One of the government’s biggest IT contracts – a £5bn
deal for new IT at defence locations across the world, including
Iraq and Afghanistan – has run into delays and major problems at
the first large MoD site to install the technology.
The
Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project is the latest
in a succession of problem IT-based schemes that include systems to
support tax credits, the
Criminal Records Bureau, the
passport service, and
payments to farmers.
A joint investigation by Computer Weekly and
Channel 4 News into the DII has found that the Ministry of
Defence and its main contractors, the Atlas consortium, led by
services supplier EDS, have delivered only about a quarter of the
systems due to have been implemented by the end of July 2007 under
the original plan.
The overall projected cost of the DII, which was announced to
the House of Commons as being a total of about £4bn over 10 years,
is now put at more than £5bn, according to the government’s
expenditure plans for 2007/8 which include the MoD internal costs
on the programme. The MoD and Atlas said, that the consortium’s
costs are within budget.
The Chief of Defence Materiel General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue said
in a letter to staff in October 2007 that there have been “major
problems” at the first major site to have DII installed, at Abbey
Wood near Bristol. There is a huge commitment from everyone
including Atlas to get the problems sorted out, he said.
Staff are dissatisfied with some of the systems installed so
far; and they ask why the roll-out is continuing despite
significant disruption.
One said the roll out of DII in the Infantry Guided Weapons
integrated project team has been an unmitigated disaster. Another
said that if there were a problem with equipment during operations,
such as the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or a safety
incident, there may not be a quick response.
Responding to the complaints, Tim Flesher, Chief of Corporate
Services, said in an internal letter to staff there had been
significant disruption at Abbey Wood and that the programme had at
times almost stopped. “There is no doubt that progress has not been
as smooth as we would have wished and there has been a significant
degree of disruption, especially for those pioneering teams that
moved in the first phase while procedures were still being sorted
out.” Since he made these comments Flesher has said that problems
are being tackled energetically and are being resolved as the
rollout at Abbey Wood continues.
The MoD said there have been problems on the DII but numbers of
new systems are now ramping up to between 3,000 and 4,000 terminals
a month. More than 16,000 systems were operational by the end of
October 2007.This is less than the 70,000 systems that were due to
have been installed by mid 2007 under the original contract.
Tory MP Henry Bellingham said: “There has been a complete veil
of secrecy over all this. Ministers refuse to talk about it – they
don’t like me asking my parliamentary questions about it; they
don’t like answering questions in the House; they brush it to one
side... if someone doesn’t get a grip we could be facing a total
disaster.”
The MoD said it has answered Parliamentary questions as fully as
possible.
The Atlas consortium, led by one of the government’s biggest
contractor EDS, says that it met contractual commitments and that
problems are being resolved. Its spokesman said there is a good
working relationship with the MoD and there has never been a
question of stopping the programme.
The spokesman told Channel 4 News, in relation to the roll out
of the programme to Abbey Wood: ““There are challenges around
changing the way things are done. We dropped the ball; we should
have left another dozen people around for a little longer to help
people bed in those new systems. And the latest feedback we have
from Abbey Wood is that that situation is stabilised and our client
is content with the way we’re handling that.”
The MoD says it is confident that the DII will provide
significant military capability to troops.
About the DII contract
The MoD awarded a Windows-based contract for the DII to Atlas in
March 2005. The aim is to replace more than 300 separate systems
with a single IT infrastructure for the army, navy and air force.
The systems are due to be installed at hundreds of locations that
include submarines, barracks, air force bases and at sites in some
militarily sensitive parts of the world. They will support almost
every defence activity from helping staff order equipment for
troops, to delivering intelligence information from sensors.
Some of the planned DII technologies
· Computer Associates helpdesk and service catalogue
· Windows XP and Vista
· Proxima BSM business service reporting
· HP Radia software management
· MicroMuse Netcool system management
· Computer Associates Argis system management
· Quest Active Role Server for user setup
· NDL Metascybe Active Conductor for terminal
emulation
· HP protect tools; Sanctuary, NAI McAfee for
security
· Veritas Netbackup for back-up/clustering
- Verity enterprise search
- Exchange and Boldon James for medium and high grade
messaging
- K2.net for workflow
- Microsoft Adam for enterprise directory
Chronology
March 2005: The MoD awarded the Atlas
consortium, led by EDS, a contract to supply a Defence Information
Infrastructure [DII]. DII in total, including the Mod’s costs, is
put at £4bn over 10 years. The Atlas part of DII is worth at this
stage £2.3bn.
January 2006: work begins on DII and problems
of installing systems under increment one at the rate originally
envisaged – 70,000 user access devices by mid-2007 – soon become
evident.
December 2006: The Ministry of Defence reaches
an agreement with Atlas to spread the delivery of increment one
over a further two years, to 2009, and to contract for extra
systems under a new phase, increment 2a, which is worth an
additional £750m.
The government’s senior economic adviser on the project is
satisfied that a comparison of costs of other options points
narrowly but decisively in favour of appointing Atlas for increment
2a. But he cannot give a full value for money endorsement because
“we do not have sufficient evidence” on performance from increment
one.
Mid-2007: About 6,000 user access devices under
DII have been installed, less than a tenth of the 70,000 devices
that were originally expected under increment one.
October 2007: General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue,
Chief of Defence Materiel, says in an internal letter to staff that
there have been “major problems” at Abbey Wood, near Bristol, which
is the first major defence site to install systems under DII. H e
says there is a huge commitment from everyone including Atlas to
sort out the problems.
November 2007: Spokespeople for the MoD and
Atlas say the numbers of user access terminals being delivered has
“ramped up” to between 3,000 and 4,000 a month. A total of 16,000
systems have gone live. The MoD says that DII will provide a
significant military capability to troops. It remains unclear,
however, whether the full original plan for 150,000 terminals
across about 2,000 MoD will go ahead. It emerges that the total
costs for DII are estimated by the government at more than £5bn
which includes MoD’s work on DII. The Atlas portion of the total
costs remains within budget. The MoD says in relation to the
problems at Abbey Wood that its staff and Atlas have “progressively
resolved the problems and improved capability”.
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