Back in December 2013 I reported that the upcoming merger between DSA and VOSA – which was supposed to save money due to streamlining – was planning to spend £35m by contracting someone “to help manage and organise the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency’s (VOSA) and Driving Standards Agency’s (DSA) legacy IT infrastructure after the two organisations merge in 2014”.
Well, if I’m reading this right, they are now looking for someone to support their IT after the merger. This appears to be a completely separate issue, and is set to cost a further £12m for at least two years.
Remember that this is not the DSA’s or VOSA’s fault. It is the government.
As I said previously, there is no way the DSA can perform at its current level by merging with VOSA (and ditto for VOSA). They are totally separate functions. This was made all the more apparent when I realised that VOSA uses Lotus Notes for its email system, whereas DSA uses Microsoft Exchange.
The company I used to work for switched from Microsoft to Lotus at one stage, and it was utter chaos. Lotus Notes is a pile of crap on so many fronts that its benefits are completely eclipsed. It appeals only to Microsoft-haters just on principle, and anyone switching from the logical Microsoft system is going to have a nightmare adapting to the illogical Lotus one if that’s the route they go down – and since VOSA is the dominant body in the merger, that route is quite likely.