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Dell: START an industry panel to show government how to MAKE IT WORK

180 points posted to Service and Support by phubert Apr 4

The best category for this would be
"Public Service"

or
"Service we can ALL SHARE in"

The following article, like so many others, illustrates the worst of government IT...

But it hardly stands alone. We blame 'politics', and in many ways correctly. But it goes well beyond that as well. It's a culture of ignorance.

Dell, IBM and others could provide REAL LEADERSHIP.
Government should learn to USE the INTERNET to COLLABORATE, and to LEVERAGE Open Source.

Now, everyone, just think how Dell's prestige could rise by leading such an initiative...

UK Gov department's IT spend is £2 billion over budget ****

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/04/dwp-really-2bn-budget

jmxz
Apr 5		 Seems they're doing something in this direction. I note the title on this page is "Dell and Red Hat Alliance - Federal Government"
aikiwolfie
Apr 6		 My government employers have just settled on a provider for our new scanning solution. I hope we beat the £2 billion barrier. That would be so awesome.
phubert
Apr 7		 Federal, huh? Of course I'd suggest state, local & public education as well. And, why not Ubuntu? RH is a bit pricey, isn't it?
jmxz
Apr 7		 @phubert: "And, why not Ubuntu? RH is a bit pricey, isn't it?"

"Of course I'd suggest state, local.."

As far as I can tell (based on a handful of sales calls I went on a year or two ago), Novell's still rather popular in Sacramento (at least with one state law enforcement agencies). I haven't seen much excitement in Debian when I offer it (some of the software I sells runs on everything from Win2003 to 3 different Linux distros).

"Federal Huh?"

Since when has "a little pricey" stopped Federal purchasing decisions? :-)
phubert
Apr 7		 Well, maybe you need to read my suggestion more carefully, jmxz... I'm not referring to any ONE distro (Ubuntu included) but rather to the rather dismal failures BY government in IT in general and the potential for the industry as a whole to provide leadership TO government and education.
jervis961
Apr 7		 I don't know about Federal buying practices but in Florida they are looking to cut costs everywhere possible due to tax cuts.
phubert
Apr 7		 Unfortunately, they still seem to be stuck on proprietary... particularly Microsoft...
aikiwolfie
Apr 7		 Why all the talk about federal government? DWP is a UK government department. We don't have a federal government over here. :op
phubert
Apr 7		 Open source the biggest potential game changer for government: Senator Lundy

Senator Lundy, a former Shadow Minister for IT, said she'd elected to focus on open source as the biggest potential game changer across the portfolios she's involved in. ****

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/73376,open-source-the-biggest-potential-game-ch...
jmxz
Apr 7		 @phubert: "Well, maybe you need to read my suggestion more carefully, jmxz.."

Ah yes. I see what you mean now. Voted up.

"and the potential for the industry as a whole to provide leadership TO government and education."

FWIW, I see Oracle doing pretty well at this in the federal level (with their own biases, of course; but pretty pro-Linux). I also see Accenture seeing the potential at this and trying hard; but I can never tell if they're working for their customers, for Microsoft, or against everyone with the apparent strategy that he more messed up things get the more money they make.
phubert
Apr 7		 My big complaints when it comes to government BEGIN with MASSIVE IGNORANCE.

It goes on (bullets under "massive ignorance", perhaps) to:

* effective staffing and 'staff development'
* effective analysis and planning
* REAL USE of the Internet resulting in TRUE _collaboration_ and SIGNIFICANT reduction in "reinventing the wheel"

Good for starters, anyway...
aikiwolfie
Apr 7		 Actually I think part of the problem with government, at least in the UK, the public sector doesn't pay too well. Certainly not as well as the privet sector for IT jobs. Governments take what they can get and that often means monkeys that can't do much more than point, click and call Microsoft customer support.
aikiwolfie
Apr 7		 Oh and I was only talking about government IT people. The monkey part is in no way any reference to any politicians. not even ones from Texas. :o)
phubert
Apr 7		 Pay really shouldn't be the issue. I know we DO have people avoiding our positions because of pay, but if you like staying in ONE PLACE, state government, at least, is pretty stable.

I wouldn't even THINK of moving for better pay.

The real problems I see are in management... from which all the problems I list above stem.

The biggest single cause of management problems may be the simple fact that APPOINTIVE government jobs are there to pay off political favors. The second cause: lack of will on the part of ELECTED officials (and lack of integrity, perhaps).

It comes down to "no one is minding the store" in terms of actually making the bureaucracy function well.

And note carefully: "bureaucracy" <> "ineffectiveness" ... at least not of NECESSITY.
jmxz
Apr 7		 I think a lot of problems with government IT is fear of rocking the boat. It seems many of the people I worked with have the philosophy that if they never make any decision, then they'll never make a wrong decision and therefore will never find themselves the target of any blame and therefore have more job security. That's why we end up supporting so many platforms. If the government IT guy already decided on Win2000 - we run on that. If Oracle sold him on Red Hat, we run on that. If Novell sold him on NetWare - well, we try to talk them into another Novell product. Even if switching to Ubuntu had a 85% chance of being better and 15% chance of being worse; I imagine most government IT guys would shun it; because in the 85% case their job stays unchanged and in the 15% case they get yelled at.
phubert
Apr 8		 :) Are you referring to the everyday staff or to the management, jmxz?

I guess I've always been a boat-rocker. Although I accept the concepts of order and appropriate authority, I've always believed in EQUALITY and the RIGHT, nay, the DUTY to CHALLENGE authority.

But, you DO have a point. Too many fit well in the story of the Emperor's New Clothes... if he HAS none, SAY so!!! And, if he decides to chop off my head BECAUSE I told the truth, then the guilt rests entirely on HIM.
jmxz
Apr 8		 @phubert: ":) Are you referring to the everyday staff or to the management, jmxz? "

A little of each, I'd say. If I had to narrow it down, I'd say managers that have been there a long long time (and expect pensions or something); and everyday staff who is new (and therefore don't know what to expect) seem to suffer. The combination of long-term-managers with new employees seems to be a recipe for getting no decisions made.
phubert
Apr 8		 Well I'm rank-and-file and have been with the state 40 years at 3 different agencies, passed 20 years at this one in October.

I see it more as the perpetuated culture than any specific demographics of staffing. Meaning, a culture of 'this is the way we do things' or 'this is the way "EVERYONE" does things' while ignoring sound logic and analysis is endemic.

BREAKING that culture requires some genuine open-mindedness and intelligence, along with a _real_ understanding of _how WORK is DONE_.

Theory without practical application can be worse than useless.

I've seen good "managers" who STILL seem not to comprehend work fundamentals.

I'm afraid I cannot accept the concept that any good manager can manage anything. Without real personal success in the trenches of IT (as in actually having been a successful MAINTENANCE _and_ development programmer), all the plans in the world are unlikely to address fundamental needs - as in competent, practical, well-rounded analysis and systems design.
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