Swiftt system upgrade to be undertaken slowly

By PETER GRIFFIN



The Ministry of Social Development has ruled out an expensive "big bang" replacement of its complex benefit and debt management systems and will reveal its future IT plans for the systems in two weeks.

The ministry's chief information officer Christine Stevenson said the Social Welfare Information for Tomorrow Today (Swiftt) system had "never ever missed a payment" and was in no need of immediate upgrade or replacement.

"There is no crisis. We want to take our time and make careful and prudent decisions," said Stevenson adding that she felt "bitter" about adverse publicity around the ministry's IT projects.

She rejected stories in the computer trade press quoting unnamed sources who speculate that the total cost of upgrading Swiftt and Trace may spiral to as much as $500 million.

Stevenson said the $78 million to $180 million range outlined in Government documents back in 2002 was still accurate but that the total would be reached gradually over five or more years.

The first of that spend came with the purchase in December of two Unisys Libra 185 mainframe computers, which the ministry has revealed to National's welfare spokeswoman Katherine Rich cost $12.1 million including installation and GST.

The servers sell for millions more new in the US, but Stevenson had won a good deal after getting a trade-in discount from EDS on old servers and taking advantage of a strong New Zealand dollar.

The old servers were decommissioned over the weekend without any problems.

The ministry would build a "proof of concept" IT system before going ahead with any deployment.

"We think about evolving Swiftt or gradually transforming it. Parts of the engine could be used for years to come," said Stevenson.