The world’s next “biggest IT project disaster”

In 2002 the UK government announced a project to build a new computer system for the National Health Service (NHS). Completion was due in 2012 and the original budget set at £12.4 billion. By the middle of 2004, contracts totalling £6.2 billion had been awarded to the following IT companies; Accenture, CSC, Fujitsu, BT, IDX and iSoft – but since then progress has been limited.

The NHS delivers state funded comprehensive healthcare to 60 million people and is Europe’s largest employer, thus a new computer system is no small project. The plan is to replace all existing computers with a system that securely stores data centrally and provides comprehensive medical records that can be accessed anywhere.

Despite recent claims that the project has made substantial progress, latest estimates suggest the cost will now be £20 billion, or an astounding $35 billion! The project is currently running four years behind schedule and has no firm date for going live, although this will now be well into the next decade.

In 2007 a lead Fujitsu consultant stated that there was a danger of the contract delivering a “camel rather than a racehorse”, that the project “lacked visionary leadership” and that the techniques being used were those “familiar for small projects” and that they were simply not working.

The Road Thus Far Travelled

The project lost its first CEO, Richard Granger, who resigned from his $500,000 pa role in 2007, and two of the worlds biggest IT and consultancy firms have also pulled out. Most high profile was the withdrawal of Accenture as lead supplier, who proved that the risks of high profile failure can be so great that firms turn down potentially very profitable work. The second and latest firm to pull out, due to failed attempts to “reset” their contract, is the aforementioned Fujitsu, who earned £256 million from the project in 2006/07 and the decision to withdraw, will cost them an estimated £340 million.

The project appears to be heading for failure, and this raises several questions. Why is it still ongoing? Why, given the statistics of the success of big projects, was it conceived in the first place? And is it possible for a big project to be successful using existing project management techniques?

By Martin Berry

References

NHS computer project will cost £12.4bn
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2158476/nhs-computer-project-cost-4bn

Boss of troubled £12bn NHS computer project quits
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1942900.ece

NHS computer project troubled by more delays
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article4029206.ece

Bank bailout puts £12.7bn NHS computer project in jeopardy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/oct/29/nhs-health

Delays to NHS computer system could cost taxpayers £40bn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/01/1


NHS Computer Project Failing
http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2007/09/13/nhs-computer-project-failing/

£12bn NHS computer upgrade faces fresh turmoil
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/16312bn-nhs-computer-upgrade-faces-fresh-turmoil-418040.html

£20bn NHS computer system 'doomed to fail'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1542486/andpound20bn-NHS-computer-system-%27doomed-to-fail%27.html