Worth a read. Is a slow server.
www.pcw.co.uk/News/1147459
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This sounds like a very typical government computer project, funded by a bottomless pit of incompetence and our money!
It has all the hallmarks of this:-
a. Late
b Way overbudget
c. Probably not 100% reliable in its performance.
d. This shoddy work will not result in any penalties to anybody!
The MOD just ditched a stores management program which has been in development since 1999. It has been totally scrapped with the loss of £118M (according to BBC Teletext).
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There was also a national pathological database in the NHS which cost over £100,000,000 and was also scrapped after the company commissioned to develop it gave up and went into liquidation.
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I can add that the military had a network/computer programme planned, to de-conflict all low flying aircraft in the UK, so as to avoid mid-air collisions. It was meant to be operational in 1992, in Feb 1995 a Minister said that they hoped to have it operational by autumn of 1995 and it is still not working, in November 2003 so that is 11 years late and counting! I don't know how much it has cost but the concept of stopping aircraft bumping into each other over our crowded island seems to me to be a matter of public interest and concern
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The "new" Scottish Parliament Building?
DVD
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Indeed it does, folks...!
A new case like this rears its head with virtually every issue of Private Eye. It does show that mixing private enterprise with core government services simply doesn\'t work. Both parties have had their change to prove otherwise but enough\'s enough in my opinion.
Basically the government seems still to think that \'out-sourcing\' is panacea for all ills, while the private sector see Whitehall as a pushover and a licence to cock it all up with impunity.
I make no apology for raising an essentially political point in a motoring speakeasy, but as you say it\'s all us poor pink fluffy dice paying for it. And we have absolutely no control over it (bit like making sure more road tax revenues end up on roads, eh what?)
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My last two contracts have been for local government, and my experience is that the illogical methods of working within local government could never be mapped over to a logical computer model.
If they don't know a) what they currently have, b) what it is that they want then how can the IT people provide?
They are about to waste £32billion on computerising the NHS.
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Keep it to Motoring please.
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im a tester & can confirm that its a very unreliable system, had to sieze testing today because the computer didnt work properly! bet i cant get any compensation, or an appoligy from VOSA for the customers waiting!
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im a tester & can confirm that its a very unreliable system,
I agree. I recently had my bike MOT'd. The MOT itself only took 10 to 15 mins, but to actually generate a certificate took more than an hour due to connection problems betwen his garage and the DVLA database.
I know the garage owner quite well, and although giving a computer to someone in their mid 50's who's never worked on anything more complicated that a calculator in his life is a recipe for disaster, not all the problems were down to his computer illiteracy.
He'd already turned away 6 customers that morning that wanted MOTs. If I replicated the language he used down the phone to the DVLA helpline on here, it would send the swearfilter into meltdown.
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I'm sure I've posted on this before, but I think the system here in New Zealand is just a secure website with login/password for each MOT testing garage/centre. I'm not sure if all the test details or just failures are entered, but I think the system generates a code number which is written on the test sheets. Customer gets one copy, tester keeps the other. The record of the test pass or fail goes on the central computer database. The sticker which is affixed to the inside of the windscreen is pre-printed with the year and has the relevant month-circle for expiry (6 months over here) punched out by the tester.
When you subsequently wish to pay your registration (Road Tax), the completed MOT is listed in the computer beside the car number plate index. Apart from the difference in scale from NZ to UK, it should be able to be easily implemented. So why is this system not in consideration for the UK? The only requirement is that every MOT tester would need a computer and telephone line.
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Pete M asked "So why is this system not in consideration for the UK?"
Imagine the Government IT systems as a car manufacturer.
A car manufacturer builds on prior models and advances by small steps - incremental mode if you like. So prior faults (should be) are ironed out.
Well wrong1 The Government goes for the Big Bang approach..Nationwide rollout of a NEW system. We don't need other people's systems.
The NIH syndrome (Not Invented Here).
Of course it does not work.. it's all new. Learning by experience? Whatsthat?
madf
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Why is it that some people think that technology can solve everything? There seems to be a trend that if the current setup isn't working add more technology and it will. What stupidity! I remember a discussion on Radio 2 about police being snowed under with red tape (paper work), the ministers answer was that with the new systems in place this can be done on the road as it were. Madness, what happened to common sense?
Steve.
IT Tech!
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Why is it that some people think that technology can solve everything? There seems to be a trend that if the current setup isn't working add more technology and it will. What stupidity!
Seen it so many times, not only in Goverment or NHS but private industry as well, I could almost cry. Although I suppose all these new systems have kept me in beer tokens for quite a few years now.
It brings to mind the hoary old tale about the space programme, NASA spent millions developing a pen that would write in space, the Russians used a pencil. Just because it's cutting edge or new doesn't necessarily make it better.
Cockle
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The garage I used to work in was owned by a bloke in his late 60's, and when he heard all about this computerisation malarkey it was the straw that broke the camels back and he decided to sell it all to a property developer. It was a petrol station aswell so it was an even bigger loss to the community
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