An all-round IT disaster exposed
THE major incident review into the States IT ‘meltdown’ of last November, carried out by PwC, will make uncomfortable reading for many people around Sir Charles Frossard House.
The lack of investment into IT systems, started the minute the States decided it was going to contract services out, more than six years ago, has deteriorated to a service level that frankly, beggars belief over its fragility.
Various red flags and ‘near misses’ were not acted upon, leading to an overnight meltdown which, because contact details hadn’t been updated, took nearly 10 hours for anyone to wake up to.
As P&R quickly referenced, the problem spans two Assemblies and a huge outsourcing contract, which appears to be at the root of many of the problems. Who held responsibility for what? Nobody knows. PwC describes a situation of ‘information asymmetry’.
The only good thing to come from this incident is somehow, miraculously, there was no data loss and essential government services were able to limp along.
This incident, and its long back story, will knock public confidence in the States and even within its own staff, not only in its ability to make big decisions, but in its ability to co-ordinate and manage its own day-to-day operations.
And it raises serious questions about the way that the States does, or more frequently doesn’t, commission out services to third parties.