Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
631–640 of 684 posts
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#632Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they are doing it right - by their metric. Which is not the one others want them to be using.
By their own metrics, sure, maybe. I don't actually know what the real measurement of success is for them. But, to clarify, I didn't mean doing it right by their metric, I meant in my estimation, or [gestures broadly] our estimation.
The crux of the issue IMO, is to quote, ‘what do you mean “we” kemo sabe?’
I bet on any particular issue you can find 3-4 major groups with conflicting opinions.
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#633Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it is important to distinguish between Consulting, Staff Augmentation, and Managed Services. Many of the large integrators/consultancies do all of these options, but the objectives, contract sizes, and durations of the contracts are all expected to be different. Consulting - best though of projects, governance, and on-demand expertise. There are definitely junior resources in play, but the objective is to bui…
The people who care about these distinctions are mostly within those three groups. For the customers it's 'consulting'.
Too later for an edit, but: The point of this whole scheme is trading OpEx for (on the books) CapEx.
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#634Earlier quoted context omitted.
Part of the reason the US government needs to use consultants is because they can't actually pay enough to hire senior developers directly due to the constraints imposed by the GS pay scales. Often times the top levels of the pay scale aren't even available because there is some rule about how people can't be paid more than someone else. So instead they pay for consultants and all of their overhead. (Of course there…
Pay is a common one from the employee's side. From the manager's side, it nearly takes an act of fucking god to open up a new position. Citizens pay attention to the number of employees, and they get mad about it. You really don't want to be the one to cause citizens to angrily call elected officials if you're in an appointed government position (i.e., an at-will employee.) I have an unsexy government job. I've seen…
That makes sense. An FTE costs 2x as much as a contractor to the government and the latter can be fired. I’m glad it is this way. Even DOGE is temporary.
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#635Earlier quoted context omitted.
And California is an incredibly successful economy and people dream of living there.
Then why is everyone fleeing to escape the high taxes and crime? California is losing house seats at the present. Also, I don't know if you can really credit the left's supermajority for the success of SV... CA's politics have pivoted over the years. Look at an election map of CA in 1980 and you'll see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_United_States_presidentia...
They're fleeing to escape high taxes and crime?
Are you sure about that?
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#636Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have experience in technology and biomedical research. IT consultants, particularly from the large firms, are very overpriced for the value they provide. Blindly cutting NIH grants (even some of the ones that sound silly on paper) and funding for research institutions is doing great harm to progress in modern medicine. Multiple things can be true at once.
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"Academia is all rotten! Here are my 2 cherry-picked examples!"
Of course, burning these institutions down and running them like businesses will work well. After all, we all know fraud doesn't happen in business, and if it did, the market would soon sort that out, right?
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#637Earlier quoted context omitted.
> With any "normal" president (including Kamala Harris), the federal government would likely be expanding spending and gov't programs right now Perhaps, and in such a case, the american economy would not be cratering like it has been lately, and americans would be suffering less, and america would be stronger on the international stage. In fact, all things considered, more spending would have been better for america…
You can't just spend your troubles away forever. It might temporarily alleviate things, but long term it will collapse the entire system. At some point there need to be painful austerity measures - budget cuts, increased taxes, and the like. It's unpopular to do painful things, but it's necessary for survival.
Trump is looking to increase spending. Musk's future is dependent on increasing spending. Where do you get the idea they're cutting the budget? They're cutting normal people ...
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#638Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uh, no. I can name a half dozen people who are in roles like this for F500 companies. Hell, my wife was zoning SANs for $300/hr for like 6 years at a big bank. Another friend is essentially a pimp for a bunch of companies providing logistics staff. He takes a vig from the work of like 10k people.
Why should I care? It has no effect on me. That's between the shareholders and management. Government bloat comes out of my paycheck.
But ... Trump will increase spending. Musk's financial future is dependent on increasing spending. They want to INCREASE the load on your paycheck, not decrease it.
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#639Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it is important to distinguish between Consulting, Staff Augmentation, and Managed Services. Many of the large integrators/consultancies do all of these options, but the objectives, contract sizes, and durations of the contracts are all expected to be different. Consulting - best though of projects, governance, and on-demand expertise. There are definitely junior resources in play, but the objective is to bui…
The people who care about these distinctions are mostly within those three groups. For the customers it's 'consulting'.
[deleted]
Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte
#640Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it is important to distinguish between Consulting, Staff Augmentation, and Managed Services. Many of the large integrators/consultancies do all of these options, but the objectives, contract sizes, and durations of the contracts are all expected to be different. Consulting - best though of projects, governance, and on-demand expertise. There are definitely junior resources in play, but the objective is to bui…
The people who care about these distinctions are mostly within those three groups. For the customers it's 'consulting'.
That’s definitely not true. I’ve worked for companies on the consulting side for five years.
We have two types of Statements of Work (SOWs) we get signed by the client. The first type and the only type I would ever get involved with are project based. The client has a business need but not the technical expertise. I come in right after sales and work with the business to tease out their requirements, get their sign off. We do the work and leave the project once the requirements are met.
With this type of SOW, we (I) lead the project technically, the project management etc and once the work is handed off, we move on. It’s outcome based.
The second type of contract is where the client has the technically expertise. But not the manpower. They then sign a contract with us to get $X number of people for $y hours with the expertise they need. The client controls what gets done and when. They handle the project management. This is your typical staff augmentation.