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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

#71

Post by deaux »

krapht wrote: post #60
ebbi wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in large corporates (and some government projects) issuing out RFPs, the final decision tends to go: let's just go with an established name like PwC even if they're more expensive (and given we have the budget approved already) as opposed to a small firm down the road that has a great portfolio, because if something goes wrong, I can say I relied on this big, proven firm, and not be criticized for using…

I've seen some small firms crash and burn too, though. The problem is small firms are easy-come, easy-go; they don't have enough reputation at stake. Not sure what a good solution is.

There are dozens of "small firms" with plenty of reputation at stake. Or how about a "medium-sized firm". There's quite a few, probably a few hundred-thousand, options inbetween "PWC" and "my mate's nephew studying computer science".

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

#73

Post by woooooo »

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 think you're being a little unfair to the civil servant who has to follow the law regarding procurement.

I once knew someone who had to solicit 3 bids and document them to buy a $500 camera for local government. They weren't thinking "I am useless and craven", they were thinking "this is silly but I have to do it".

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

#74

Post by boznz »

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]

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

#75

Post by boznz »

dizzy9 wrote: post #9

In the past, expensive contracts like this were handed out as rewards to Tory donors. Help fund the party's re-election, and your company will receive a cushy reward. See also the Cash-for-Honours scandal, where the Labour party were also found giving preference to donors in the selection for lordships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-Honours_scandal

"In the Past", Now, and in the future.

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

#76

Post by wackget »

I feel like the true scandal beneath all of these big government contracts is not necessarily the money spent, but actually how poor the services received are.

I have worked with many "big agency" developers and can tell you categorically that they are more often than not absolutely terrible at their jobs.

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

#77

Post by tverbeure »

Supermancho wrote: post #66
gerdesj wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please show me on the doll where ISO 9000 hurt you! I have been an MD for 25 years. ISO 9001 reg. since 2006. Its been a bit of a pain at times but it does concentrate the mind towards doing things right. We've never used consultants, we've always just read and followed the standards. What is your experience? PS During our last assessment, the assessor described a few recent AI written efforts they had come across. L…

My father was a ISO9000 and ISO9001 certification consultant for over 10 years. He taught at Cal Poly Pamona, near the end of that era. This was my first exposure to using the familiar terms seen in RFCs like MUST MAY SHALL, etc. Ever tried to write a quality based document describing how to create an air filled, japanese oragami balloon? (step 3 is the first big hurdle, https://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Origami-Balloo…

I remember the backdated document signing parties at my previous company, the day before an ISO audit. So much fun!

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

#78

Post by hkt »

Aeolun wrote: post #70
hluska wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m reading the original tender and there is zero mention of ISO 9000. In fact, the tendering authority even specifically stated this opportunity was a good fit for SMEs. Where does all this talk of standards come from?

If this was a good fit for SME, and the price paid for the whole thing was 4M pounds, why didn’t any SME win the tender? Seriously, that’s the whole yearly turnover for most SME shops I ever worked at. And all of them could do a better job than this.

That's possibly why: small businesses reliant on contracts that are, to them, disproportionately huge.. well, they die at the end of the contract. HMRC killed off an OpenStack based AWS competitor by replacing them, about ten years ago. Anchor clients can be a real hazard if an SME can't live without them. Sometimes it just isn't worth it.

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

#79

Post by sbstp »

eranation wrote: post #24

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

CGI is a terrible company known for going over budget and under delivering on a ton of projects. Not that many companies bidding on large government contracts unfortunately

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

#80

Post by hkt »

FridayoLeary wrote: post #49
jaccola wrote: post #44

Interestingly, the UK PM (and allies) just blocked a would-be political rival Andy Burnham standing as an MP. One of the given reasons is because Burnham is currently mayor of Greater Manchester, and running a new election there would cost approx £4m(!!) which is a huge waste of taxpayer money. I was surprised that they even gave this as a faux reason since it seems like the sort of money they would spend on replenis…

Being cynical i would say it's because Burnham could potentially challenge Starmer. Less cynically Labour has a big enough majority they can afford to lose this by election. The headache of replacing the mayor of Manchester is not worth it. Why can't he just do both jobs? Boris did it iirc.

If memory serves, Dan Jarvis also did it, being both MP and mayor of the South Yorkshire city region or whatever it was called at the time.

It is fairly innately political. No Prime Minister has ever polled as low as Starmer and come back from it, or so is being said in the press. Burnham might be a smart electoral move, but he's not a plaything of the Labour right, so they kept him out.

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