BBC abandons £100m digital project

[french frank]

This article says it all

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/05/bbc-digital-media-initiative-failure-patten

Lord Patten ...definitely past his "Sell-by date". Mind you, I think that that can probably said of the majority of the BBC Trust.

Personal message to Lord Patten....Please do the honourable thing. Resign please.

Hmmm...

"DMI was eventually axed earlier in May by BBC director general Tony Hall after he said it had "wasted a huge amount of licence fee payers' money" – £98.4m." NB it is the Trust's job to safeguard licence fee payers' money - that is Patten, not Hall. Yet it was Hall who took the decision within weeks of taking office while the Trust faffed about and saw millions more lost.

The problem with the Trust is that none of them - nor their support group - have first hand knowledge of the issues. The Executive and management know all about them, but they see their job as spending the money. The Trust are supposed to be 'independent' but they rely on what they're told by management (the 'professionals'). They themselves don't seem able to grasp the essentials of subjects they know nothing about.

Thompson leaving, followed by the Entwistle saga (good choice, Trust) complicated matters, but if Thompson hadn't gone the project would probably have continued anyway. Did he voice an opinion?

Proof of the pudding (just before cancellation): did Hall read this article?

"Problems with DMI were first exposed during the coverage of the death of Baroness Thatcher last month, when BBC News staff were unable to access archive footage of the late prime minister via computers in New Broadcasting House and were reduced to ferrying tapes from the corporation's archive storage facility in Perivale, north-west London, in taxis or on the tube."

[Resurrection Man]

Taken from the Guardian article...

"After it was approved by the BBC Trust, technology supplier Siemens was given a £79m contract without open competition.
But Siemens failed to deliver and the contract was terminated in 2009 mby mutual agreement. DMI was taken in-house but the BBC had incurred a two-year delay and lost £26m in projected cost-saving benefits as a result."

Which proves my point nicely. Backhander? Or just total incompetence? Thinking about it...why stop with Patten...the whole Trust should go.

Let's look at some of the other members.

Diane Coyle, Vice Chairman..."Diane was a member of the Competition Commission from 2001 to 2009, which has given her extensive experience in understanding how markets work and how to make competition serve consumers."

Hello? .... Competition serve customers.... and you award a contract without open competition. She is married to Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology Correspondent. Haven't heard him saying much about this debacle.


Anthony Fry - Trustee. Anthony joined Rothschilds and a career in the City, now splitting his time between banking and corporate boards.
Anthony says ""How the BBC does business sets the benchmark for the rest of the media industry, in which I specialised for over a decade."

Mmmmm...that doesn't bode well for the rest of the industry then.

As you say, none of them seem to have (a) any idea of IT and (b) business.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

not many British organisations can successfully manage large IT projects .... in fact successful IT projects are a clear sign of organisational health .... clarity of goals and integrity of execution etc ...


the rothermere rag puts the boot in 1 patten told a year ago but ignored warnings about Digital

and boot in 2 Yentob paid two salaries


AUNT is a sick organisation

[amateur51]

not many British organisations can successfully manage large IT projects .... in fact successful IT projects are a clear sign of organisational health .... clarity of goals and integrity of execution etc ...


the rothermere rag puts the boot in 1 patten told a year ago but ignored warnings about Digital

and boot in 2 Yentob paid two salaries


AUNT is a sick organisation

This is all very sad but I agree with you, it is a sick organisation. Rather puts Roger's lunching with Simon Heffer @ £100 into perspective

[Resurrection Man]

not many British organisations can successfully manage large IT projects .....

Not just the UK. 1 in 6 IT projects are late or over budget globally as I recall from a recent global study.

But for the UK, this report makes sober reading http://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.4525.pdf

EDIT: If you don't have someone with IT experience at a high-level who can tell when the BS is piling up and so can ask the right questions and knows when the wool is being pulled over their eyes.

Note to BBC Trust. I am available for IT consultancy. Been there. Seen it. Done it. I could have saved you millions.

[amateur51]

Not just the UK. 1 in 6 IT projects are late or over budget globally as I recall from a recent global study.

But for the UK, this report makes sober reading http://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.4525.pdf

Thanks for answering unbidden the very question that popped into my head, RM

I'll tackle the report in a while

[teamsaint]

Not just the UK. 1 in 6 IT projects are late or over budget globally as I recall from a recent global study.

But for the UK, this report makes sober reading http://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.4525.pdf

EDIT: If you don't have someone with IT experience at a high-level who can tell when the BS is piling up and so can ask the right questions and knows when the wool is being pulled over their eyes.

Note to BBC Trust. I am available for IT consultancy. Been there. Seen it. Done it. I could have saved you millions.

I would give you the job RM.

Old boys network kinda still going stong in UK plc.
or have I misunderstood ?

[Resurrection Man]

I would give you the job RM.

Old boys network kinda still going stong in UK plc.
or have I misunderstood ?

Not at all. It's called the BBC Trust