New DII(F) IT System
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
The concern should not be that the MOD has an integrated system but the sheer expense and worse, the waste of money, as perfectly usable old systems are junked. Not only that but there was no clear migration route from old to new.
At one point I was told that migration was part of the deal. In the event I did my own migration and later they expressly stated that they would not do migration.
At one point I was told that migration was part of the deal. In the event I did my own migration and later they expressly stated that they would not do migration.
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I heard today that the contract for the delivery of DII to all remaining MOD sites has been signed off.
Trebles All Round.
STH
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Having been working with DII(F) for the best part of a year now I have to say it is a first class system. Everything works, the internet is fast, even the wireless stuff works very well. Its a bit of a shame that we still have the old MS word programme but apart from that its good. The help staff are very helpful and in general most queries are sorted quickly. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to NOA.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
But it is very expensive for an Office and email application. An account costs, IIRC, £39 per month. Old equipment is removed by Atlas regardless of how new it is and they do not use existing infrastructure.
The colour laser uses 4 cartridges at a knock down price of £250 each and they found they could not install it as a network printer.
The installation was mind numbingly expensive - the cost of a hole in a single skin breeze block wall was £120. That is JUST for the hole.
The colour laser uses 4 cartridges at a knock down price of £250 each and they found they could not install it as a network printer.
The installation was mind numbingly expensive - the cost of a hole in a single skin breeze block wall was £120. That is JUST for the hole.
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The colour laser uses 4 cartridges at a knock down price of £250 each
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And herein lies the rub. The MOD is being ripped-off left right and centre - 19" monitors recently supplied where I work were sourced on the basis of the DII(F) spec (and are actually exactly the same monitors as those in the catalogue), but will need to be replaced by 17" versions. New business/ DSE cases will need to be written to justify their replacement to AIR (not our command, but the lead for the tranche) at a cost of £500 - £600 EACH!
"Ah but that includes through-life support!". For a monitor?
That said, some things are inexpensive (MS Project for example), but I honestly don't believe this project is set to deliver the value for money we need, and I will be amazed if the Treasury doesn't see through the only partially-clothed emporer that is DII(F).
The problem many units will face is that the money has already been taken away from local managers to assist in the transfer, but my spies tell me that the project itself is already broke, like some monstrous pyramid scheme. We have little money left to support our own systems, yet DII(F) keeps getting put further and further back.
STH
"Ah but that includes through-life support!". For a monitor?
That said, some things are inexpensive (MS Project for example), but I honestly don't believe this project is set to deliver the value for money we need, and I will be amazed if the Treasury doesn't see through the only partially-clothed emporer that is DII(F).
The problem many units will face is that the money has already been taken away from local managers to assist in the transfer, but my spies tell me that the project itself is already broke, like some monstrous pyramid scheme. We have little money left to support our own systems, yet DII(F) keeps getting put further and further back.
STH
The real sadness is when an IT project can make or break the future of far more important projects (Estates?), just because of the cost of installing the infrastructure outweighs any benefits. Tail wagging the dog, it is happening already.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
I had a lot of floppy disks that we used for sneaker net. I made the point and they were hapy to proivde a USB floppy just for me
However we lost 3 Dii/c and only got 2 Dii/f in replacement. We also got a hideous, fridge sized, SDP, hung high on a wall in the wrong place. The bill to move it to the right place was a cool £18k.
There is also the farce of getting a new account opened. As the AD I have to ask the LSO to confirm that the new person is properly cleared. The catch is that this is an off-line process and I simply say 'yes he is'. I am also supposed to ask the budget manager for financial approval.
Good game.
They also produce a 'business continuity plan' that is supposed to cover everything including loss of a building or even a site. That we have been practising and improvising contingency plans for the last 40 years or so in Tacevals seems to have escaped them. Now they expect me to help write the manual, study it each year, reapprove etc etc - then it sits on a shelf gathering dust.
We had a training course that taught us the bleedin obvious (part of tha package) but no training in how to actually administer the system.
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What is this strange DII I hear of?
Went in to get my envelope with my log in datails eg user name and password, to find i do not have 1, and yes i have completed the required paperwork, apparently the problem is that I have only been back on the sqn for 18 months!!! so the system does not know where i am!!! HOW SCARY is that
So will happily come in to work, do my tasking and go home!! cant log on so hey, only downer is how to do my HTD? Ahh I remember now, that has been screwed up as well in the apparent improvement to the system
oh well
Went in to get my envelope with my log in datails eg user name and password, to find i do not have 1, and yes i have completed the required paperwork, apparently the problem is that I have only been back on the sqn for 18 months!!! so the system does not know where i am!!! HOW SCARY is that
So will happily come in to work, do my tasking and go home!! cant log on so hey, only downer is how to do my HTD? Ahh I remember now, that has been screwed up as well in the apparent improvement to the system
oh well
If there was one utter PITA during my lst few years in the RAF, it was wanquerres with wires installing some promised 'network' system or other every few months, or so it seemed....
None of which added anything to our efficiency. Just more and more screens cluttering up the Ops desks of the squadrons.
