When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
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Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#2I wonder about the cost of licensing patents for a project like this one.
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#3Any project in a heavily regulated environment is not measurable that way.
The cost comes from compliance, audits, paperwork. Trials, PoCs, etc.
You also need to prove security and a long term lifecycle for the solution. Those open source packages - are they being updated? Who validates patches? etc etc.
Those are moats, once you're able to deliver the above, you're set for a long time.
Good luck!
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#4$86M does sound high, but glad to see the author at least acknowledge that some of this would likely have been spent on improving existing software/databases etc to support the new system. Also probably worth noting is the cost of the labour required to develop the new system, and upgrade the old, and design and fit out the interior of the vehicles, and to make sure it's all done in compliance with privacy laws, and so on.
Not that I'm saying $86M is justified - rather that I can start to see how things might add up.
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#5> I would expect part of that budget includes the replacement of several legacy databases and software applications to support the high frequency, low latency querying of license plates several times per second, per vehicle.
Well, if we're just checking to see if a car is registered stolen, that's hopefully a very small database. A simple hash table should be sufficient for a yes/no decision. But God only knows what goes on inside the DMV, and getting that data out into a rapidly queryable state could be tricky.
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#6I feel like there's a killing to be made in "bidding for government contracts as a service". Plus you'd be doing A Good Thing (at least in theory)
Obviously complicated requirements exist but I think there's a way of embracing this with some skilled workers
I think that the digital service is trying this a bit
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#7Any project in a heavily regulated environment is not measurable that way. The cost comes from compliance, audits, paperwork. Trials, PoCs, etc. You also need to prove security and a long term lifecycle for the solution. Those open source packages - are they being updated? Who validates patches? etc etc. Those are moats, once you're able to deliver the above, you're set for a long time. Good luck!
You forgot Celebration Dinners!
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#8Amazing and super sad that a government contract could ever be submitted for such an embarrassingly high amount. I hope more people buying gov software contracts read this.
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#9Any project in a heavily regulated environment is not measurable that way. The cost comes from compliance, audits, paperwork. Trials, PoCs, etc. You also need to prove security and a long term lifecycle for the solution. Those open source packages - are they being updated? Who validates patches? etc etc. Those are moats, once you're able to deliver the above, you're set for a long time. Good luck!
So just add 20 bean-counters to your team and you can bid for the other state contracts :-)
Re: When an experiment with existing technology does a “good enough” job
#10I feel like there's a killing to be made in "bidding for government contracts as a service". Plus you'd be doing A Good Thing (at least in theory) Obviously complicated requirements exist but I think there's a way of embracing this with some skilled workers I think that the digital service is trying this a bit
There are already companies that do something like this. Carahsoft is one that I dealt with in a previous career. You sell through them to the government.