Australia ponders 160,000-seat ERP possibilities Australia's government has released an information paper titled “Investigation into optimising ERP Systems across the public service” that will consider how the nation's government can best procure, and wield, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The release of the information paper (regwalled PDF here should come as no …
so true. Corporate sclerosis is loved by the IT clueless. Fortunately, it will be so over managed that the next gov but two can bin it. No doubt large foreign multinationals will be brought in to advise, specify and manage while local staff are sacked to pay for it. It used to be called treason, but now it is called outsourcing and free trade.
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back in the day, before the mentor of the current wannbe PM destroyed a coherent PS, there was a central accounting department and a functional government owned HR application. All blown away and a plethora of applications and HR agreements became the norm.
I note the new gov has not mentioned the previous gov had recognised this was a problem. While going back to a standard set of apps might be a good idea, the mandatory top down approach will mean no-one can use the results if previous track record is any guide. Also, the idea of a common pool of resources suggests the idea is to destroy departments as permanent bodies and create a central floating pool of temporary contract staff to be allocated as fads require. Except for the parliamentary support services of course. Speculation or co-incidence: Is this why HP has sent a pom this way ? Already seen the future and knows how this works? Where is the I don't want to live here anymore icon ?
And of course, helicopters, black helicopters. One SAP account across all gov entities. Snooping made easy. The local spooks must be wetting themselves. And yes, they are about the only ones hiring locally.
The irony is perhaps that the fools want to adopt an ERP approach, choosing to overlook how the Queensland Health payroll system reach a total bill of AUD 1.2 billion, despite (or because) of the involvement of global "experts" in the shape of IBM.
If that's what it costs for a regional health service payroll system, imagine how much the contractors will be able to ream out the national government for on this one. My guess is that the bill for a single public sector ERP will be greater than Australia's GDP.
Contractors! Start your billing engines!
A stupid as an idea as this is - logically and practically - the end result will be as the first poster said - buy SAP. It always is on any large project.
The spec will be all over the place, the project will over run and the reports will be crap and missing. It always is on a large project
Hubris on a grand scale
Previous mass PS sacker government sacked staff doing real work, which sent many of those techs to multinationals to be contracted back at greater cost, then hired more politically aligned drones than public servants sacked. <rant>The party with a conservative label seems to have a fixation on copying the failing USA model of misgovernment. The election slogans may have said "wallet shut", but history suggests that it will be open to non-citizens and courtiers of all kinds. Regardless of ERP package chosen, I fear another round of privatised taxes, aka public/private investment schemes, user pays dogma and fees with a corresponding drop in health, education and as a first for conservatives, Defence spending. No justification will be given as you poms may remember, TINA. ie, citizens, get stuffed and pay up. None of the above is to suggest the other lots are less profligate, just different priorities, most of which are not in the common good either probably.
As for a thought out science and technology policy, no chance. The obsession with importing experts is endemic here, despite some very clued people here. Most parties now consist of academics, bureaucrats from unions and companies. Not to mention an infestation of that class of unrealists, lawyers. Very few politicians seem to be citizens who live in world of limited resources and time. </rant>
I suppose boning up on mass storage gear management is the only upside for techs. Lots of that to be bought, unless the gullible (or bought) go along with the SOPA provisions in the Pacific unFree Trade Treaty currently under secret discussions. This will not allow governments to govern for the citizens good if it interferes with profits. If so, remote cloud management would be another option.
Don't outsource this project to the likes of IBM. The government should employ local resources to complete this.... with the non-existent SAP employment market right now in Aus. I know plenty competent Functional and Technical consultants that can see this project through tot the end.
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