Bosses stopped being bosses who fired files down to lesser folk - they became Wg Cdr Typists. Always gazing at screens full of junk e-mails instead of leading their squadrons.
It started with that slow, unwieldy thing called ASMA, then we had the abysmal STARS which occupied hours of peoples' time. Oh, and SAMA...
None of which systems actually achieved much which a phone, fax or chinagraph board couldn't achieve more simply, cheaply and flexibly. But Our Great Leaders were seduced by this crap, even though anything useful was banned by the leaden-footed CIS-pigs with their paranoia.
Has any of this $hIT-system been specified by the end user - or anyone familiar with the end users' requirements? Or is it, as usual, a question of "Here it is, now make it work"....
None of which added anything to our efficiency. Just more and more screens cluttering up the Ops desks of the squadrons.
Bosses stopped being bosses who fired files down to lesser folk - they became Wg Cdr Typists. Always gazing at screens full of junk e-mails instead of leading their squadrons.
It started with that slow, unwieldy thing called ASMA, then we had the abysmal STARS which occupied hours of peoples' time. Oh, and SAMA...
None of which systems actually achieved much which a phone, fax or chinagraph board couldn't achieve more simply, cheaply and flexibly. But Our Great Leaders were seduced by this crap, even though anything useful was banned by the leaden-footed CIS-pigs with their paranoia.Has any of this $hIT-system been specified by the end user - or anyone familiar with the end users' requirements? Or is it, as usual, a question of "Here it is, now make it work"....
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Well well, I wondered how long it would be before this thread was back!!
My personel view from being involved on the infrastructure side since the start (DiiA) - DiiF, Ive never seen such a flagrant waste of money. The award of the contract to EDS and then to Atlas has to go down as one of the biggest mismanagements of a contract that Ive seen in many years!! DiiC wasnt perfect but the management was far more cost effective.
For example: The idiot idea of employing one company to survey and do a design, spend in most cases 12 months (!!!) discussing it and going through various stages of sign off only to employ a totally different company to carry out the work. Problems, a) its become obvious to the installer that the design company often never visited the site or all the buildings and did the design off usually out of date drawings which didnt show any existing infrastructure so that 2nd company cant actually install to 12 month old and multi signed off design or b)the units that occupied said buildings 12months earlier have long gone and said design is now totally useless to new units (this happend many times particulary with Army barracks - dont you know theres a war on was the oft received comment! DiiC with an intagrated management\design\installation team from survey through sign off to start - max 12 weeks.
I have been stunned at some of the pre-start meetings. DiiC had an average of 8 (relavent)people - DiiF, well the first I attended had 18, the worst was an unbelievable 22 - mainly contractors all on between £150 - £400 a day and most of them couldnt make a decision to save their lives - it always had to be 'refered' - never mind it'll be another meeting - ie more dosh. I went to one site way up north, the job was worth say £x to my company to install it. To comply with the Atlas methodology of meetings and sign offs etc etc the cost of all the attendee's I worked out to be £x times 6.25!!!
I went to one army site where 2 years earlier a new DiiC duct system around the site was installed. The 'brilliant' Atlas design company gave me a design (signed off!!) that replicated 75% of the total existing route all for 2 cables!! When I queeried it I was told that I should mind my own business and that this was DiiF mate, as much new as possible!! In this case someone saw sense and stopped it, the 2 cables went in the DiiC duct BUT I know of many installation companies that would simply just put in duplicate duct systems, or new containment etc. Eventually MOD realised they were going to run out of money long before the Increment 2 work was to be complete. ALL TO LATE.
I could go on but I find it so depressing - in a nutshell, MOD had been taken for a ride by EDS and 'we' all paid a heavy price (we = military and taxpayer). A much earlier comment about how the contract was awarded was exactly right.
My personel view from being involved on the infrastructure side since the start (DiiA) - DiiF, Ive never seen such a flagrant waste of money. The award of the contract to EDS and then to Atlas has to go down as one of the biggest mismanagements of a contract that Ive seen in many years!! DiiC wasnt perfect but the management was far more cost effective.
For example: The idiot idea of employing one company to survey and do a design, spend in most cases 12 months (!!!) discussing it and going through various stages of sign off only to employ a totally different company to carry out the work. Problems, a) its become obvious to the installer that the design company often never visited the site or all the buildings and did the design off usually out of date drawings which didnt show any existing infrastructure so that 2nd company cant actually install to 12 month old and multi signed off design or b)the units that occupied said buildings 12months earlier have long gone and said design is now totally useless to new units (this happend many times particulary with Army barracks - dont you know theres a war on was the oft received comment! DiiC with an intagrated management\design\installation team from survey through sign off to start - max 12 weeks.
I have been stunned at some of the pre-start meetings. DiiC had an average of 8 (relavent)people - DiiF, well the first I attended had 18, the worst was an unbelievable 22 - mainly contractors all on between £150 - £400 a day and most of them couldnt make a decision to save their lives - it always had to be 'refered' - never mind it'll be another meeting - ie more dosh. I went to one site way up north, the job was worth say £x to my company to install it. To comply with the Atlas methodology of meetings and sign offs etc etc the cost of all the attendee's I worked out to be £x times 6.25!!!
