I can't agree more, we have guys living to the line here, married with offspring and they are almost into the poverty belt in deepest darkest south oxfordshire.

Pity them when the pay system lets them down, creditors at their doors faster than a beagle after a fox. Where will their minds be at work, on the job or worrying about the money situation and the strife at home?

Beta Testers unite and keep on phoning our Lords and Masters (via the JPAC) to let them know what we think of this system.

The last 30 months can't come soon enough tbh.

Flight Safety - wasn't there a Jag film once about admin distractions?

I'd love to see the spec for this server system. Anyone got it?

Given the media furore surrounding the attempted/failed introduction of most Govt IT projects, the subject has been surprisingly conspicuous by its absence from the TV and radio (or have I just missed it?).:mad:

STH

The media seem to have other stories to fill the column inches with. Such as the NHS and the non-political party broadcasts.

Interesting that the JPA gods should choose to limit access time to try and sort the problems out. Does anyone think that will work. We will have the same number of users trying to complete JPA tasks in a small window, meaning that availability will be approaching nil (based on performance to date). If the whole thing is really that shakey, why don't they just switch off any access until they get it sorted. Of course, we could then resort to the business continuity fallbacks all of our Units have in place for just this eventuality....:bored:

Just seems pointless giving us access if we will not be able to log on/do anything meaningful because the servers are so slow. Best let the shineys get on with sorting it out...

Still, it's good to know that Govt hasn't lost it's knack of c@cking up IT projects. The RAF has about 40,000 people to track. God help us when the national ID card project goes live, and people do stupid things like moving house or getting married.

286
 

Believe spec for sever was 10 x 386 machines [linked] , had at a bargain price, wonder why? or was it 15 machines?

JPA outside the UK
 

Wow, certainly looks like the new 'son of SAMA' system is a real hit with all the folks back home in Blighty! As I am working in Latin America for the next 2½ years, hopefully it all will be sorted out by the time I return - but then again, maybe not. :confused:

Hang on a minute, with no JPA terminal within 9,000 miles of this place - and no plans to introduce one neither - perhaps I'd better get myself back to the UK sharpish to register somewhere. :sad: Alternatively, I can just imagine the scene at home when I tell the wife that I'm not getting paid until the new all-encompassing computer system recognises me! I'm sure I can count on my army boss to keep me in 'readies', as his hierarchy wisely pulled out of converting all of their pay and admin to JPA for another 12 months.:ok:

Now then, where did I put that redundancy application........

And some parts of it have been reduced to nil. At a secret admin hideoute in SW England, the old IT was turned off on 6 Mar. Its now 19 Apr and we still haven't been able to resume activity. That JPA egg-timer is begining to get on my nerves...:sad:...:{

Private Eye predicted problems with JPA when it was announced that the project would be run by EDS.

By the way Almost Done Beagles hunt hares Fox hounds hunt foxes:)

Ah the joys of posting while under the influence of ignorance:}

Having just left under the last tranche of redundancies, it heartens me to know I left just in time to avoid what I knew was coming. Having been a shiney for 19 years and moving from tried and tested paper and ink to exactly the same problems when SAMA came online that we, ne you have now.

Part of the reason I left to do real HR was that the Govt procurement process is the difining reason why every IT system and indeed every system is flawed and out of date at the moment they "flick the switch".

SAMA, SEMA, CHoTs (door stopper), EMIS, TAFMIS to name a few.

Just one thing bothers me and that is I hope my redundancy package is sorted and paid into my account as now i'm out, i won't get a username and password to check my details are correct.

Write to your MPs. It is a constitutional right, and correspondence should be confidential (it has always been in my experience). Ask them to ask a question during defence questions or PM's questions. Suggest some appropriate wording as a guide!

Actually, Jess, another constitutional right which the individual has, is to request a meeting with his or her Member of Parliament, at the House of Commons (be aware that MP's are elected representatives/servants of the electorate and that there is an absolute right of access). I have made such requests in the distant past, have always received very courteous replies and have invariably been granted meetings at the Commons, the tone of which has usually been most genial.

Whilst you will not change the world at a stroke, your MP will inevitably be affected in some way by what is said face-to-face, even if only to a limited degree, but he or she will certainly be affected by the fact of your getting off your backside and taking the trouble to personally and trenchantly enunciate your view on a subject of some considerable importance (such as JPA). A letter to an MP can easily be filed and forgotten, after a minion has sent out a two line BS reply.

If enough service voters take this course of action and it is picked up by the press, a national scandal may result (heaven forbid) and unfavourable comparisons made between the superb handling of the commercial sector’s vast IT projects (think high street banks, building societies etc) and the pathetically slipshod, incompetent handling of similar government projects.

Remember also that a very large number of “New Labour” MP’s are no longer in thrall to Bliar and his coterie and would be absolutely delighted to make trouble for the slippery little ba****d through the device of an Early Day Motion, which would firmly put the cat amongst the pigeons.

It’s called democracy in action.

Address and MP contacts here

Just spoke to my Desk Officer.... posted at last. 'Just logon to JPA and goto the workflow....' 'Erm, Sir, can't logon to JPA at the moment, in fact, having spoken to Mil Admin, I'll be lucky if I can logon tomorrow'

'Trust me TBK you are posted'.......'arrrrrggggghhhhh, I hate it when the desky says trust me'

When I could logon to JPA, they had halved my service and given me only 11 days accumlated seprated service instead of near 300!

Happy days

TBK

Arggh!
 

Quote from the JPA gurus:

The operating plan for JPA will be as follows:

20 Apr 06 – there will be no Self-service User access. Professional Users may continue to use the system.

21 Apr 06 – the staggered entry plan that was conducted today will be repeated tomorrow. That is, the following Professional Users may gain access from the following times:

0700 Career Manager
0730 Unit HR Admin
0800 JPAC EC
0830 Arrivals Clk
0900 Family Accommodation
0930 Single Accommodation
1000 Terminations
1030 JPA Expenses

Self Service Users will be notified when they may access the system. This will be done from the Operations Room via unit Chf Clks.

These access restrictions are to allow essential system performance testing to continue.

end quote


System Performance Testing !!!


Bit late in the day to be testing don't you think?

Maybe, over time, we could set up a whole department of individuals to operate JPA. They could work Mon-Fri 8-5 with Wednesday afternoons for sport. People who still could not log-on to JPA could go and visit this department, seeing a member of staff responsible for their surname.

We could call it...Personnel Flight Services or PFS for short...

Fcuk me - if I haven't just found a wheel to reinvent...

Get your hands off that idea, Dallas, the GEMS is mine!!;)

cheers,

GW

Choxaway---

Why are you e-mailing from just off the coast of Accra?

BUT...

At least the pay run worked!! I do however feel they're a little premature standing down the old systems just yet. After all, the money hasn't actually hit our banks has it.

On another note entirely. Has anybody else noticed that the logo at the top of the bulletin screens on the JPA-online noticeboard application looks like a bent and broken drawing pin - sums up the entire JPA experience!

I note HP have also claimed that it ain't their hardware so it must be the ORACLE software. Reading past the spin, could this actually mean HP have confirmed that the hardware they have supplied is running to spec - we just didn't buy enough (or powerful enough) hardware to run this processing intensive application:* . I also note they did their testing when NO SELF-SERVICE or HR PEOPLE WERE ALLOWED TO LOG IN!!! Great testing strategy - do it when the load is at its lowest and you'll look really good when the IPT people come to see how its going.:E

Standby for the next exciting service bulletin tomorrow when ORACLE say it ain't their software so it must be the users/hardware/phase of the moon.