Very common situation in government contracts and dealing with consultants in general. I am sure IBM and Accenture are in there some how. NYC government could have created a small crack-team of internal IT people who could build the system for less than a 5th of the current cost. Unfortunately most organizations view IT work as something fit for mercenaries and if you ask any King who has ever had to rely on mercenaries, they'll tell you it should be your choice of last resort.
NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
11–20 of 69 posts
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#12Most of these consultants themselves are not making all of that money. They work for companies like Accenture which bill their time out at several hundred dollars per hour, but then pay the consultants much less.
For example, the 400k/year figure quoted only amounts to about a $200/hr bill rate. That's far from the worst I've ever heard on a project like this.
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#13Hmm... sounds like an opportunity. Juan Gonzalez says this is happening all around the country with cities and states converting to digital systems. The consultants are being paid $400,000 a year. Nice. Because it is a capital expenditure no one knew what these people were being paid so you have to dig into the city records. For what? Basically a digital payroll and time-keeping system with features such as "biometri…
The problem isn't the product - the problem is the politics.
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#14How are these contracts being awarded? Are we talking public RFP's? If so, that should have produced competitive rates per project, no?
Unless these 'consultants' were already promised the job and the RFP was just a formality, as is in most city contracts.
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#15There is a market for an off-the-shelf system or maybe customizable system with the same core that cities can purchase and install without the need to do development. Maybe with different levels of strictness as far as scanning in employees is concerned (biometric scanning vs. RFID cards, etc).
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#16This in a nutshell is why the new U.S. health care bill is really a stimulus package for the IT and healthcare industries.
Integration of systems can be a nightmare.
As the UK can attest, large systems fail from sheer complexity, if the politics, internal resistance, and silo mentality don't screw you.
One of the reasons SAP succeeded was that in order to implement the software you had to rearrange how your company worked - not the other way around, modify the software to fit your unique business processes. Yes, SAP consultants make a lot modifying the software but those modifications are constrained.
Enterprise software is lucrative but you give up the freedom to do what you ever want. Design by committee.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/pbr...
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#17This in a nutshell is why the new U.S. health care bill is really a stimulus package for the IT and healthcare industries. Integration of systems can be a nightmare. As the UK can attest, large systems fail from sheer complexity, if the politics, internal resistance, and silo mentality don't screw you. One of the reasons SAP succeeded was that in order to implement the software you had to rearrange how your company w…
Are you seriously suggesting that "complexity" was the root problem here? Rather than say cronyism, incompetence and greed?
edit: amused to see another comment on a different thread that uses the phrases "cronyism and incompetence". Did I subconsciously read that and copy it, or is it just the most apt description?
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#18corrected misleading headline - should be $722M to date, not per year.
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#19Very common situation in government contracts and dealing with consultants in general. I am sure IBM and Accenture are in there some how. NYC government could have created a small crack-team of internal IT people who could build the system for less than a 5th of the current cost. Unfortunately most organizations view IT work as something fit for mercenaries and if you ask any King who has ever had to rely on mercenar…
Yes a small competent team could build the IT system for a fraction of the time and money. However they would only be successful if the business processes were well defined which I'm willing to bet they were not.
New IT systems often come along with changes in process, a well defined IT project should produce a system that follows and complements those processes. Instead what we often get are "boil the ocean" projects that attempt to fix process issues under the guise of an IT implementation.
Re: NY Pays 230 “Consultants” $722M For Project 7 Years Behind Schedule
#20This in a nutshell is why the new U.S. health care bill is really a stimulus package for the IT and healthcare industries. Integration of systems can be a nightmare. As the UK can attest, large systems fail from sheer complexity, if the politics, internal resistance, and silo mentality don't screw you. One of the reasons SAP succeeded was that in order to implement the software you had to rearrange how your company w…
Are you seriously suggesting that "complexity" was the root problem here? Rather than say cronyism, incompetence and greed? edit: amused to see another comment on a different thread that uses the phrases "cronyism and incompetence". Did I subconsciously read that and copy it, or is it just the most apt description?
Take a simple payroll system. Start with basic employees. Add in contract workers. And, this is the hard part, handle the exceptions - those who get paid more even though they are at the same level, those who get more vacation, those who have legacy benefits. Scale to an entire city.
Test. Because if people don't get their paychecks, you have a very angry group of customers.