was shipped to the National Processing Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana for asset management and final disposition.

The Field Data Collection Automation contract cost for creating these computing environments was $93.5 million. The cost includes: the installation and de-installation of equipment, asset management, and telecommunication costs. The installation and deinstallation cost of the office and mobile computing environment was completed under budget due to deployment efficiencies.

For the 2020 Census, it must be decided early in the decade whether or not the IT equipment will be purchased or leased. If the decision is to lease the IT equipment, then it must be decided how the property will be tracked and managed. In addition, a thorough telecommunications and equipment analysis should be performed and realisitic quantitative data must be provided as part of the system requirements. These quantitative data are vital to enable each system to be effectively performance tested, including load and stress testing, to ensure that all systems will be able to perform at acceptable levels during peak production.