MoD IT delayed 18 months, report says

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Plans to replace hundreds of different IT systems within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with a single computer infrastructure has run into difficulties, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

A report by the NAO has found that the Defence Information Infrastructure Programme (DII), which was instigated back in 2000 and contracted to the ATLAS consortium for its installation and management in 2005, has suffered implementation problems.

The NAO also found that key elements of the DII are running “significantly late”.

According to the NAO, throughout 2005 and 2006 the problems affecting the DII include the roll out of hardware and the creation of software.

In total, 62,800 computer terminals were due to be in place at permanent defence sites by the end of July 2007. However, at the end of April 2008, only 29,000 had been successfully delivered.

Forecast costs for the DII, which were approved in March 2005, have increased by three per cent, or £182 million. Such a growth in costs “may limit the MoD’s ability to meet its remaining requirements,” according to the NAO report.

The MoD has estimated that the cost of meeting the programme's full vision will be £7.1 billion.

Head of the NAO Tim Burr said that the MoD had addressed known risks when they occurred. "It was always going to be a demanding task for the Ministry of Defence to replace its diverse information technology with a single high quality system. The MoD started with a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve and acted to address known risks."

“But the programme has run into difficulties and further concerted action will be needed to increase the rate of roll out of terminals and to deliver the remaining software.”

However, the report did concede that the DII had delivered some benefits to the government department’s existing IT systems, such as improved user support and reliability.

Where the DII has been successfully introduced it has been available when it should be, according to the report.

Other merits of the programme include helping the MoD develop and install at short notice two systems supporting frontline troops on operations in Afghanistan.

It’s hoped that the programme will eventually incorporate 150,000 terminals for 300,000 users at over 2,000 defence sites, including ships and deployed operations.

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