Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Question 48 (Mr Richard Bacon): COMPASS
The Committee asked for a breakdown of the costs
of COMPASS, the consular casework management system, since the
initial procurement decision in 2001. This is as follows:
| | |
| | | |
|
| 2000-01 | 2001-02
| 2002-03 | 2003-04
| 2004-05 | 2005-06(*)
| TOTAL |
| | |
| | | |
|
| Project Management | 61,844
| 348,614 | 25,339 | 40,399
| £206,000 | £126,000
| 476,195 |
| Project Management | |
0 | 0 | 0 |
| | |
| Support | - |
| | | - | -
| - |
| Travel/Misc Expenses | |
24,312 | 124 | 0 |
| | 24,437 |
| - | |
| | - | - |
|
| Misc Studies/ | | 0
| 0 | 0 | |
| |
| Consultancy Surveys | - |
| | | - | -
| - |
| Installation | | 0
| 0 | 166,712 | 399,478
| | 566,190 |
| - | |
| | | - |
|
| Hardware | | 103,393
| 52,681 | | |
£150,000 | 156,074 |
| - | |
| - | - | |
|
| Software | | 580,357
| 77,405 | | |
| 657,762 |
| - | |
| - | - | - |
|
| Warehousing | |
| | | |
| |
| - | - | -
| - | - | - |
- |
| Incidentals | |
| | | |
| |
| - | - | -
| - | - | - |
- |
| Maintenance/Support | |
| 33,370 | 246,073 | 262,665
| £400,000 | 542,108 |
| - | - |
| | | |
|
| Other Misc | |
| 0 | | |
| |
| - | - |
| - | - | - |
- |
| | |
| | | |
|
| Total | 61,844 | 1,056,676
| 188,919 | 453,184 | 868,143
| 676,000 | 3,304,766 |
| | |
| | | |
|
| | |
| | |
| |
(*): estimated.
The Committee also asked about two aspects of COMPASS on which
we can provide further information:
(a) Inability to cut and paste from other programmes
into/out of COMPASS:
The FCO operates multiple IT security tiers on its network, ensuring
staff only see information up to the level of classification for
which they are cleared. COMPASS is hosted on the unclassified
tier, but many users access it from the higher tiers. To prevent
information moving between COMPASS and a classified document at
a higher tier, either by cutting and pasting or by attaching documents
by accident (or deliberately), COMPASS includes a "lockdown"
feature so that documents have go through a secure file passing
routine.
However, this inability to cut and paste has been a key complaint
from staff about the usefulness of COMPASS. We therefore made
addressing it a priority in the new version of the software, CompassNG,
which is now being piloted in eight posts around the world. This
new, web-based version of the programme includes a "release
manager" similar to that with which staff using the main
FCO Windows system are familiar. The user has to declare the classification
of the document before the system will allow them to cut and paste
or attach a document within the database. A full audit trail of
these transactions is kept within the database should a security
breach occur, increasing staff accountability when using CompassNG.
(b) Training:
This was not initially a success primarily due to the fact that
training for GenIE was prioritised over COMPASS in order to deliver
HMG's commitment to electronically issued passports. Telephone
training was used to make the most of the scarce training resources;
this was not initially popular with posts, but an evaluation exercise
carried out in the latter part of 2005 indicated that 70% of trainees
rated the training as sufficient or higher. We recognise however
that different people respond to different training methods and
therefore training on COMPASSNG will comprise a combination of
telephone training, regional training events and improved guidance
on the FCO's staff Intranet.
Question 56 (Mr Richard Bacon): Firecrest
Background
Firecrest is the FCO's IT infrastructure; it sits on the
desks of our staff around the world. Firecrest is a globally-networked
desktop system that provides users with a standard suite of Microsoft
office products including Outlook email, web browsing, Access
databases and Excel spreadsheets. Firecrest was developed in 1997
and in 2003 the FCO completed the roll out of the current generation
of the system.
The FCO's in-house supplier, FCO Services, was prime contractor
for Firecrest from 1997 to 2005. During this time Firecrest employed
around 175 staff and contractors in the UK, plus 150 full and
part-time System Administrators and 17 Technical Management Officers
at the FCO's posts overseas. This effort was supplemented by private
sector capacity through a number of source and supply contracts
with IT contractors (about 95 FTEs at the peaks of implementation).
The FCO's dependency on the Firecrest infrastructure grew progressively
from 1997 to 2002. The FCO Board therefore decided in 2002 to
institute a review of how Firecrest should most effectively be
developed and supported in the future. An FCO team was appointed
to lead this process, supported by KPMG as consultants. The Project
Board reviewed an appraisal of the options in June 2003, and decided
that value for money could most effectively be secured by engaging
a private sector supplier to work in partnership with FCO Services
to build and support Firecrest. The Board reviewed several options,
including a complete outsourcing and a complete in-sourcing. However
the Board selected the option of a partnership between FCO Services
and the private sector. This option permitted the FCO to benefit
from FCO Services' overseas rollout and support skills and experience
of Firecrest project management while securing the IT service
management and technology skills of the private sector. This option
offered the best value for money at outline business case stage.
