Hi Spotter

Nearly right old chap, you forgot to include the network people whose fault it also won't be, the PC providers, whose fault it won't be (all purchased to DII spec! From the DGICS Catalogue so it must be compliant and it only cost 3-times more than at PC World!). The idea of a couple of networks (one light one dark) off which we hang all systems is all very well, but it simply allows one bunch of unqualified individuals to blame another bunch of unqualified people who aren't part of the same organisation/contract so have nothing to gain.

Naiively, I was somewhat surprised to find that one chap who came to fix a Dark-side PC at my work had never even seen one before. In fact, he'd come straight from another 'managed service' job in one of the Newcastle Job Centres. He couldn't get the box open until I showed him how! Left two hours later scratching his head and muttering about the fibres/NICs/IPs/BIDs/Routers being the wrong for the system. What was actually needed was the details of the WINSERVER to be typed into the thing so it knew where to look when it was switched on. Did it myself in the end. Nice one Fu***su, thanks for managing our service for us.

Sorry about all that. Got a bit carried away. It's the frustration of not being able to log-on to JPA. I have asked OC Personal Admin Support Flight Sqn what the Stn Business Continuity Plan Says about all this.

STH

IMPACT
 

Sorry again for my last rant.

I know there's lots of comment on here about the problems we are experiencing at the moment, but has anyone actually had to stop doing something, cancel a det, change plans or whatever because of JPA? In my ops world we are used to pragmatism, so used paper forms to record leave over Easter etc etc, and and I guess we'll continue to do so.

Has anyone started collecting data about the actual impact of this debacle?

STH

I personally am keeping a running log of my attempts and failure or otherwise (a little anal of me yes), but when the total time waste gets to longer than 24 hours, I intend to formally raise it. So far It is 1:10 against JPA being successful from the times I commenced entering my user and PW. Recommend others do similar (noting actual time etc...). At this rate I should have wasted 24 Hours within 2 months. During the same time I will have at least corrected the name of my NOK.

Anybody actually got an expense claim out of it yet?

ootthemob

At least someone took the trouble to look - thankyou. Ar$e n elbow comes to mind.

Good job I don't buy knickers from C&A eh?

Ok done a little homework on this one now:

CURRENT AMP is an Engineer . . .

AMP who instigated JPA WAS aircrew . . .Monsieur Francais - Helicopter mate.

:ok:

Farrier - 0/10 and no gold star.

AMP did not instigate JPA. The decision to implement will have been made by the pol staffs in town.

Interesting that the JPA status page shows performance as Amber...

"Intermittent problems or slow response"

..while telling you that there is still no availability for self-service users.

Smacks of Alastair Campbell to me - 'I can confirm that the 1 user permitted access to JPA finds it a joy to use...'

We have just been told to forget it TFN. Too many snags, only log in between 1200 and 1700, help lines useless because they rely on access to sort the problems, don't bother trying to change personal details etc etc.
All this from our newly formed 'Human Resources Dept'. Oh yes, and they say these problems were completely unexpected!

H'mm - just found this pearl:

http://www.eds.com/services/casestud...oads/afpaa.pdf

Uh huh. EDS will give us a system that lets some people log on today and some more tomorrow - measured. Today you can log on, and tomorrow you might actually be able to access some useful apps, like put in leave (couldn't do that today, despite trying about 20 times) or look at my pay slip (ditto) - evolutionary.

I suppose they are meeting existing service levels - only its not because the clerks are off on a tea break or 'having a fag', or PSF is closed for 50% of the time so that the poor overworked souls can catch up on paperwork, its because EDS couldn't take a working application from Oracle, match it to working hardware form HP and actually make a distributed database work!

Well thanks to JPA my LSAP paperwork was delayed and now i won't be completing on my new house before I move out onto the streets with an 8 month preganant partner !!

A JPA First ????
 

I have managed to successfully submit a claim on JPA this week. Is this a first for the RAF ?

Obviously I have not actually had any money paid into my bank account yet, and as JPA was down this afternoon (self-service users between 12-1700?) I was not able to check the status of my claim, so that will have to wait till Monday.

I live in hope and await Monday morning with interest.

Y_G

We weren't allowed to use it today (so not at all yet). Apparently we will be told on Monday if we can access it.

:mad:

In the modern jargon I think we can declare JPA a defered success.:\

Hi Gang;

Tried again today...in the 12-1700 self-user window...

Result...SNAFU
Thumping the monitor a couple of times didn't help either!!!

B*ggered up HTD travel claim still pending I assume...no Plods at the door yet!!!

More LAter;
'J' Bloke!!:cool:

Does anyone know if the rumour is true that several units have pulled out of trying to get JPA going and are back on the old system.
My sources tell me Honington has done this.
Or maybe it's just because the Regt can't use computers yet...:ouch: ouch

I have received an expenses payment via JPA, is this a first? It was for only £7.34; it did take nearly 2 hours to input the claim and 12 days to get to my account - not quite the advertised timesaving and speed.

PM

The flood gates have opened...I also got a payment but this was for £61. Is this a record?

No mate,

Thats probably your monthly wage, :}

HEDP

Not sure about units going back to the "old system". SAMA was switched off and can't be switched back on again because the contract for it expired recently hence the great rush to force JPA into action.

Congratulations on getting claims paid. I'm still waiting for a logon password!!

Since JPA I've had 3 nights away in different hotels, 3 nights away in Messes, 2 lots of leave overfa couple of days and the Easter break with a working public holiday - still waiting for JPA password! At least I've been able to put all expenses on a company credit card and just keep a record of things so I'm not out of pocket yet.

