Future of IT

[AtW]

So overall I think it will be a neutral experience under the Conservatives.

neutering

next Brown administration

[NickNick]

Do you think the UK IT industry will be revived by the Tories, i.e. they will clamp down on unlimited immigration, fast track wheezers and outsourcing? Or are we working in a doomed industry that is destined to go East whichever party comes into power?

Ignoring the obvious trolling element to the question. A Green Paper published by the toryscum this month explicitly states that they will close down a project that I'm working on when they come to power. No matter that this is a 6 year project that is to deliver in July 2010, some 2 months (?) after they come to power.

Yeah, they've got that one spot on, gives me fuill confidence in their abilities to oversee a)Large scale IT projects and b) the country.

Just my 2p.

NN

[AtW]

No matter that this is a 6 year project that is to deliver in July 2010, some 2 months (?) after they come to power.

Was there a single UK Govt IT project that run for 6 years and was delivered on time (and on budget)?

I tried yesterday to use online VAT submission service for which I smartly registered in advance (all this malarkey with PINs and letters is a joke) and I could not ****ing use it as it did not work in Firefox and then started asking additional registration question when I already registered for VAT and activated it FFS - posted paper forms instead and to hell with it.

[denver2k]

IMHO theres not much innovation in UK IT(at least in terms of software development). Its quite service oriented. Most of the work is 'fixing bugs and defects' in existing crappy systems to keep BAU going. Even so called new projects are also mostly about adding new code in already tulip (designed and coded) systems or integrating with them somehow.

There are very few places who has technology oriented focus but they will be under real pressure during recession times.

In my (relative short as comapre to you older lot) career, i only worked at one place (as a permie) that truly innovative. It was a startup telecom company, initially grown quite well because of their innovation and courage to embarce latest trends, but eventually liquidated after 5-6 good years.

As far as contracting scene is concern, quality contracts where we can enjoy and innovate new things (sometimes pimps use term 'greenfield' for that) will be doomed, however as long as organisations have their tulip systems they need contractors to provide short term fixes,so theres hope.

If Tories are looking to cut spending, it'll definitely impact Govt projects but big chunck of Govt work is outsourced to EDS and Indians so i dont give a damn to Public sector projects (im sure there'll be some who are concerned).

All in all,Tories have not been able to present any decent plan that can prove them any better than Labour.....

[NickNick]

Was there a single UK Govt IT project that run for 6 years and was delivered on time (and on budget)?

I tried yesterday to use online VAT submission service for which I smartly registered in advance (all this malarkey with PINs and letters is a joke) and I could not ****ing use it as it did not work in Firefox and then started asking additional registration question when I already registered for VAT and activated it FFS - posted paper forms instead and to hell with it.

Surely this just marks you out as incapable of using the system rather than the system being at fault. I don't have a problem with it.

[the_duderama]

Osborne wrote a good article in the times pointing towards using open standards and small localised development projects within public sector IT.

Idea being that they move away from EDS and all the other large "offshorers" towards smaller more focussed UK companies, if there are any left. I doubt he'll commit to any significant investment over the usual tory tax/spending reduction, but if he does then this would for the industry and public sector IT.

It's also telling that a labour minister recently accused EDS being snakeoil salesmen. The recent investments by Labour and the use of EDS/BTGS/CapGemini etc etc was a wasted opertunity for both the public sector and the UK industry.

[Not So Wise]

Where the "Under the Tories things will remain pretty much on the same track as they have under Labour" option?

[swamp]

The next big government gravy train will be green technologies. Of course it will mostly be a load of tosh, but that will be where the money is. Billions have been spent on IT and us contractors have benefited enormously, directly or indirectly. As much as we all hate New Labour, their public sector IT spending has helped us recover from the dot.com crash.

Of course many of the government IT systems have been monumental failures. Blame who you like, but the Conservatives are committed to cutting this waste. The likes of EDS, Cap, Logica will be the main losers, though they will loby hard and throw funds at the Tories. Meanwhile the PCG will miss the boat (to loby for contractors' involvement in public IT) and will continue to be a wet blanket, "welcoming" tax clampdowns and the like.

[TheRefactornator]

..Meanwhile the PCG will miss the boat (to loby for contractors' involvement in public IT) and will continue to be a wet blanket, "welcoming" tax clampdowns and the like.

Oooh controversial..hand bags at dawn. I completely agree.

[AtW]

Surely this just marks you out as incapable of using the system rather than the system being at fault.

If that was the attitude of a developer who wrote that system I'd fire him on the spot.

Anything related to payments should be as simple as possible and as easy as possible to minimise drop off ratio.