Information Technology Cost Estimation Agencies Need to Address Significant Weakness in Policies and Practices
To estimate reliable cost for the sucess of an IT program by providing the basis for the informed decision making and realistic budget information. To assess the extent to which selected departments ... and agencies have appropriately implement costestimating policies an procedures(four caracteristics of a reliable cost estimation: comprehensive, well-documented, accurate, credible). ... IT cost estimation ... Check out what may go wrong with the information technology cost estimation. Results of the US GAO audit can help to identify high risk areas: comprehensiveness of estimations, their documentation ... , lack of adequacy and inadequate implementation.
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Open Government Data - Are all exceptions to the principle of cost-free access and reuse legitimate?
The United Kingdom, a country seen, like the United States, as a pioneer in open public data, has estimated at £6.8bn (€7,9bn) the revenue in 2010 and 2011 generated for British society by open ... public data, of which £5bn (€5.8bn) is profit. As an example, a start-up has highlighted the existence of areas in which massive savings can be made by analysing prescriptions of patented drugs ... and the corresponding generics.<br/> Such possibilities are not beyond reach for France, which is not only deemed to be among the pioneers but also one of the countries making the most rapid progress in this domain ... ... Open data strategy should decide the costs problem ... French Cour des comptes presents analysis on implementation of the open data practice across the administration. Massive savings are expected, when public access to large amounts of highquality data ... is made easy. France is among the pioneers and countries making the most rapid progress in this domain. Charges for the reuse of the public information has been identified as the main problem.
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IT strategy of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
The SFAO conducted an IT audit in 2009, in order to evaluate goal achievement and cost effectiveness of information and communication technology by Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich ... ). [p. 11] ... Performance audit of IT strategy in research area ... Interesting problems of IT strategy implementation - including that of organizational authonomy skope.
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State funds spent on development, operation and using of data centres services
The aim of the audit was to scrutinise the management of funds spent on building and operating the national data centre (hereinafter “STC1 data centre”), including the expenditure of selected ... organisational units of the state on buying hosting, server-housing and other related services. The audited period was between 2010 and 2014; where relevant, the preceding period was also scrutinised. Audited ... entities: Ministry of the Interior (“MoI”); Ministry of Finance (“MoF”); STÁTNÍ TISKÁRNA CENIN, state firm (state banknote printing firm, hereinafter “STC” or “the state firm”). The audit was conducted ... ... Risks steming from uncoordinated strategy ... supply of services, as well as opposite results of workforce reduction. ... SAI of Czech Republic analysed consequences of failures in strategic IT management at the state level. Lack of coordination and implementation rules reduced practical role of the ministry whose task ... was to guard high quality standards for all crucial IT systems in the state administration. Next consecquences were (among others) risk of uneconomical results of large IT investment and risk of inefficient
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The implementation of national IT projects in social and health care
IT management expenditure in public administration totalled about 2.1 billion euros in 2009. IT management expenditure by local authorities and federations of municipalities in the field of health ... care totalled about 270 million euros ino 2009. Health care's share of IT management expenditure in public administration thus amounted to about 13 per cent in 2009. ... ... IT-centred manner of project implementation can harm IT investments' results ... of poor governance, as 'No cost monitoring - unclear objectives - arguable usefulness'. ... SAI Finland perfomed a vast review of IT projects in health and social protection. Many interesting findings cover structural problems, as 'Many separate systems with no future' and characteristics
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Peering Point Betriebs GmbH
In 2004 the Peering Point Betriebs GmbH was established to provide an effective and secure IT network for the operation of the e-card (a smart card which replaced health insurance vouchers ... in the course of the introduction of the electronic administration system) and other services in health care. Since its foundation the company has suffered losses. Net losses were covered by the two owners ... – the Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions and the Austrian Medical Chamber – to 50 % each, and since 2011 in a proportion of 60 to 40. The Main Association failed to give an objective ... ... Safe but expensive ... Network safety of a healthcare e-card system has been provided at a high cost. As the Austrian Court of Audit discovered - there was no concept to reduce the expenditure.
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Cyber Attacks: Securing Agencies’ICT Systems
Cyber crime is an international problem, and it is estimated that in 2012, 5.4 million Australians fell victim to such crimes, with an estimated cost to the economy of $1.65 billion ... . In the government sector, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)3 has estimated that between January and December 2012, there were over 1790 security incidents against Australian Government agencies. Of these, 685 ... were considered serious enough to warrant a Cyber Security Operations Centre response. <br/> The protection of Australian Government systems and information from unauthorised access and use is a key ... ... Cyber-security strategy needs consistent implementation and periodic reviews ... List of 35 mitigation controls against cyber intrusions are a basic tool of information security strategy of the Australian Government. Top four are: 1. application whitelisting, 2. patching ... application, 3. patching operating systems, 4. minimising administrative privileges. Analysis by the ANAO helps to fill gaps and to direct next steps.
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Managing the risk of legacy ICT to public service delivery
The cross-government report describes the case studies from four public services (state pension, Value Added Tax collection, prescription payment and consumer credit licensing services) selected ... to illustrate the range of approaches that small and large government bodies are taking to address the issues arising from legacy ICT (defined as "systems and applications that have been operationally embedded ... within a business function but superseded by newer and more effective technologies or changed business needs"). ... Possible approaches to the problem of 'legacy ICT' ... UK’s government experience in managing the risks connected to legacy ICT provides valuable insight for others facing the same problem and are considering transforming their services.
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Management of Information Resources of the Ministry of Agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania has managed 32 information systems and registers. Of these, 24 ones are managed, developed and upgraded by a state enterprise subordinate ... to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Information and Rural Business Centre. The annual amount allocated by the Ministry for the maintenance of the Centre totals LTL 17.5 million on average ... . The objective of the audit was to assess the general and development controls of the information resources of the Ministry of Agriculture. The audit was conducted at the Ministry of Agriculture and the state ... ... Without appropiate IT management  it is hard to achieve reliable, consistent and secure systems for agriculture ... Since 1996 the Ministry has been using information systems of varying complexity for collecting and processing data, including personal data. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania ... has managed 32 information systems and registers. SAI of Lithuania revealed that systems were not well mantained what affected use of funds devoted to the systemsand also their legality and security.
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Effectiveness of the Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia in the execution of modernisation projects of the Slovenian duty information system and decreasing the number of duty sub-accounts
The Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter: the Tax Administration) is responsible for collecting taxes, fees and other compulsory levies (hereinafter: duties ... ). These are the revenue of the state budget, municipal budgets, the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia, the Institute for Pension and Disability Insurance of Slovenia (hereinafter: duties recipients) and indirectly ... of the European Union budget. In order to improve its operations, the Tax Authority decided to modernise the Slovenian duties’ collection information system. It used this opportunity to implement also a second ... ... Shaky coordination of investments in important systems ... Slovenian SAI traced a series of problems in management of crucial IT investments in tax administration. Apart from promising goals, unclear business case gave a start to many problems at next stages ... of the project, involving additional spendings, delays and errors in data processing.
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