New DII(F) IT System
 

Our stn -a large Oxonian AT hub - is currently migrating to DII(F). On the face of it, it would appear to hinder productivity rather than assist it.
Does anyone already using it have any feedback on what it's like when the dust has settled?

Not the most exciting topic, I know, but one that has more than a few here a little flustered:confused:

Also at the said AT Hub. Lots of rumour, not a lot of info on what is actually happening. Current IT network is adequate a best, routinely very flakey.

I don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling about the next few months.

CounterSunk,

You're in for a rocky ride, my friend. DII has not been the sweet bed of roses it promised (then again, anything was better than what we had). Most of the features presume that you have a terminal to yourself. As soon as you're sharing, as a lot of folks I know do, then the most basic applications go to rats. And F ain't gonna change that.

Being a long time DII/F user ....... please give me back my DII/C! We have had more downtime (sometimes litterally whole days) since we have had F than all those put before it. Plus since you now need it for entry to everything else; personal files, emails and JPA, when it goes down all my staff do is sit and play solitaire!

DII/F is :mad:

Another excuse to go flying then....Hurrah for DII(F) then...

UG & CS,
Beatriz and BJ have it right, expect a bumpy ride. Whatever you do, don't let the installation team (floorwalkers) go until you are completely happy with your workstation and it's configuration. If the same migration process is used as here at the 'Wood, your Business Unit Point of Contact (BUPOC) needs to be on the ball and keep chasing up all the identified defects.

I never thought I would say this, but come back DAWN, all is forgiven. My group migrated from DAWN onto DII(F) some 18 months ago and we are still waiting for some of our key software applications to be delivered via DII(F). After some 12 years, the DAWN system at the 'Wood was actually quite stable and all our specialist applications ran quite well. Then along came DII(F)! Just wait until you find out how much each call to the SPOC costs, never mind any Change Requests.

Oh, BTW, the intranet is still down "with technical problems", for the second day.

One unit got DII(F) and through idleness, some were put on servers from their old job (other countries in some cases). It is over 3 weeks now and 1 person has the job of sorting it - the HELP!!! centre can't do it. Not efficient or useful.

On the plus side, they have had 3 weeks without e-mails and probably 3 more until people realise they are back?

And you will have to learn a whole new raft of acronyms. At £7.3Bn they obviously had a whole office full of wanabee designers.

No longer do you have a CPU and VDU. Now you have a UAD!

I migrated but it took 4 weeks (they lost the application) to transfer me from DII/c to DII/f. In fact they didn't transfer me at all. I did the transfer by saving all my Dii/c emails and address book etc and documents and emailing them to my new account. When they did the 'transfer' they stated that information on Dii/c would not be transfered and that despite assurances last year that it would.

Then getting access is another WHOLE new ball game. I was lucky. I did an ISyO course 18 years ago so I was qualified. I was then able to get a password for my IMO but he has yet to do the security course. As for the rest of the guys - no chance. They have done the course to use Dii/f but they now await an AD to authorise their accounts - at a cost.

The AD is an Authorised Demander and, as of last week, Air Command had not decided who was going to be the AD.

Ah, love it when a plan comes to gether. One final thing, Dii/f guys (Atlas) come in pairs. Dii/c made do with one technician.

Thankyou for the kind words and reassurance. I'm staggered that such a busy MOB is being subjected to sweeping change with next to no interaction with IT end users. Where are these 'floorwalkers' mentioned earlier in the thread? First user is apparently scheduled for October, do we all cutover together? :eek: Note to self: Ask for leave in October.

Will we still get Pinball in the games package on F? That's the only thing that got me through the DII C training!

Thanks the notes gents.
Had the Atlas guys on the Sqn today. They still seem to think that we have a full-time IT manager hiding on the Sqn somewhere, and don't seem to understand that 40+ pilots will all be using one of 2 or 3 terminals...sorry...UADs:ok:

Not to mention how the data is actually managed - that seems a confusing mess at the moment - has anyone used the new file registry structure yet?

It just smacks of a project pushed from above by an office-bound 'specialist' with little or no regard for how the end-users work.

And there was me thinking that IT should enable our productivity....:sad:

DII(F) for Fcuked
 

DII(F) is no where near as bad as they say, it is in fact far far worse. It took them 14 weeks to set up my account and then they had set up the wrong role based email address. It then took a further 4 weeks to get the email address corrected. NB if you haven't previously had a DII(C) account you don't get a personal email address as that bit of F doesn't work.
And don't ask what is going to happen if they try to deploy FD.
:{

As someone who spends as little time as possible in front of a 'uad', im assuming this is some new kind of computer network. If this is the case, how is it going to manage alongside the changes currently being implemented, and of course i mean the well loved bocs package. And if this is as bad as all seem to suggest, how are we now going to access the all singing and dancing jpa??? is it that the RAF is just going to fall to bits???

Uncle Ginster, don't worry about 40 pilots and only 2-3 UAD. You won't get 40 accounts :}

Beatriz, no worries, games are there.

pprune users will be partially fcuked. Under Dii/c you could log in to your IGS account every 6 months. With Dii/f you have to log in every time. progress.

George, I had both accounts on Dii/c now my personal account seems rather hidden. Better, when you open outlook the personal folders are collapsed and new mail is not notified. Great excuse to the boss "sorry Boss, didn't see it."

One other thing... forget about seeing most of the pics on the PPRUNE threads whilst at work, as the DII funpolice block photo-sharing sites such as Photobucket, Flikr etc.

Your new capability
 

Forgive a cynical old fart for intruding - but is this what the oficer B^**$dge meant when he brought up "network-enabled, agile, adaptable.........Blah " a year or so ago? I weep for you, I really do. Thank the Lord I'm no longer in.
The Ancient Mariner

Going Down
 

If my wife went down on me as much as DII has I would probably still be with her. It is a recognised as a threat to productivity and to Defence as a whole - but we've got it and its up to us to make it work like JPA.

I use to work for the IT supplier whose technology underpinned the DII(C) core nodes and from my side of the fence the roll-out seemed to go relatively smoothly.
Unfortunately we worked with the wrong Prime Bidder for DII(F).
I spent a lot of time with that bidder making sure that the fundamental principles of rollout, migration and info management were covered, I even put one of my best guys imbedded in their team full-time for a year...but we weren't selected.....

How much?
 

The NAO report on DII says that current cost for 150,000 terminals is £7.1 billion. Thats £47,000 per pc.

Reasons to be chearful 1,2,3....4,5,6
 

I am now convinced it is an expensive cr*p system but every cloud has a silver lining. I cant find my work and my boss can't find me on the system (nor can I). The extra time saved in not doing my work is spent logging on and trying to find the sticket on my desk for the IGS.

i can get onto JPA so have spent many happy hours putting in my quals and hours, ready to do it all again on Monday when the system hasn't saved them.

Oh how happy I am with the MoD!!!:bored: