[bastard_op]

As soon as you read "outsourced their IT", one can always assume the aftermath would be a shitshow, as it is always done in response to the previous team not being able to run it, which means it is a goddamn mess. Having worked enough state and city government IT contracts in the past 25 years, you just assume the worst about everything and are often not disappointed. It's not a matter of if but when they'll be owned really, and most really wouldn't know what to do if they were still today.

This is your relative tax dollars hard at work.

[avianlyric]

Where does it say they outsourced their IT? The article mentions city hall outsourcing their IT to TfL, but city hall is sister organisation to TfL, they’re both organs of London regional government. The London Mayor is the chairman of TfL and the head of London regional government.

It’s not like they’re outsourcing to some private organisation, every single organisation is either a state organisation, or a state owned company.

[Groxx]

I think they just read it backwards. Near the beginning in the bulleted list is:

>Sadiq Khan’s office and the Greater London Authority outsourced their IT services to TfL this summer, meaning they were also badly impacted, paralysing services at the top of the capital’s devolved government.

Which means TfL is the one doing other people's IT in addition to its own, not the reverse.

[mellosouls]

always done in response to the previous team not being able to run it, which means it is a goddamn mess.

:

This is your relative tax dollars hard at work.

I think you are underestimating the gross lack of realistic investment and corresponding demoralization and qualitative decline in some public services; which latter is then used by the decision-makers who've created the situation as justification for swashbuckling "transformation" projects - advised by and given to overpriced consultants - they can put on their CVs before hopping to the next gig.

That's your tax dollars at work.

[aiiotnoodle]

I agree. Public sector IT becomes a huge sprawl of technologies and cottage industry applications which makes administering these often rarely touched interfaces difficult to do properly when department budgets are tight and resources are busy fire fighting the processes that failed the night before.

It is also difficult to hire because wages are generally low compared to similar roles in private industry, yet they need skilled staff to manage these complex environments. A lot of services don't get the attention they need, not just patching and upgrades but development, requirements capture and usability all kept to a minimum cost to keep the sinking ship afloat.

All these constraints also lean to a culture of poor security, JFDI, rip and replace, insufficent hardware etc... just so the business can operate on whatever computer on wheels in the shipping depot or relatively expensive to replace electronic gate system with intergration to their custom fleet management software.

Government outsourcing to another related body has its cost advantages but the many domain administrator users, the huge flat VmWare estate and the hardware well beyond warranty doesn't dissapear.

Designed to serve immediate needs but without long-term maintenance or holistic design in mind. Outsourcing amplifies the issue.