I had heard that the pay run went through from SAMA as JPA still could not handle it. Last time I checked JPA, my pay statement was not shown (which would back this up) but I may have checked too early.

JPA
 

I hereby announce my withdrawal from JPA with immediate effect. Henceforth all my expenditure will be conducted with with my corporate credit card and I no longer acknowledge the requirement to account for leave. I shall take leave as I see fit.
For "empowerment of the individual" read "abdication of responsibility" by the hierarchy
Be Pleased to inform Her Majesty that the White Flag flies over JPA God Save the Queen

Going on det shortly ... Does anyone know if JPA has been installed on computers across the world at the various locations of the RAF's many detachments?
Or shall I telephone my boss from overseas to get him to input my backlog of claims.
He can wipe my a*se for a change! :E

Gate Zero
 

Well I just happened to be reading a geek mag when I came across this article . Nice to see the Gov is trying to save money, could this be over failing to pay us our wages?

Made me look just a little further.

As you say John 11:35 over everything this Gov has handled in IT.

Beware of your "corporate credit card". It might just be a charge card that requires payment in full by the end of the month. If it's not paid, and it had your name on the card (which it probably has), then it's you that will end up on the credit blacklist!

:ooh:

Correctamundo! One of the co-pilots on the VC10K force in its early days received a snottygram from Amex saying something of that order. I advised him to insist that OC Accounts sort it out with Amex -and that they must send him a letter confirming that he was absolved from any personal blame, the matter was entirly between his employer (RAF) and Amex. He eventually received such a letter.

RAF bill settling is notoriously slow and has led to all sorts of down-route problems in the past - such as catering companies refusing to supply the RAF due to previous instances of late payment.

JPA
 

Phoned JPA on Friday as it was not working to enquire what was going on. I was told that, with a new server they are using, if more than 80 people log on at once then it crashes. I said that there would not be 80 people on the base using it on a Friday afternoon. Her reply was "80 people, country wide"!!!!! Maybe we should get tickets like at the Deli in M&S????

What I want to know is when the decision makers are going to realise that the system is unworkable?

Personally, I think the JPA idea is good, but the system had been rushed in, in the full knowledge that it does not work. It was supposed to have been altered to work for the military but it is not even close. As a manager I have almost lost control of my personnel's leave (there is a pile of 100's of leave passes in the office that cannot be processed) and from a personal point of view I am owed loads of money that I can't claim back.

How long are we going to put up with this? I am told the current ability to access the system will last months. I dread to think what state we will be in should that be true. My patience is starting to wear thin now and I am seriously thinking of not spending ANY more of my own money that would normally result in a claim being submitted.

Notwithstanding the technical difficulties that have occured introducing such a large project requiring everyone to have access, the lack of apparent thought about how we will use the system - or at best lack of dissemination of this info - is amateurish and very embarrassing.

But you can't blame technology or consultants for people not having passwords nearly a month from switchover. There are less than 50,000 of us and the admin people know where we all are (or did!). The simple password issue is a far better indicator of the level of negligence we're dealing with.

The best thing to come from this would be a major investigation into both our procurement and contracts policies as well as totally reviewing how our 2-year-in-post staff manage projects. Could this abortion prompt us to reconsider labelling dissenters as constructive critics, versus promoting poodles who are afraid to grasp the occasional nettle and say it can't yet be done?

Adding to my trademarked 'Change Fatigue (tm)' I'm going to add 'Poodle Culture' to my personal dictionary of RAF related idioms.

So. does anyone know if we will actually get paid for April?

Im sure my bank manager will understand if can't pay my mortgage.:mad:

It took me 30mins today to get past the login screen.

God knows how many countless leave passes I have waiting for me. (saying that they wont be able to get on either!)

Well done MOD, you sure know how to look after your Armed Forces.

cnuts.

Bugger. Thought I'd be clever and nip into work on a Sunday afternoon to try and put my claims from an overseas trip on JPA (before credit card bill comes in), only to find out that they've barred Self-Service Users access from 0700-1900 all weekend.

Can't log on during the week because the system is overloaded. Can't log on at the weekend. Great.

Free Holidays!!
 

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to the number of people technically AWOL as of this moment in time.
I'm guessing > 500

Great time to be a holding ... You could totally disappear! :ok:


PS. Overtorque - Seeing as the RAF couldn't tell if you were in work Monday-Friday at the moment. Why the hell are you in on a Sunday?!? :ugh:

I knew someone was going to call me sad!

My excuse is - live on the patch, and wanted my MONEY paid back! Already out of pocket because I appear to want to eat/drink more than $52 a day; and would have got thrown out of restaurants in the States for only tipping 10%.

Still, I guess now is the time to take lots of leave, seeing as I can't access JPA, and aren't allowed to submit leave retrospectively!

The system is a tested 'off the shelf' system with minor modifications. That is why we no longer have leave, posting or PVR (they are now absence, assignment and termination).


That is one of the problems, it needs MAJOR modifications to fit in with the previous way of doing things. I guess this would not be a major problem in itself, we are all used to change and I'm sure we'd get used to it. The trouble is, we can't get used to it because the infrastructure appears to be controlled by a ZX81 server and nobody can use it (at least my ZX81 could run 'chucky egg' - I'd like to see the JPA server try that).

I can't wait for the next round of AOC and PMA visits to units - Its going to be a scream..........:E

I have a sneaky suspicion though that they will refuse to answer any questions on JPA because:

a - the server is down
b - Its outside your designated user hours
c - They've been told nothing is wrong with JPA, the problem lies with the person trying to use it. :yuk:

Strange that nothing has appeared in the press yet, I'm sure the Current Bun would have a field day with this one......only a matter of time though I suspect. :uhoh: