Much like the Auckland rail network improvement programme, which Joyce is claiming as proof that his spending is balanced rather than obsessed with roads. And this from the plonker who has just halved…

I know, I was one of the people who unearthed it and sent it to Oram. It's called the SAHA report and you can compare it to the "massaged" final report that was only commissioned after…

Others have made that case elsewhere, so perhaps.

In fact, the council and its consultants have done plenty of work on the…

For what it is worth, I have put a notice of motion up at the forthcoming Waitemata LB meeting dealing with this issue. I'm not happy at all about this issue, particularly when $300m has to be found from somewhere – it's not an insignificant…

Lodging official information requests about that process of refusal might be interesting.

Unless elected members were involved it seems unlikely that any "frank advice" exclusions would apply, and a commercial confidentiality defense also seems unlikely to hold…

Hi Russell. Not quite correct. When, after realising what some…

Given the time pressure, the choice of SAP made sense from a cost and complexity perspective, says one source. A limited tender process was then run to select the implementation partner to deliver the ERP solution. A…

33.27. City officials expressed the view that it was better and less disruptive to use one organisation as the core entity into which others are absorbed. This insight may be relevant to aspects of…

The royal commission that dreamed up the new council studied a similar amalgamation in Toronto, where it took 10 years to unify IT systems. A piece of wisdom from the Toronto transition…

Ahh, don't tell me, I know this, you went to the Crosby Textor School for Ambition at any cost?
A beat up?
No, that's what we got…

doubleplusgood

My thoughts exactly. It’s not so much the amount of money involved or the overrun itself, rather it…

I just don't see if that the expectations of staff and customers are driving the IT budget blowout.

As a…

Ah, a Trustafarian.
Don’t you just love the self entitlement of them?
I believe our Oily friend is of that ilk

Wrong. The decisions were made by consultants and ATA, not by former CIOs who subsequently got Council jobs. Nice try though.

“that poor technical decisions have been taken, in part because constituent councils’ IT managers were ignored. A number of these have been covered in this discussion – again, by people with direct knowledge of the process”

Well that’s your simple assertion. I assume some of these people were not…

I think what Fred was trying to say up thread is:
That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen
By Frédéric Bastiat
In the…

the unbudgeted cost will come from where?

Just deal with this years, $43.2 Mill, next years, $86.5 Mill and the following years $77.8 Mill.

Thanks.

And ComputerWorld's Darren Greenwood is on the case too. For good measure, he's name-checked PAS.

The 10 year costs outlined in the Herald story cannot be transitional. The fact that they will be going into the…

The network design included *27* internal firewalls…

The reason I think is, that notwithstanding the comments on this thread.... no one is surprised.

I see it clearly now, the savings of a Super city only made sense only if you hid the true cost of making…

Also, changing shouldn't affect anything other than the internet server, which ought…

New group to advise on state sector reform (be afraid – it includes Mark Ford)

I'm told the new system isn't IPv6 capable, which seems crazy.

I guess one bottle of wine is a tragedy; hundreds of millions of dollars is a statistic.

The Herald story itself is on page 7 of the paper. Not really getting why it isn't front-page news.

It’s particularly interesting to see how divergent the Council and Government’s views are on major things like the level of transportation benefits and wider economic benefits.

Here’s the Council’s media release:…

Too complex for tv?

My thoughts exactly. I've previously predicted a Greater London Council-style showdown, and this is no exception.

The projected $450 million over the next eight years, he said, would go into the council's long-term plan next year and be subject to consultation.

Mr McKay said the council would be "all ears" to IT…

This was predicted last year and, verily, has come to pass.

It's really hard to look at this and not conclude that costs were deliberately hidden until…

Even more clever is the same people trying to blame Len Brown for the apparent dysfunction of the structures these same people imposed.

WHO VOTES FOR THESE PEOPLE!!!!

Except that it was Orsman who wrote the original article. Better than a slap in the face with a wet fish though.

Why isn't Campbell Live "across" this?

At long last. Next stop: the Auditor-General's Office.

Super City reporter Local Government Minister Rodney Hide says there is nothing contradictory about a promise last year to build a new Super City computer system for $126 million and the final bill of $576 million.

Writing in the Herald in June last…

1. It's really easy if you have half a brain
2. If you have a whole brain it's really boring and stressful

Every now and then, we just need to let you make a dick of yourself, Russell. ;-) (Personally, I never knew what "ATA" stood for, but then I'm probably even more of an invisible middle-class weasel than…

wouldn't want to be labelled a pendant :)

We, the ARC, put in the Sales and Distribution module to handle the regulatory billing…

And, at the ARC/ARTA, we were using open…

Yes, we can stay perfectly calm – refer to budget and treasury growth forecasts.

You need SAP for that rule? Why, did they patent it or something?

But no, your $$s are heading into never never land.

Recipe for disaster, right there.

Keep them small, agile and moving in a common direction...that's…

Or will the money be pissed away on overseas businesses who seem to find the idea of paying taxes in…

Yup, I've read a couple of the chapters he published. So much bullshit in the name of "science"!!

You know me too well, sir! :-)

There are many levels of corruption, especially in the procurement process. When Transparency International say NZ has one of the least corrupt governments in the world, they're mostly talking about personal corruption e.g taking bribes, nepotism in employment,…

matching the Minister perfectly..

I did see consultants engaged by the ATA checking on the work of other consultants engaged by the ATA. I could only shake my head when I attended meetings with two sets of consultants. I would shake my head…

And this is firmer ground. It's an awful failure for which, as I suggested in the headline, someone must be held accountable.

Also, if any contractor on the ATA side was operating with self-interest, that is^H^H would be corruption of their duty to act as agents of the Crown while in the employ of the…

Commercial organisations will normally try to “up-sell” their products/services etc. That is why it is important, with RFPs in local/central govt, that you have clear and…

you think these suit-wearing theives will let some upstart bloggers threaten their $300 million fleecing operation? who needs corporate auditors when you've got these fine, upstanding mega-scammers?

all completely in order, nothing to see here.
move along, no (De)loit(t)ering, please.

No no, it's depression that there's none of in New Zealand.

It seems prudent to be discreet about it for now.

To do with the comments I removed on Saturday. They were getting someone into serious trouble.

Or. If they raise the minimum…

I think it's because our kind of corruption is different. There's no need for overt crookedness when the game has a stacked deck built in. In NZ, it's considered outrageous if you put…

Or is it just that we don't (or won't, or can't) look as deeply as other countries?

Yeah, nice first post. Did anyone say "Don't be such a Cassandra" about it all, Cassandra?

No, it's not a reasonable price.

Actually, they do. Some progs have difficulty with how fast DOS runs, as they’re built with I/O delays to allow for the OS to…

Then how about we go back to '95? Or, hey, DOS, while we're at it? By that argument, they must be practically miraculous on "modern gear". Except...oh, wait,…

The government, then (though some would argue you were right the first time)

Uh, Twyford is a member of said opposition.

Yep, dammed if you do, dammed if you don't. So I thought I'd email Phil Twyford. A young man who has been trying since day one to help Aucklanders understand what they are…

The shit has hit the fan for one person who's commented and I've removed the comments in question for that person's sake.

I can't help but feel that this says something about the nature of this whole sorry…

Honestly? I find IT cost overruns a lot easier to understand than bothering to fix "dings and scratches".

Not much so far. Nothing on Stuff at all, no show on TV1 and TV3. Even Google has mostly drawn a blank outside of the blogosphere.

EDIT: There's a side article in The Aucklander, but it's not headline…

I guess most journos (and their audience) understand dinged cars so it's just easier,…

I know. I know.

Auckland ratepayers are going to be stuck with a huge bill for the Nats’ failure to properly cost the Supercity merger process. Specifically in this case, the cost of merging the IT systems.

Planning for the Supercity merger was a shambles. There…

I doubt it. Us talking is not enough. Media won't drive this on their own.

Strong and coherent political opposition is required, and in this instance those who could have led some of it are now around the top table…

Might be time to break out the Vista DVDs.

Hey, that's the Canon Newspaper of the Year you're talking about. They don't just distribute those between the mediocre organs of two conglomerates year-in, year-out, you know.

Yeah, don't hold your breath. It didn't lead the paper yesterday and there's no follow-up today.

