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BSkyB yanks more cash from HP's hide

IT giant Hewlett-Packard said on Friday after the markets closed on Wall Street that it had to knock off another £70m from its first quarter of fiscal 2010 ended in January to cover yet another interim payment to BSkyB relating to a lawsuit filed against EDS relating to the implementation of a customer relationship management …

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John Smith 19
Pint

Good

One of my least favorite Global Megacorps (TM Lewis Page) gives one of my least favorite government con-tractors a good kicking.

amanfromMars 1

How to make Absolutely Untouchable Outrageous Great Game Fortunes

Ah yes .... the Simple Command and Control of Complicating Words to Brow Beat the Genuinely More Ignorant and/or Arrogant for the Root of All Evil and its Sweet and Sticky Reward/Dessert. :-)

Without Words, how would One Power and Empower the Animals to Perform their Circus Tricks and Party Pieces to Order ..... for at least a Semblance of Order within a Collection of Alternate CHAOSes ...... Clouds Hosting Advanced Operating Systems for SMARTer Longer Range Weather Predictions.

IT and Media NINJAs [Network InterNetworking JOINT Applications] have made Feeding the Monkeys their Peanuts just so much Simpler Today, don't you think?

Ergo is an Immaculate Flow of Words, GODlike in Global Operating Devices with Creative CyberSpace Command and Control of Computers and Communications.

One of GCHQs CSOC Proprietary Gems to be Plausibly Denied if Perversely Convenient for Ignorance to Reign, whenever Doubted or Challenged? Or is IT a No Such Agency Black Skunk Works Op with Renegade Private Programs of QuITe Cosmic Majesty? Or AIMagical Chinese Dragon with Purple Prose and NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive IT Control Levers? Or.... or.... or.

Anonymous Coward
Gates Horns

Due Diligence?

Not by HP it seems.

Paul 106
Go

What about us?

Why can't the government do things like this when our IT projects go tits up?

When the MoD or the NHS have huge IT projects that fail miserably why can't the cost be clawed back from the suppliers who promised to deliver?

Gulfie
Happy
Reply Icon

The reason is simple really...

Commercial contracts tend to be more tightly overseen by the customer. So when things go wrong it is much easier for the customer to point at the supplier and apportion blame with more certainty (and probably more evidence).

Government contracts IMHO are less well handled - weak governance - so what tends to happen when the shit hits the fan is that both parties are to blame, so legal action is less likely to be successful.

johnB

EDS - unhappy customer - shurely not

EDS: customer satisfaction

NIRS ring any bells ?

Anonymous Coward
FAIL

Possibly Yet another reason

Not to give us a pay rise [same for the last 3 years] (despite making massive profits).

Anonymous Coward
Flame

EDS vs Sky...

..is one of those cases where you wish that both sides could lose, and maybe Die In A Fire as a bonus.

amanfromMars 1

Offshore Money Heavens ..... for the Ponzi Pool Player.

You don't yet seem to realise that it is just a game to be played to invent the appearance of wealth being spent rather than money being invented to channel to friends and family/pet causes. How else do you account for such as ....... "Government IT projects: How Labour's spending adds up

The Government has spent an estimated £100bn on computer projects since 1997 – and several have run into big problems.

*National Programme for IT (NHS)

The cost of bringing in electronic patient records that could be accessed by all GPs and hospitals in England has ballooned to £12.7bn. The scheme, originally due to be completed in 2005, will not now take effect until 2015-16.

*Defence Information Infrastructure (DII)

Project to replace hundreds of Ministry of Defence computer systems, announced in 2005, is running more than £180m over budget at £7.1bn and 18 months late.

*National Identity Scheme

Originally costed at £3bn, the budget for controversial plan for identity cards has risen to £5bn and ministers have abandoned plans to move eventually to make them compulsory.

*Single Payment Scheme

The scheme for paying subsidies to Britain's 100,000 farmers has cost £350m but has been beset with problems. Spending watchdogs say it risks becoming obsolete.

*Libra system (magistrates courts)

Plans to set up an integrated system for courts have proved more difficult to implement than originally expected and the budget has increased to more than £400m.

*GCHQ

The cost of transferring the computer systems of Britain's intelligence and eavesdropping centre to a new building has risen from £41m to more than £300m, according to the National Audit Office. " ......... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labours-scramble-to-launch-16311bn-spree-1917781.html

And none of them secure against virtual intrusion and metadata removal ....... Post modern day rape and pillage.

And that is also the view shared by others who say they are not criminals and have a great sense of humour ..... "Asked what happened to the bank's money, Mr Björgólfsson claimed: "When you lose capital in this way, a lot of money goes to money-heaven. The value that has been wiped off the stock markets, the deposits in the banks and investment funds has gone. [It] has evaporated. It's a common misunderstanding to ask: where did the money go?" ..... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/7393743/I-am-not-a-criminal-insists-billionaire-behind-Icesave.html

Anonymous Coward
Pint

Wait For The Job Cuts

The clock is ticking for more P45's.

By the way DII is late due to the MOD screwing around with specifications and the like, not by the contractor Atlas.

Nick Fisher
Thumb Down

The Murdochs. Dontcha just love 'em?

I think I'm not alone when I say I'd like to see a far, far smaller News Corp.

Anonymous Coward
Alert

Which CRM was it?

Why so coy?

I'm curious to hear which CRM it is that can't be successfully installed - even if given external (tier one, 'expert') contractors, a few hundred million pounds and a couple of years.

I think I can guess, but why not state it in the story?

John Smith 19
Flame

civl service *not* innocent

High profile projects need senior civil servants in charge. Typical senior civil servant

(Eaton/Rhodean, Oxbridge (PPE), Civil Service, Retirement, Death)

These bozos (in addition to thinking of *your* data as *their* data) are pretty clueless about IT. Do they a) Get advice from within their department from people who are aware of what's running and its limitations b) hire some expensive consultants (who might implement the replacement) c)Ask the prospective suppliers *directly* what they think needs doing

You might think anything but a. I could not possibly comment.

They will then proceed to change the objectives, scope and timetable on a *regular* basis, believing that this will cause no problems (because of course the con-tractors have assured them it won't).

How much of the poor value for money that con-tractors have given governments is due to it being the *only* way (in the opinion of the con-tractors) that they can make a "fair" (by their standards) profit dealing with these bozos?

amanfromMars 1
Reply Icon

Epic Civil Service Dilemma .... Catch 42?

"These bozos (in addition to thinking of *your* data as *their* data) are pretty clueless about IT. Do they a) Get advice from within their department from people who are aware of what's running and its limitations b) hire some expensive consultants (who might implement the replacement) c)Ask the prospective suppliers *directly* what they think needs doing" .... John Smith 19 Posted Tuesday 9th March 2010 09:30 GMT

John Smith 19,

All of those options are not considered whenever the fear is a competent third party answer will lead to the implementation of their replacement, although what would really happen is that there would just be a new higher and more able Tier of Enabling Command and Control, and thus does Incompetence and Incompetents in a New Environmental Field do Battle with Each Other and Ego, whilst the True Experts Simply Share their Thoughts Transparently Online to Avoid the Petty Hurdles and Subversive Delays, and Increase their Worth.

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