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Education Why don't they talk to each other?

Discussion in 'General' started by Kronos, 27 Apr 2015.

  1. Kronos

    Kronos Multimodder

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    In the 21st century we still have, in my experience with my local health trust and local council, IT systems that cannot communicate with other systems even within the same building.
    Why is that and is it the same situation in larger private business.

    Quick example I have tried to book a bulk uplift collect from my local council for a perfectly acceptable sum of 21 quid. It consists of a couple of mattresses and a computer desk, you are allowed 6 items for the £21. Now you can start the process on line but cannot pay for it until someone calls and asks for your bank details, takes your £21 and gives you a date. I was not comfortable giving my bank details to a voice on the phone and to cut a long story short after 2 weeks of contact with my council eventually made the payment at a central payment hub in the city. A few hours later received an email informing me that I must put the stuff out tomorrow. Great stuff the only one to be annoyed will be the cat who has taken to sleeping on the up-standing mattress.
    Today I received a phone call asking if I could pay for the uplift and they would arrange a date. again cutting a long story short it seems his system did not talk to the payment system unless he danced naked round the monitor chanting I love oranges.

    So why is it that these large entities, I am sure there is a better word, have so many systems that do not talk to each other as it would seem to make far more work? I am sure you IT guys have a perfectly rational explanation.
     
  2. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    Councils are largely stupid. What you're essentially saying is that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. That is no different here. I have first hand experience of this, as does a good friend who has a prestigious job in the local city council, mostly spent eradicating exactly this type of time and money wasting as well as more serious issues like stopping development committees trying to build a new community centre over the top of/around an electricity substation because someone "didn't notice" or bother to investigate a big unmarked rectangle on the existing drawings in a planning meeting 8 months ago...
     
  3. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    Today's grumpy old man rant, brought to you by... ;)


    And it's not just computer systems, the departments themselves don't talk to each other... I could vent about the dealings I've had with the local councils, but I think I'd break the forum's swear filter...
     
  4. Ljs

    Ljs Modder

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    I work for a borough council. :(

    Our CRM systems don't talk to each other but it's something we are trying (in vain) to rectify. I don't work on the IT side of things so I don't know much more about it and have no control over anything. I imagine it would be a pain in the arse and hugely expensive to sort out now and there is absolutely no money in the pot (even for county councils).
     
  5. Kronos

    Kronos Multimodder

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    Today I received a copy of a confirmation of referral letter sent to my GP. The letter is dated the 23 April. I was actually referred in October last year and I have had to chase things myself when it suddenly dawned on me that I had yet to see a consultant and my problem had got worse.

    So they are sending a letter to my GP dated the 23rd which I receive a copy on the 1 May. They also sent me an appointment confirmation letter also dated the 23rd which I received the following day. My appointment was last Saturday which was the 25th April.

    Surely the systems can work better than this? I know now that the reason that my appointment was delayed is that the system (TRAK) registered my referral but then did nothing more because yet again it crashed and back seems haphazard.

    No wonder the NHS is in such a mess if this simple task of allocating an appointment with a suitable consultant seems beneath either the software (TRAK) of the secretaries!
     
  6. Margo Baggins

    Margo Baggins I'm good at Soldering Super Moderator

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    Public sector is too big, the networks are bonkers, and they don't want to spend the money.

    I worked in the public sector long ago, and we still used windows 2000 (win vista days) I know for a fact, they were still using it up until 2ish years ago.

    The thing is - stuff sometimes just works, some stuff you can't upgrade very easily. Many, many, many businesses are still stuck using really ancient AS400 systems because over time they haven't maintained their infrastructure very well and they've got to a position where their data is so fragmented and their install has been messed with by a million different people who have come and gone and now no one really knows what is where and how it's still working - so to move to a new system you have to work out how you are going to make sure you get all that data out, into whatever format you need and back into something new. I know some of these businesses are choosing to just not sort the problem and doing stupid stuff like writing data wrappers, or fancy web portals that sit on top of the same stupid old system.

    some businesses hate to relicense, they rely on stupid old software that is running of an obscure box that is in a really rubbish place - a lot of accountancy firms I used to work for point blank refused to upgrade a load of infrastructure becuase of the cost and were happy using really old software, way out of support, just to not spend the money. Stuff running on really really old server 2000 boxes.

    Bureaucracy plays a big part in it to, and to and in some large organisations, especially the public sector, everything needs to be planned and signed off by 9 thousand different people that by the time you've nearly got that done, everyone's forgotten what they were trying to do in the first place.

    Most of the time, I would take a bet that these problems come from lack of understanding of IT, not listening to the people who do know and understand the IT and not willing to spend the money required to "stay on/ahead of the curve".
     
  7. Ljs

    Ljs Modder

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    This part always make me laugh; without it things would be so much easier but at the end of the day it is the entire point of it. :lol:
     
  8. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    Ah bean counters. They'd cut off a limb if it meant saving a fiver
     
  9. Margo Baggins

    Margo Baggins I'm good at Soldering Super Moderator

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    In a similar vein - today I got in trouble for buying batteries from Amazon and not from the pound shop :D False economy much :S
     
  10. Kronos

    Kronos Multimodder

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    In the past twelve months I have been sent to a clinic that did not operate on the day of my appointment,the same clinic but at different times on the day, the wrong specialist, the wrong hospital and now this 6 months for a referral which probably would not have happened if I had not chased it up. I am beginning to think NHS Lothian do not like me. :lol:
     

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