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I work in a regional pension centre - Burnley to be precise (The Pension Service - part of the DWP). Coming from an IT background one of the first things I realised when I started was the extremely poor quality of the Management Information available both to those who deal with customers' cases and managers.
It was rather shocking to realise that no-one really knew what was happening with the workload - or rather only at the most abstract and almost useless level. The systems we work with contain a wealth of information and the capability within the IT system to collate and summarise it to reveal all kind of useful details that can help to prioritise work and plan.
The reports provided are threadbare and designed by people who have never been anywhere near a Pension Centre - often they just plain don't work at all. The software (like Buisness Objects) is made to allow users to design their own reports, query their own data, to ferret out the information they want. And yet... these systems are locked down. To change even a small part of a report ends up taking months (or years) and costs a fortune paid to a supplier.
The same basic philosophy of look-but-don't-touch applies to most of the IT in use. It's frustrating and stifles innovation among the people who could best provide it.
On top of the control-freak approach to IT, I've found an unwillingness to listen to the people who know what information is needed. So not only can we look but not touch, we aren't even asked what we would like to see.
I'm sure this is mirrored in other parts of government IT (and probably any large organisation). I just wondered if that's other people's experience too... and what can be done to encourage a change in culture from one that stifles local innovation into one that encourages and learns from it.
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