Friday, September 29, 2006

Speaking of Accenture... While we're on the subject of Accenture (see below), I was very surprised to see that they've withdrawn from their regional commitments in the NHS' Connecting for Health initiative, and will be handling back £63m of the monies already paid to them under that programme. CSC will be taking over their commitments. Accenture is blaming the failure of iSoft's Lorenzo software for its decision to exist. This is an astounding move for a number of reasons: Accenture makes an astonishing sum from its public sector commitments, and would only risk upsetting the government if it really felt it could not make the programme work; whilst I can't speak for Accenture, I've worked in a couple of large partner-managed consultancies before, and it would take an apocalypse to make those partners walk away from income (and hence their annual bonuses) - especially when you bear in mind how rare it is for a partner to have to pay back into the pot when things go wrong :) the move is a devastating condemnation of an already massively-troubled programme. We need a fundamental review of public sector IT procurement, and a shift towards the far more innovative procurement approaches being adopted elsewhere in government, such as those in use at National Statistics; if CSC can pull this off, then it could be a much-needed shot in the arm for them. If they can't, then they could be in trouble. Ultimately, it'll be the taxpayer that loses here: I'm sure that CSC will have contractually covered themselves against any liabilities incurred by taking on the Accenture contract, so let's hold our breath and wait for the inevitable announcements about 'unforseen problems' and 'undisclosed system failures' that will drive the project cost up... 12:54:33 PM    comment []

Mixed messages about the ID Cards programme I have to admit I'm a little confused about where the ID Cards programme is going now. It was only recently that Liam Byrne MP explained that the IPS would split the initiative into smaller chunks of work spread across e-Borders, biometric passports and the Children's Index. However, I'm now hearing on the grapevine (no names, no pack drill) that the entire project as we would recognise it has been canned. This conflicts with this week's announcement that James Hall, an Accenture executive, has been hired to lead the ID Cards programme. Shome mishtake shurely? 12:43:00 PM    comment []

Information Commissioner's Office publishes RFID guidance The Information Commissioner's Office has published its technical guidance on Radio Frequency Identification technologies. The document explores the background of RFID and EPC technologies; looks at current applications such as retail, travel documents and pharmaceutical safety; explains the difference between storing personally identifiable information on the tag, and associating the tag ID with personal data on the back-end systems; and then considers specific data protection issues arising from the use of RFID. The document focusses on the retail environment, and essentially makes two recommendations: that the presence of the tag should be clearly identified on the item to which it is affixed; that the consumer should be made aware of the presence of the tag and be given the opportunity to disable/remove/destroy it. I'm pleased to see that these principles concur with the EPG Code of Conduct for RFID, which I've submitted to the EC Article 29 Consultation, but it would be good to see the ICO go further here, and mandate clarity about where readers are; what the purpose of the tag is; what data is collected; and some form of scheme to provide a common label for the presence of the tag (an 'RFID inside' initiative?). Let's see what Article 29 have to say on the subject next month. 12:38:11 PM    comment []