Accenture in doghouse after NHSmail mass outage cuts off 1m+ UK health staff Accenture is reportedly facing major financial penalties after a failed upgrade took down the email system used by about 1.2 million staffers at the UK's National Health Service this weekend. NHSmail – delivered by integrator Accenture since 2015 – suffered widespread outages on Saturday, described by NHS chief clinical …
>>> Also, just because *YOU* didn't experience an outage, doesn't mean it hasn't had a lot of them affecting a lot of people.
So anecdotes criticising MS are ok, but those saying that they're doing OK aren't?
In 3 years of Office 365 & Azure use, the only problem I've experienced was a shortage of capacity in Azure UK South when first opened. MS are far from perfect, but not as bleak as painted by Linux Mint users who dropped Windows 5 years ago.
In government outsourcing circles there are a number of companies who no matter how many fails they make will still keep being awarded contracts. Accenture are one, G4S is another. I couldnt possibly say why but it is odd how former MPs and ministers get themselves nice cushy non exec director jobs on leaving office.
It is very difficult to pitch to a government department or agency. They take ages to decide on anything and procurements run months past the original dates. A company has to be big enough to throw money at their bids and accept when 2/3 fail. They also need to satisfy a lot of due diligence, usually involving delivery on similar sorts of contracts to similar sized public sector bodies. It's a self perpetuating cycle and the usual suspects keep winning the bids but it's incompetence not corruption.
F**k me sideways they actually have some performance limits in the contract and it looks like they can't weasel out of them for a change.
Astonishing.
Contract negotiators on the government and/or NHS sides always seem remarkably lax about such things.
I do hope El Reg will continue to follow developments, especially the aftermath.
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