EDS system drove staff to frustration, report says

IDG News Service - Stockpiled claims that never made it into the computer system, files deleted for no clear reason and inaccurate information intentionally entered by demoralized staff just to keep cases active are all part of a troubled child-support case management and telephony system used by the U.K.'s Child Support Agency (CSA), according to a new report.
The study was commissioned by the U.K. government to assess the agency's problem-plagued system. The $863 million CSA system involves a Java-based application developed by Electronic Data Systems Corp. as well as a telephone call center system from BT Group PLC's consulting and systems integration business.
The CSA system, launched in March 2003, two years behind schedule and $483 million over budget, has been blamed for delaying payments to tens of thousands of single parents.
"Some innovative members of staff had attempted to find alternative solutions to the problems caused by the fragile IT system in order to provide better service to clients. Staff were not always entirely sure how near they were to breaking rules," says the report, "Child Support Reform: The views and experiences of CSA staff and new clients."
Some at the CSA were so frustrated with the IT system that they simply broke down in tears. "Others told us that all kinds of members of staff were succumbing to tears: male and female, old and young, experienced and new," the report states.
EDS officials did not immediately comment on the report.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which oversees the CSA, commissioned the report from the Personal Finance Research Centre (PFRC) at the University of Bristol. Most of the 64 staff interviews were conducted in April 2004, according to a PFRC spokesman. The report itself was submitted in September to the DWP, which in turn published the paper on March 24, he said.
The DWP today stressed that improvements have since been made to the system, reducing the impact of the report. "The information in this report is quite old; a number of new software releases have been made, and there has been significant improvement," a spokesman for the DWP said.
EDS is still working with the DWP to get the system "satisfactorily functional," the U.K. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Alan Johnson, said last month in a progress report to a House of Commons Parliamentary Select Committee. He also revealed that the DWP has withheld $25.1 million in payments to EDS over the last two years.
Despite the progress in addressing problems with the IT system, the CSA