EDS
is this still an EDS system? surely not another EDS system gone tits up...
Poor IT is hampering efficiency at Jobcentre Plus, according to a Commons report. A parliamentary watchdog has said staff at Jobcentre Plus are having to work with slow and problematic IT, which often does not have the basic functionality that would be expected in a modern office. The Commons Public Accounts Committee found …
The Systems they use have there roots in the punched card days. They casue more grief than a manual card system and with that nothing more needs to be said.
Also the staff have the IT sence of a monkey handcuffed trying to scratch its arse - basicly they aint realy trained about IT at all. I base this upon a recent visit were to print a single paragraph they were going to resort to print an entire 120 page document. Indeed a simple highlight and print selected would of sufficed and after showing that was indeed an option was gladly recieved. This being just the surface on how shafted the staff there are.
Stop wasting money on 3rd parties, employ your own IT staff and dont tupe them out via contracts. Bottom line in IT if its making a profit - DONT sell it off, if its not making a profit then again dont sell it off expecting it to get cheaper as cost is praportuonal to return and you clearly havin't costed the benifits right or you dont need IT.
Bottom line not enough IT unions in this country have erroded the skills and pay away to the extent that its a utter joke. Take attatiude to the post office to see what you get treated like when you stand up for your rights these days. Yet managers there I bet like in IT are creaming it without actualy contributing dick.
I remember from my dole-scrounging days that my fortnightly visits to the Job Centre could be a major chore due to bad data. Old adverts, out of date information, poor keywords and abysmal regional mapping all made the visit an hour-long nightmare. Unless I was interviewed by the nice hippy chick. Unlike the evil old battleaxe, she would allow a cursory check of the list and a swift stamp of the book.
I've seen that job centre IT system (as I'm sure many have) and to be honest it does look like a bag of turds, but I have to object: people are always very quick to say that legacy IT systems make their lives more difficult, not easier - are they really saying they think they'd be better off with a pen and paper system!?
Oh - and re the question about donations and whether the government's continued use of EDS and friends is stupidity or corruption, see practically any issue of Private Eye over the past few years... See also Arriva, Capita, Reliance, etc., etc.
All is forgiven :(
My "Employer" used to have IT outsourced to EDS, largest IT infrastructure in Europe for those of you wondering. Whilst back in the EDS day I used to slag them off daily, whilst cleaning up their mess, I'd now quite happily sell my soul to them to take over from our new IT supplier...and give me back my IT job instead of the crap I've now been dumped in due to outsourcing.
I've worked for both EDS and the Jobcentre, never have i seen a more brain-dead couple so suited to one another.
One keeps sucking up the money the other is happy to keep handing over.
Not that the money ever reaches the "employees", so you end up with either indian data-chimps or 18yr olds here on minimum wage not giving a toss about their work.
Yay for outsourcing!
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My understanding is that there is over £200 million quids worth of new kit which they bought and paid for over 2 years ago but which they have been unable to install because they forgot to specify that the monitors on the frontline MUST be attached to secure fixed stands to prevent them being a) used as weapons and b)stolen. They had already spent their budget so they couldn't afford to buy the stands...
Well I've just written a 500 word rant on the JCP IT systems and processes & EDC along with defending the people being spat at by addicts & unemployed teachers for fourteen grand a year on the front line at Job Centres. I then thought about the sweep possible of all staff who read the register and I'd be out on my ear, and there are non of these average £24,000 jobs where I live, its all minimum wage, I've looked.
I work for an ousourcing firm (Not EDS), and all my dealings with local or national government tend to be the same. They don't actually know what they want from a project and when the supplier delivers what they asked and signed for its actually completely different to there actual requirements and not fit for purpose.
The problem is that the person spending our money we've paid in tax doesn't have a clue about what the requirements are or the technology that is available to them. They all tend to be jobs for the boys merchants that don't actually have a clue what front line staff actually do.
I'm not saying that the out sourcing firms a perfect, but surely before everyone slags them off people should look at both sides of the argument.