By Graham Hayday, 13 August 2002 12:50
NEWS EDS is at the centre of another UK government contract controversy, as it's emerged the Child Support Agency's (CSA) new computer system is running £50m over budget and at least a year late. The system, supplied by a consortium led by the outsourcing giant, was supposed to be operational in April this year. But that deadline has now been put back by ministers to next summer at the earliest, with the extra cost representing a quarter of the original £200m contract. The system was designed to help speed up the calculation of child support payments and collection times. It was developed by Affinity, a consortium led by EDS and which includes PWC and IBM. Work started in April 2000, and the system went live on a limited basis in December 2001, processing a sample of new cases as part of a live field trial. A spokeswoman for EDS told silicon.com that the scope of the contract had changed since it was first struck, with the CSA adding more complex requirements to the system. In a written statement, the company said: "The new IT system developed for the Child Support Reforms (CSR) is complete and undergoing testing. The system is highly complex and more sophisticated than originally anticipated due to a change in government requirements. "The go live date, when new cases are input into the system, is a ministerial decision, and will be based on the government's reform agenda. This is separate from the delivery of the IT systems and is dependent on a number of readiness factors."
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1. dury
Outsourcing is great provided that the contract is clear and makes sence. If there are modifications after signing the contract, well then it should be reconcidered. Usually businesses outsource to cut costs (they give people the sack). What happens next is not their problem, only now someone else has to do the job, the outsourcing business has become a client, and they can go somewhere else if they are not satisfied. And they can make the contracts so difficult that it is impossible to do the job with fines as result.