It's only half a billion dollars, after all.

The ATA is what limited the work that was done up until Nov 1. (18 months of…

But just for a moment I allowed myself the luxury of living in a good, fair world where baddies were apprehended and good triumphed.

We have to grab our pleasures whenever we can these days!

I wouldn't hold your breath.

The Herald, at least, now has a gift of a series of stories to get its teeth into...…

And isn't it unusually large globally, come to that? I do remember during the debate leading up to it there were a lot of discussions about how almost…

Sure, frequently there are awful…

I thought it was one of the largest local bodies in the southern hemisphere (though I don't recall where I read that)?

to quote Southerly

_"The Cost of Wholesale Demolition

According to my (rough) analysis using the council’s ‘Rating’ database, it would cost the EQC about $175,000 on average to reimburse each riverside homeowner…

The cost blow to rebuild the IT system from the ground up can be funded by a mix of further privatisation, rates increases or reverting to form bus lane fines of which…

www.stopthesupercity.org.nz

It's now democracy for developers, consultants and private contractors.

The public majority are effectively no more than a giant ca$h cow…

There was some here and there, but all the ultimate decision making lay with the ATA – especially Mike Foley.

For example, none of the CIOs…

+1

+1

Addressing the relative involvement and behaviour of former councils in the transition process would be enlightening. Even just in the IT part of it.

You know, that would explain the sudden fitness jag and weight loss...

If you're going to say things like that, Cassandra, you'd better post more often.

Which actually explains a lot of things such as his lack of empathy.

What most don’t realise, but mentioned by Cassandra, is how secretive and authoritarian the ATA was. Worse, the DIA knew of many of the serious issues e.g., the ATA arbitrarily selecting a vendor for a solution after…

The ARC and ARTA pushed to leverage existing investment. That happened for Transport. Don't blame SAP.

We had full workflow for payments, including approvals. (no paper needed to be stamped or signed). If you were a supplier and submitted and invoice that matched the…

which pretty much rules out that provenance

Hang on. I’m getting this.

You’re saying that Rodney Hide was sent back from the future to engineer an IT spend of sufficient scale as to trigger a singularity and eventually bring into being an aware…

The brief select committee report (68KB PDF) into the 2010 local elections has recommendations for future ones (h/t DPF).…

I've used SAP in two different companies now. In the…

Near as I can tell SAP is really good if you are doing things like building 777s

This squares with my brief brush with SAP, when one of our customers (a large US paper/packaging…

so building from scratch wasn't necessarily overly expensive. Have there been justifications – I mean any genuine even if…

I thought you were going on about a politician, but I'm not supposed to think like that.

Near as I can tell SAP is really good if you are doing things like building 777s,

Ok we need 3 planes on December 5th 2014 so we will need to by 480 Y connectors (17 mm) on 12th April 2012 etc etc

FKN LOL

Will the last person to leave New Zealand
turn Deloittes off
Now that, Sir, deserves some kind of an award, maybe even a Deloitte Award.

More like "You finish your tea, I'll do it" ;-)

...any Siemens controllers in our infrastructure?

I found it…

Ka-ching!$

So who does…

I note the smiley and so forebear to rant :-D #morningswork #pffft

I was thinking that, but I'm not an Aucklander so not really my place to say.

Still though, if public whinging sessions are to be held, Epsom might be a good venue; if…

Megatropolis Amalgamation and Ratepayer Rape Act

I bet that'd make the ratepayers eyes water...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUk4rjcHa50&playnext=1&list=PLFE1B4C9767F3DC35

Yes I know its no laughing matter.
The anger and frustration at Hide 'n Key et al is palpable.
More exposure on this issue please.

You don't honestly think that's remotely likely, do you?

Ok I'm confused. So 6 of the 8 IT systems existing used SAP (and yes we use the stupid accounting program here too). But rather than upgrade one or more of those to cover the merged entity someone (not sure who)…

Exactly.
As it is they are probably all getting new keyboards and monitors, oh and a cool new mousepad…

ok, I didn't know that. I thought there had been a transition system paid for and the new council got to make a final decision on the long term solution.

There still seems to be disgreement amongst experts though about new system vs less costly…