2 Information Technology
10. Improving the effectiveness of the CSA's IT was
one of the key features of the Operational Improvement Plan (OIP).
By October 2005, the CSA had paid a total of £190 million
to EDS for its work on the CSCS (the IT system for the old scheme)
and CS2 (the IT system for the current scheme) IT systems.[9]
However, in 2006 the National Audit Office (NAO) found that there
were over 500 defects with the CS2 system "that were having
a significant impact on staff productivity and maintenance outcomes".[10]
11. The OIP acknowledged "well documented problems
with computer systems" contributing to the CSA's under performance
and noted, given particular shortcomings in data held on the old
computer system, that conversion of old scheme cases on to the
new scheme would "carry substantial risks and be costly and
complex".[11]
However, it promised that
The CSA Operational Improvement Plan while not
incorporating bulk migration and conversion will bring many improvements.
It is flexible enough to facilitate the re-design of future child
support arrangements. It will deliver a much better level of service
for clients and provide a stable base from which to move forward
in the future.[12]
12. Over the course of the OIP, £107 million
was spent on upgrades to the CS2 system (one third of the total
spending on the OIP). In September 2008, the most significant
IT upgrade, Productivity Release 1 was launched to support the
restructured business and fix outstanding problems with CS2.
13. The NAO reported that the CSA had agreed a work
programme with EDS to rectify 500 defects in the CS2 system over
the course of the OIP and that
The Commission reports that 350 of these defects
were rectified over this period and reports that the rest were
addressed by Productivity Release 1.[13]
14. However, the remaining defects in the CS2 system
are still generating a large number of problems, many of which
appear to be insoluble. The NAO reported that, as of October 2009,
the CS2 system had over 1,000 reported problems, of which 400
had no known workaround and therefore resulted in cases being
stuck in the system.[14]
15. We asked the Commission about these continuing
IT problems and were told that it currently experienced around
3,000 IT incidents a week, 70% of which were caused by around
60 of the problems.[15]
This was down from 7,000 incidents a week before the launch of
Productivity Release 1, and was expected to fall below 2,000 by
April 2010. The Commission anticipated fixing around 30 of the
remaining defects in its IT systems, which was expected to remove
some of the problems. Despite the progress made over the course
of the OIP, there still remain a very large number of IT problems
which have no workaround and are causing cases to get stuck.
16. We are concerned that the work conducted over
the course of the Operational Improvement Plan to rectify the
problems with the CS2 IT system have either not resolved the problems
or have revealed new problems. More than 400 of these problems
are sufficiently serious to cause new cases to get stuck in the
system. We hope that our successor Committee will maintain a
close interest in progress made in resolving the IT problems with
the old and current systems. We request that the Commission supply
our successor Committee with quarterly reports on progress in
this respect.
Clerical cases
17. It is the persistent problems with the CS2 IT
system that have resulted in a large number of cases getting stuck
in the system, requiring them to be managed "clerically"
(manually by staff). The Commission reported that it was only
as a result of the Productivity Release 1 IT upgrade that it was
able to identify that many of these cases had become stuck; previously
it had been unable to deal with these cases clerically unless
the customer notified them that there was a problem.[16]
Although it is to be welcomed that the Commission is now systematically
identifying cases that need to be managed clerically, and that
this is a successful result of the IT upgrades under the OIP,
this process seems to be throwing up an ever increasing number
of these cases. Furthermore, the 400 IT problems with no work
around, mentioned above, are also causing new cases to get stuck.
18. In March 2006, 19,000 cases were being managed
clerically outside the IT system; this number had more than trebled
to 60,000 by the end of the OIP in March 2009. The NAO report
that this figure had risen yet higher to 75,000 by September 2009;
it estimates that, at the current rate of increase, around 108,000
cases would be managed clerically by September 2010.[17]
A graph of the number of current scheme cases being managed clerically
since March 2005 is reproduced below:
 Number
of current-scheme cases being managed clerically
Source: National Audit Office, Ev 29
19. In March 2006, the CSA outsourced the management
of clerical cases to Vertex Data Science Limited in an attempt
to reduce the burden of these cases on CSA staff. However, the
continuing increase in clerical cases has required the retention
of 302 caseworkers to manage wholly clerical processes and 252
caseworkers to manage partly clerical cases within the Commission.