This decision was endorsed by the Board and Ministers, and by
an independent OGC Gateway Review.
The Procurement
The FCO launched the competitive procurement in July 2003.
This process involved a number of innovative features, and was
awarded a Green Flag by an independent OGC Gateway review team
in December 2004. I am attaching sections from the Future Firecrest
Final Business Case which give more detailed information on the
background to these decisions and the procurement process we undertook
The Contract
The FCO signed a £183 million contract with Hewlett
Packard (HP) in February 2005, and a separate financial memorandum
with FCO Services worth some £55 million over seven years.
Under the agreement HP is required to support the existing second
generation (2G) Firecrest while it progressively replaces this
with a third generation system. This process is to be completed
within 22 months of service handover. HP is then required to introduce
upgrades to the system for the duration of the contract. Under
the arrangements agreed with HP the FCO continues to own the 2G
Firecrest assets. The 3G hardware assets will be owned by HP but
leased to the FCO for periods related to the working life of each
asset.
Firecrest Support and Management
The Firecrest system is run by the Joint Services Delivery
Team (JSDT). The JSDT is a joint team comprising HP and FCO Services
staff under the management of Hewlett Packard. It provides for
design, development and testing, the operation of the 24/7 Helpdesk,
IT security, catalogue services and asset management, training,
and the various data centres required to support the system. When
the next generation of Firecrest is rolled out, it will also provide
for business continuity and for disaster recovery. The JSDT reports
to the Joint Management Team (JMT) comprising senior HP and FCOS
managers and is overseen by the Firecrest Operating Committee
(FOC) comprising senior FCO, FCOS and HP managers.
The JSDT assumed full responsibility for Firecrest on 1 August
2005. According to the contract, roll out of 3G Firecrest was
to have begun in March 2006, however changes to government IT
security rules published shortly after contract award led to a
requirement to re-design the Firecrest 3G solution. 3G rollout
is now scheduled to start in the autumn.
Financial Arrangements
The following table describes the costs associated with Firecrest
over the following seven years.
|
| £m over 7 years
|
|
| HP Contract | 183 |
| FCO Services | 55 |
| FCO Costs | 82 |
| TOTAL | 320 |
|
| |
The HP costs relate to the investment in the new 3G design (£78
million) and the support and operational areas of the contract
including the Help Desk, Business Continuity and Security (£105
million). HP are paid on a monthly basis for their operational
service costs and by milestone payments for the design and deployment
of the new system. 10% of the deployment milestone revenue due
to HP is retained until the last milestone has been completed
and formally accepted.
Levels of service provided under the contract are monitored closely
and subject to contractual penalty in the event that service levels
drop below agreed minima. In this event HP incur service credits
(an agreed cut in the payments they receive for the service).
For operational performance above the contracted targets HP can
earn bonus credit points. Bonus credit points offset service credit
points but do not earn extra revenue.
FCO Services
The bilateral Financial Memorandum between FCO and FCO Services
guarantees payment for the number of full time equivalents deployed
by FCO Services on the Firecrest project. These staff, whose numbers
are set out in the Memorandum, are deployed throughout the Joint
Services Delivery Team but predominantly in the overseas roll
out, project management and user support areas.
The revenue due to FCO Services by financial year is:
|
| Financial year | Price (£m)
|
|
| 2004-05 | 0.61 |
| 2005-06 | 9.36 |
| 2006-07 | 10.82 |
| 2007-08 | 8.88 |
| 2008-09 | 5.92 |
| 2009-10 | 6.89 |
| 2010-11 | 7.36 |
| 2011-12 | 5.62 |
|
FCO Additional Costs
|
|
The FCO accepted a number of responsibilities within the
contract. These range from the purchase of user software licenses
to third party software maintenance contracts and the upgrade
of business applications between generations of Firecrest. The
attached spreadsheet details these costs. These costs include
expenditure on the server accommodation for 3G Firecrest.
New ICT Building at Hanslope Park
The investment the FCO is making in ensuring its technical
infrastructure is secure entails a responsibility to ensure this
is properly accommodated and protected. The FCO's existing computer
accommodation has been upgraded over the years but still falls
short of what a modern organisation would require for mission
critical equipment. The bulk of the FCO's IT infrastructure is
currently housed in a Building in Hanslope Park (Building 38)
and we are undertaking some additional work to provide an acceptable
working environment for the Future Firecrest system. This work
has cost £2.7million from the Future Firecrest budget.
The Committee may be interested to know that FCO decided in February
2004 to construct a new building in Hanslope Park to provide modern,
secure and reliable accommodation for our IT systems: not only
Future Firecrest, but other systems such as Prism. The Building
will also provide modern staff accommodation, bringing most FCO
Services IT staff together under one roof. Following a competitive
tendering process, we are developing the design and cost plan
with Sir Robert McAlpine and expect to award a contract formally
for this building in early March 2006. The total budget for the
project is currently forecast at £29.4 million, not counting
costs associated with moving into the ICT into the building. This
expenditure is separate from that set out in the attached spreadsheet
detailing the additional costs of the Future Firecrest Project.
The building is expected to be complete in August 2007, with staff
moving in during the following months.
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