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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

#101

Post by aaronbrethorst »

plagiarist wrote: post #53
michaelt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-pwc-ey-big-four-natw... > Labour taking free staff from scandal-hit consulting firms > [...] The party has quietly accepted more than £230,000 worth of free staff from ‘big four’ accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Ernst & Young (EY) since Keir Starmer took over as leader in 2020. Still, I'm sure it's a complete coincidence that the ruling party was gifted £230k o…

I wish a fitting comeuppance upon all the grifters taking up a seat which could've been filled by someone actually interested in governance.

whew, good thing Nigel Farage is a straight shooter interested strictly in good governance.

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

#102

Post by defrost »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #101
plagiarist wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish a fitting comeuppance upon all the grifters taking up a seat which could've been filled by someone actually interested in governance.

whew, good thing Nigel Farage is a straight shooter interested strictly in good governance.

Risky life close to the edge you're sailing there...

"If the wind changes, you'll get stuck that way."

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

#103

Post by clort »

wongarsu wrote: post #85
nick49488171 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screenshot of the top 3 results on Google shopping ought to do it

And even if doesn't, writing five online shops to send you a written offer takes a couple minutes and results in the same or lower prices Procurement for such small items can be quick and sane. It's the larger items where rules tighten and procurement portals or bidding become mandated that are problematic

Nothing takes 'a couple minutes' when you have to sit down and research the five online shops, find if they are approachable, if they will deal with the restrictions of your purchasing department, find out how to submit a query. Many online shops just have a purchasing portal. Find the product, buy it here, pay for it and wait.

So loosely I purchase items at my work from a budget that I am allocated in an organisation that is ultimately responsible to the UK government. I need to justify that the items I am ordering are reasonably priced, and the organisation would really really like to have the goods before any money goes out. That means they want to place an order, receive the goods and and invoice, and then pay the invoice. Many online shops don't want to deal with that. We have accounts set up with many companies, but not all. If I want to buy some reams of 160gsm A4 white card (for example, the other day), that whole process is going to take at least 10 minutes. Some of our suppliers don't sell exactly that. Is 240gsm ok? I've got to go back to the person who wants it (no btw, I had to go find some and take it to them for comparison). More esoteric items are going to take longer. What exactly do I want to order?

So yeah, procurement is simple when you are at home with an amazon account. The items will be here tomorrow!

edit: oh, I didn't mention the free delivery.. a box of white card doesn't get me free delivery. Is there something else I can add onto that? Ok, the order will have to wait..

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

#104

Post by DANmode »

testing22321 wrote: post #52

At my last company (a telco that was government previously) they wound up paying $3 million for barely more than a Drupal theme for the public website. Fun project to be on. We played “descope” bingo… but everyone won all the time.

what was the barely more?

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

#105

Post by vasco »

What is funny is that I know plenty of great engineers that won't earn $4mil ever in their life. For that amount of money you could give 4 guys $1mil each to create an amazing resource and take care of it for the next 30 years. I wonder how much PwC will charge for ongoing hosting and maintenance.

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

#107

Post by aaronbrethorst »

defrost wrote: post #102
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whew, good thing Nigel Farage is a straight shooter interested strictly in good governance.

Risky life close to the edge you're sailing there... " If the wind changes, you'll get stuck that way. "

/s

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

#108

Post by marcus_holmes »

gerdesj wrote: post #39
marcus_holmes wrote: post #27

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.

About 20 years ago, so yes, I might be a little out of date ;)

I've seen it happen time and again with startups, though. They have a great idea, perfect for a large business to use. They get a project manager or department manager excited about it, they even run a PoC successfully. And then they slap headfirst into the Procurement Wall and the whole project grinds to a halt. Three years between project approval and issuing a purchase order. And then 90 days between invoice and payment. Startups go bust waiting for these cogs to turn.

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

#109

Post by defrost »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #107
defrost wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Risky life close to the edge you're sailing there... " If the wind changes, you'll get stuck that way. "

/s

For your comment or mine? I'm happy to share.

All the same, you can have a long successful careeer, but you say nice things about Nigel the one time and forever after they'll call you a goat f*r and throw milkshakes on you :/

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

#110

Post by marcus_holmes »

boznz wrote: post #74
marcus_holmes wrote: post #27

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…

I wrote a relevant article on this last year "On-Time and Under-Budget. Where some IT projects are Probably Going Wrong." [ https://rodyne.com/?p=2074 ]

> "Your system is NOT hard, it is you and your procurement procedures that are generally making it hard for small companies to help you, and it is you and your procurement systems and attitude that will likely make the project fail, be delayed or go over-budget."

Quoted for truth. Well said.

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