States approve IT overhaul which will mean loss of 50 jobs
Wednesday 26th October 2011, 4:11PM BST.
UP TO 50 civil servants jobs will go after the States today approved a major overhaul of its IT and administrative system.
The project is seen as key to leading to further cost cutting elsewhere.
A total of £9.4m. has been allocated for the project, £1.5m. of that to fund redundancy payments, although staff will be reallocated to other posts where possible.
It is aimed to finish the project by 2013 and it should save £1.7m. a year from then.
Only three members voted against the main proposals.
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Should think there are a few satisfied civil servants, knowing that they’re in for a nice redundancy pay-off to early retirement, thus averting a Union balloted strike!….
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That’s such a shame, its so horrible to lose your job that way.
I am curious about the amount of redundancy pay though. It averages £30K per person which is in my eyes roughly the yearly salary for the average person on the island and I bear in mind that the type of jobs being done can be replaced by computers so how does that work? (Not that people should not get what they are owed – I am purely curious how it works.)
Do we have redundancy pay law on the island or is it just each employer has their own policy? How long is it paid for? I know for unfair dismissal you cant only get 6 months or 26 weeks worth of pay.
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OK so taking away the redundancy payments this leaves £7.9 million for the actual IT overhaul. That’s a lot of money for reprogramming existing computers. The hardware must all be there because it’s working at the moment. The buildings are all there (in fact there should be a surplus once the 50 have taken ‘early retirement’). All communication lines are already there. I have to ask where it’s all going!? Oops, silly me was there a consultancy fee to consider as well?
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Temp expat – don’t be so quick to make clever remarks. The people likely to be made redundant are not necessarily of semi-retirement age and with lots of redundancies currently going on through the Banks here etc etc jobs are going to be more difficult to find.
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Have I also missed something vital here? If they are getting rid of 50 members of staff, but yet will be trying to find them jobs – how exactly will that save money?
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@Donkey Doo
States report says the fee is 3.7mil inc expenses. That’s a chunk o’change but not a massive sum for a government.
And I agree with sarnia; take it easy on those who’ll lose their jobs, it’s a horrible thing to go through.
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I just hope they’ve made the sensible decision to move to open-source operating systems and software rather than pay through the nose for Windows, MS Office and others, as the vast majority of organisations that need an IT infrastructure should be doing.
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Sarnia expat:
Have you ever known the Civil service to lose members without adequate compensation. Its cost the Island a fortune over the years, especially when senior people are involved. You can guarantee that most will be swallowed up into other departments and those who will be made redundant will gain from early retirement. I very much doubt there will be many losers.
Donkey Doo:
I agree, a massive initial cost that will take years to see any benifit, by which time the States will have forgotten the original objective and be overspending and over employing again.
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why is never the top civil servants or managers that never lose there jobs,these people who will lose ther jobs like my wife are in the low earning bracket and local.
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It’s all well and good hoping they move to open source software, but the support fee’s for such software via companies such as cannonical or even by in house secialists often outweights the benifits.
There is a reason why most companies are bolted with windows and windows eco systems, and it’s to do with standards in server software, support costs being lower and the availablity of certified training courses at a lower price.
Open source for industry is more a pipe dream than a reality.
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I shall be counting the States job adverts in the Press from now on
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I wonder if they would class the Environment Department as IT. After all they sit looking at the computer screens then say “computer says No”
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@Joshua
The standards in server software for Windows vs. Linux-based systems hasn’t been true for a long time now, and uptake of open-source platforms by governmental departments is a slow but steady ongoing process. There are many examples the world over of the transition to Linux.
You are right about the higher support fees, but the main reason for a lack of uptake of open-source platforms are a lack of awareness and the logistics of the transition, but this is short-term thinking.
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@Keith
If all you need to do are the basics ( email/Internet/document editing ) then Linux is fine.
I however rely on 3 or 4 dedIcated ( and rather niche) software packages that will only run in Windows. I Imagine many others are in the same situation – and open source is never going to be able to take its place.
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Donkey Doo,
Yes, this money is partly going to designing and writing new software, and partly to figuring out exactly how everything will work when the staff start using it. The States can rarely use software ‘off the shelf’ for its main record keeping because they have to have the flexibility to cope with changes in the law. Yes it is complicated and expensive, there are very few people available to do this sort of work locally (most are employed by banks). These sorts of projects are very hard to define and quantify up front which makes them very risky for the consultants, and that will be reflected in the cost.
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@Toby
I do think you’re the exception rather than the rule though. How many office workers using PCs actually need niche software, unless it is some kind of database or accounting system that only runs on Windows? And again, that is not something unavailable through open source packages, but the logistics of moving over are probably what dissuades people.
I fully accept it’s not a solution that can be universally implemented (sigh, one day), and Windows/proprietary software will be necessary for many IT professionals, I just find it hard to believe that most, or even a particularly large minority of States employees that need to use a computer need to use Windows/MS Office, or similar.
I don’t have any data to back this up mind, it’s just an assumption based on the relatively simple procedures a lot of IT infrastructure is actually used for. I’d be intrigued to see some, but I doubt they’re available.
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ChrisJ, do you happen to know when they are to commence building their project team?
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Rachel,
I know not. I suspect it’s already started – in fact I’d say to get a fixed cost at all, they must already have done quite a lot of work (perhaps under existing contracts).
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Don’t expect to see many crumbs dropped locally from this feast. Remember that Logica is an incumbent and will be deep into this as will some existing vendors. There will be hardware, talk of private cloud and lots of business processes and systems architecture that are way above our humble intellects. SAP = “Shut up And Pay” according to a UK consultant I once saw speak. Real question is whether States will have any in-house skills to know if this is working out and have the guts to call their suppliers to account. Open Source – would be great to follow the UK gov lead on this and coincidentally our largest private sector employer on the island is the poster-boy for corporate adoption of Open Source and would have a ton of advice no doubt if asked. Let’s see how far this permeates the big project but I would not hold my breath.
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