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UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

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Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#32

This is so bad there should be a petition for this waste to be investigated in parlament

As an american it's pretty cool to see how citizens can force representatives to debate an issue. But it's too bad even the most popular petitions just have "lol no" as the response.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions?state=all

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#33
post #22
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At one point in time the price of things was related mostly to their cost, not to some hand-wavy produced value.

It's not perfect, but this is the point of tender.

No it's not, that's what happens when people can spend someone else's money without consequences, potentially by asking a friend what they need. That happens everywhere, all the time, but let's not pretend this is economically efficient or acceptable.

If the request for proposal had been done fairly, that page would have cost a few tens of thousands.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#34
It is funny how they link out to Salesforce's Trailhead site. Personally, I think it's a cute site for learning, but have also recently come to realize how sometimes it used to have a lot of political content too. One example I can think of is they used to have lessons related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution popularized by Klaus Schwab. At some point, they retired those lessons. My guess is they were retired around the same time that Schwab had some controversial allegations surrounding him.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#35

This is pretty normal for government procurement, though. and in fact, most large organisation procurement. There's a whole wall of standards that the supplier must meet, e.g. ISO9000 that your little web-dev shop almost certainly doesn't. They won't buy from a supplier that is likely to go out of business. There's a ton of other criteria that you've got to meet to get the business. If there's any , even the slightes…

ISO9000 is, bar none, the most brilliant grift I have ever encountered. It's so simple, yet so elegant.

Step 1: Come up with an incredibly easy to meet standard (because you don't want anybody abandoning the process because it's too much of a hassle) that sounds like a reasonable requirement on paper (to make it easy to pitch as a basic requirement of doing business). Say, "Have a plan for the things you do".

Step 2: Add one additional requirement to your standard: "Prioritize Vendors that meet this standard".

Step 3: Obscure the hell out of the standard, (to not make the grift too obvious) and stick it behind a paywall.

Step 4: Franchise out the (nigh-impossible to fail) "approval" process to 3rd parties, who pay you for the privilege.

Step 5: Your first few "standardized" companies put pressure on their vendors and customers to get certified, so they hire consultants, who in turn pay you, who tell them "Good job, you meet the standard. But do your vendors?".

Step 6: Watch as the cash floods in.

(Optional, Step 7): Once a bunch of major companies are certified, target governments to do your marketing push for you.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#36

US: I see your £4.1M and raise you $2.1B [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HealthCare.gov#:~:text=estimat...

To be fair. Healthcare.gov is a lot more complicated. And has to integrate with marketplaces in all 50 states

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#38
post #32

This is so bad there should be a petition for this waste to be investigated in parlament

As an american it's pretty cool to see how citizens can force representatives to debate an issue. But it's too bad even the most popular petitions just have "lol no" as the response. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions?state=all

if something is outrageous like this it's likely to come under the attention of someone who can raise the issue.

Re: UK Government’s ‘AI Skills Hub’ was delivered by PwC for £4.1M

#39

This is pretty normal for government procurement, though. and in fact, most large organisation procurement. There's a whole wall of standards that the supplier must meet, e.g. ISO9000 that your little web-dev shop almost certainly doesn't. They won't buy from a supplier that is likely to go out of business. There's a ton of other criteria that you've got to meet to get the business. If there's any , even the slightes…

When was the last time you touted for this sort of business?

Strictly speaking its ISO 9001 but we do the same as you and call it ISO 9000. You forgot 27001 and 14001.

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