I went to one army site where 2 years earlier a new DiiC duct system around the site was installed. The 'brilliant' Atlas design company gave me a design (signed off!!) that replicated 75% of the total existing route all for 2 cables!! When I queeried it I was told that I should mind my own business and that this was DiiF mate, as much new as possible!! In this case someone saw sense and stopped it, the 2 cables went in the DiiC duct BUT I know of many installation companies that would simply just put in duplicate duct systems, or new containment etc. Eventually MOD realised they were going to run out of money long before the Increment 2 work was to be complete. ALL TO LATE.
I could go on but I find it so depressing - in a nutshell, MOD had been taken for a ride by EDS and 'we' all paid a heavy price (we = military and taxpayer). A much earlier comment about how the contract was awarded was exactly right.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Tories today will issue a paper saying they will cap Government IT projects at £100,000,000 (£100m). How will this sit against the Dii/F cost of £7,300,000,000 (£7,300m). Even spread over 25 years that is rather more than £100m.
There is another fiasco due to hit the streets in 2013. Landmarc has the contract to run the Defence Training Estate until 2013. If they lose the contract then a huge number of user accounts will need to be readdressed as they as all @landmarc.mod.uk
There is another fiasco due to hit the streets in 2013. Landmarc has the contract to run the Defence Training Estate until 2013. If they lose the contract then a huge number of user accounts will need to be readdressed as they as all @landmarc.mod.uk
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Lots of us in insignificant corners of the MOD empire (cadets in my case) don't have access to Dii because they can't economically connect us and they don't want traffic over the internet (they don't trust encryption). So - the solution? Put all the restricted stuff on CD and pop it in the post.
T
T
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Went in to get my envelope with my log in datails eg user name and password, to find i do not have 1, and yes i have completed the required paperwork, apparently the problem is that I have only been back on the sqn for 18 months!!! so the system does not know where i am!!! HOW SCARY is that
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Get my drift?
The system does not actually need to know that the user is on the sqn or anything as the login is universal and personal. Essential what the AD does regarding the sqn is to ensure that the personal login is associated with a role ID and with group share ID.
Now I was never able to get a group share set up nor was I able to get a new account set up as the system came up with some 'invalid data' type message. The help desk couldn't and it was kicked up the line to the software team. Two months later I retired. I bet my ID is still functional because as the AD I was unable to cancel my account nor get a new AD to replace me.
I have used the abbreviations as they form the new language that users must learn when the use their UAD to log on with the new details from the LSO.
PS The AD is UAD is different from AD
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Has any of this $hIT-system been specified by the end user - or anyone familiar with the end users' requirements? Or is it, as usual, a question of "Here it is, now make it work"....
When some aspect of the Stackers' empire went purple, most of the clothing was looked after by the Pongoes near Bicester, or so we were told.
Into Clothing Stores I went one happy day, at long last having been promoted. "May I have some Sqn Ldr rank braid please?".
"Sorry Sir, nil stock - and the Army can't locate it. It seems there's no demand!" said the civvy.
"Well, it doesn't surprise me that the Army has little demand for Sqn Ldr rank braid, but I do. Can you 'escalate the demand' or whatever you need to do?"
"Certainly, sir - I'll do whatever I can"
Soon after, someone in somewhere like Harrogate waved a magic wand and our friendly local Stackers soon received miles and miles of Sqn Ldr rank braid. The Army computer might have said 'No', but some human knew how to sort it out...
Computers are marvellous when they are used as an assistant, b£oody awful when allowed to become a master.
Into Clothing Stores I went one happy day, at long last having been promoted. "May I have some Sqn Ldr rank braid please?".
"Sorry Sir, nil stock - and the Army can't locate it. It seems there's no demand!" said the civvy.
"Well, it doesn't surprise me that the Army has little demand for Sqn Ldr rank braid, but I do. Can you 'escalate the demand' or whatever you need to do?"
"Certainly, sir - I'll do whatever I can"
Soon after, someone in somewhere like Harrogate waved a magic wand and our friendly local Stackers soon received miles and miles of Sqn Ldr rank braid. The Army computer might have said 'No', but some human knew how to sort it out...
Computers are marvellous when they are used as an assistant, b£oody awful when allowed to become a master.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
How many of the previous systems will be available through Dii? HRMS and JPA are available as are applications such as OJAR and SJAR but there is a cost attached to getting a system acredited to Dii - EAMS for one is not acredited.
The Stackers "success" story goes back to the AEI 1010 purchased from Manchester University in 1964.
What a shame the Army never took up the generous offer of utilising USAS in the early 90s because it would have meant fewer boots on the ground.
It has taken the rebranding of USAS into MJDI to make the system acceptable to the Army. All we have to do now is teach them to use it, best of luck on that one Russ.
DKH
What a shame the Army never took up the generous offer of utilising USAS in the early 90s because it would have meant fewer boots on the ground.
It has taken the rebranding of USAS into MJDI to make the system acceptable to the Army. All we have to do now is teach them to use it, best of luck on that one Russ.
DKH