20. The Commission estimated the cost of managing
clerical cases in September 2009 at around £3.7 million per
month, including the cost both of the contract with Vertex Data
Science Limited and of its own staff doing the work in-house.[18]
However, as the number of clerical cases rises, the cost of managing
them will also rise. The NAO has estimated that the annual cost
of managing each clerical case is £967 compared to £312
per case administered through the IT systems.
21. The Commission acknowledged that there would
be a continued increase in the number of clerical cases "for
a couple of years".[19]
It has also explored a number of ways of reloading clerical cases
back on to the CSCS and CS2 systems but has concluded that it
is "too risky" to try and do this.[20]
22. We are concerned at the almost exponential rise
in the number of clerical cases caused by shortcomings in information
technology. The additional costs of clerical administration of
cases are mounting alarmingly. We are concerned that this does
not represent the "stable base" that the Operational
Improvement Plan set out to establish for introduction of the
future scheme.
Development of a new IT system
for the Commission
23. The Commission is now procuring a new IT system
for the operation of the future scheme. It went out to tender
in August 2008 for the contract for the system and signed a £45
million contract with Tata Consultancy Services on 30 March 2009.
It informed us that
The new system will utilise commercial 'off-the-shelf'
software packages already widely used in the financial services
industry, which will ensure better customer service and greater
value for the taxpayer.[21]
It explained the rationale for this approach, noting
that "the bespoke nature of the current CS2 system contributed
to many historic and current problems and made the system expensive
to operate and improve."[22]
24. In its 2006 report, the NAO also found that a
number of aspects of the CSA's contract with EDS for the IT system
for the current scheme (CS2) did not represent good practice.
The Commission believes that it has taken adequate steps to address
the concerns identified by the NAO in their 2006 assessment, by
- improving clarity about the
functionality required of the system;
- improving clarity about its responsibilities
in the contract;
- improving clarity about managing changes in the
contract;
- improving clarity about term, termination and
exit management rights - the Commission will not own the intellectual
property rights to the IT but will have rights for perpetual use;
- ensuring that the contract will operate on a
pay as you go basis, with full payment only released after it
has been ensured that progress is in line with the implementation
plan; and
- improving certainty about what constitutes delivery.[23]
25. Stephen Geraghty estimated that "the putting
in place cost, the development cost and the lifetime licences
for the future scheme" including three years of running costs
would amount to around £120 million.[24]
He was confident that the future scheme system, utilising existing
off-the-shelf packages, including one used by the National Bank
of China, would be more efficient to run than the current (CS2)
and old scheme (CSCS) systems. Janet Paraskeva added
We are effectively […] a bank—we take
money in, we give money out—so a banking system. We manage
cases; so there is a case management system on the front of it.
So, actually, the costs are really only in the integration of
those and the relatively small amount of customisation that would
be needed for our people to actually interact with our customers.[25]
Stephen Geraghty added that the development work
required of TCS to adapt the packages would amount to around £10
million.[26]
26. We welcome the steps that the Commission has
taken to learn from the disastrous mistakes made in commissioning
the CS2 IT system. We are encouraged by the organisation's confidence
that the IT system to administer the future scheme will be more
efficient to run and we note the strong case that has been made
for using off-the-shelf packages.
27. However, it is often the process of making different
packages work together that creates IT problems. We ask the Commission
to keep our successor Committee up to date with the progress of
development of the future scheme system and we therefore request
that it make six-monthly reports to our successor Committee on
its work in this area.
9 Ev 29 Back
10
Ev 28 Back
11
Child Support Agency, Operational Improvement Plan 2006-09,
paragraphs 12-13. Back
12
Child Support Agency, Operational Improvement Plan 2006-09,
paragraph 14. Back
13
Ev 28 Back
14
Ev 28 Back
15
Q21 Back
16
Q26 Back
17
Ev 29 Back
18
Ev 29 Back
19
Q22 Back
20
Q26 Back
21
Ev 48 Back
22
Ev 48 Back
23
Ev 30 Back
24
Q24 Back
25
Q25 Back
26
Q25 Back
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