TAFE's troubled tech terminated The NSW state government has squibbed in its valiant bid to operate the country's most wasteful IT catastrophe, canning part of a miserably-awful SAP-based enrolment system from the TAFE network after spending over $100m dollars on it. The Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) network TITSUP (Total Inability To …
IT is cheaper when its outsourced, see, look we'll do it for less.
<contracts signed>
Oh, no, that isn't in your contract, here sign this for this action.
<bills arrive>
Yes, we're billing for that separately, it wasn't in the initial contract, so its an additional cost.
Well, yes in fact it is more than the contract payment.
<news media>
A disney tune comes to mind ... "A story as old as time".
There was a major buggerup of a project just next door in Queensland a few years ago. They had an enquiry, produced a report (over 500 pages and I read the lot) and it basically came down to the same old things that seem to be the case every time. I'd put money on it that it's the same in this instance.
Dealing with a similar situation at the moment. So frustrated because I've warned them, but of course, they think that they know better.
What is it about senior managers that means they won't listen to people with experience?
It is Official - Tribal is dumped from LMBR for TAFE/Polytechnics in NSW. That's up to a $67m cash-flow only exposure for Tribal based on its renegotiated contract at the end of last year. it does not include any other legal exposures that Tribal may be liable for under the contract (which is viewable from the NSW government website and potential liabilities are extensive). It would appear the EBS product is dead in this deal, however the Human Edge component (Aust. company bought by Tribal a few years ago) for schools may be continuing (for now). It is currently in only 10% of the NSW schools so this will impact Tribal current and future cash flows. It is all over the Aust. news wires down under.
This loss is on top of the university of British Columbia and Lincoln University (Law) UK bids; halting of the Deakin (AU) and Canterbury (NZ) Universities implementations; and cancellations of the Queensland TAFE contract and now NSW. Tribal covenant test for its bank loans is in a fortnight.
hxxp://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-tafe-dumps-lmbr-it-platform-420902?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=editors_picks
hxxp://m.smh.com.au/national/education/tafe-nsw-government-dumps-531-million-computer-system-20160616-gpkhtv.html
hxxp://www.zdnet.com/article/tafe-nsw-to-bin-costly-it-system/
hxxp://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/education/tafe-nsw-government-dumps-531-million-computer-system-20160616-gpkhtv.html
hxxp://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-16/nsw-government-scraps-troublesome-tafe-it-system/7517718
hxxp://www.theherald.com.au/story/3972618/government-scraps-tafe-enrolment-system-poll/
NSW TAFE dumps LMBR IT platform
First domino falls in $580m education IT nightmare.
NSW TAFE will cut its losses and dump the Tribal student management solution installed across the state as part of the education-wide learning management and business reform (LMBR) IT overhaul.
Skills Minister John Barilano today confirmed that TAFE’s executive had been directed to start looking for a cloud-based replacement, and said he expected a new solution to be in place in time to take 2018 enrolments.
Until then, he said, NSW TAFE will continue to work with the Tribal system that has been installed by the UK software provider.
“A modern, cloud-based system will enable students to easily manage their training records and TAFE NSW to adapt more quickly to new policy settings,” he said.
“The new system will need to effectively support TAFE NSW’s financial systems in the new commercial and contestable training environment.”
It is the first domino to fall in the notorious LMBR project, which is running several years behind schedule and roughly $95 million over budget.
The LMBR scheme aimed to replace ageing ERP and student management technology across the state’s schools and vocational education system with modern solutions, but has been hampered by complexity, resourcing constraints, and the challenge of getting thousands of NSW teachers fully trained using the new products.
The TAFE component went live in October 2014 and has caused headaches at the beginning of enrolment periods ever since. The woes meant TAFE could not track who had and hadn’t paid roughly $477 million in student fees per annum, and added lengthy delays for students trying to sign up to courses.
In June 2015 the impact was felt all the way through to jobs giant Seek, whose education business took a hit when prospective TAFE students were discouraged by the sign-up chaos.
Barilaro today thanked TAFE staff for their efforts to enrol students despite the technological struggles.
The decision is a huge blow to education software provider Tribal, which was forced to downgrade its profit guidance in late 2015 after delays to the NSW TAFE rollout hit its cash flow and debt repayments.
It also follows the early termination of Tribal's contract with Queensland TAFE in May, where it was also rolling out a student management system.
The NSW TAFE deal is valued at around $67 million. It was topped up by just over $30 million in October, which would see the partnership continue into 2017.
Since its projects in NSW and Queensland hit trouble, Tribal has pulled out of the London Stock Exchange and re-isted on the lower-cost, start-up focused AIM market.
Be surprised if we see much of it at all. Releasing this news now means that it will be overshadowed by the federal election. All that has happened is one cash cow has died after having been tended by a bureaucracy used to fiefdoms, unthinking compliance and incapable of the reform needed to simplify the underlying processes. Overseen by politicians that only have a job because they say yes to the right people. Life is not created without a good reaming and government projects are no different. Cue the next one.
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