Mike SimonsThe Probation Service looks set to pull the plug on the Case
Record and Management System (Crams) at the end of the month after
six troubled years of development costing millions of pounds.
Crams was supposed to be phased out by the end of this year and
replaced by a new system, Copernicus.
However, in April ministers told users to persevere with the
bug-ridden Crams, even though it had been condemned by independent
experts (Computer Weekly, 20 April).
Bull Information Systems, the Probation Service's IT outsourcer,
was then given a 21-month, £10m extension to its contract to
maintain the Probation Service's IT infrastructure and provide
additional support for Crams.
Last month a Probation Unit team recommended that the Data
Migration Project system should replace Crams as the preferred case
management system.
Eithne Wallis, modernisation programme manager at the Home
Office Probation Unit, will put the recommendation to an
information systems programme board at the end of this month.
