Outsourcing of IT services has been a trend for the past decade or so. Many of our large corporations have gone this path. When the government changed in 1996, outsourcing of government IT was inevitable.

They were asked not to make fun of SAP and IMPACT – two of the horrendeously expensive computer systems which replaced perfectly adequate internally developed system. The SAP was IMPACTed and managed to lose all the Leave records of the Department. Staff were asked to recall all their previous vactions and resubmit their vacations.

The Department’s budget was unavailable and they have no idea of how much they have spent or what they have spent it on. Staff were asked to be careful with their expenditures until the full IMPACT was known.

They think that the clown who recommended outsourcing was a real SAP as the whole process is SAPping their enthusiasm.

IT outsourcing is one of the Federal government’s ideologically driven initiatives. Computer systems throughout the Federal government are now outsourced. What this means is that staff who were running various systems were made surplus and immediately rehired at more expense by outsourcers (mainly large multinational corporations). There has been a massive transfer of intellectual property from government to private hands. The government pays people to take IT away and then pays them to get IT back.

IT Watcher