On 25/01/15 16:01, Tickettyboo wrote: > On 2015-01-25 12:57:21 +0000, Tim Powys-Lybbe said: > >> On 25 Jan at 0:04, Tickettyboo <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> <snip for brevity> >> >>> You couldn't make this up if you tried. Two days 'after' I downloaded >>> the will and grant, I finally get the email telling me they are ready >>> to download. Gosh it makes the price hike of 66% seem almost worth it >>> for the entertainment value! >> >> It sounds to me as if the whole exercise has been done by in-house IT >> people with no previous experience of running a large database for >> consumer purposes. >> >> If a commercial firm had been involved, it would presumably have been >> put out for tender Did anyone see any such thing. >> >> In some ways I would congratulate them for attempting a probably >> low-cost project after the large scale projects that have failed and >> cost the taxpayers megamillions. > > It is a commercial firm, Iron Mountain, http://www.ironmountain.co.uk Iron Mountain seem to be the go-to company for storage etc of paper records. Integration with a public-facing service like this is a different matter. And the dash to online services for gov.uk has a dreadful reputation in the UK IT industry. I was reading recently that their new verification system for HMRC was able to verify 40% of users and that was counted as a success. Companies House webcheck was easy to find; now Companies House diverts to this new .gov.uk portal & after a bit of digging around a hard-to-find link takes you back to the Companies House site. In short, if the .gov.uk portal is involved it's no surprise that it's chaotic. -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk

On 25/01/15 16:27, Ian Goddard wrote: > > And the dash to online services for gov.uk has a dreadful reputation in > the UK IT industry. I was reading recently that their new verification > system for HMRC was able to verify 40% of users and that was counted as > a success. Oops. 60% was counted as a success. https://identityassurance.blog.gov.uk/2015/01/19/gov-uk-verify-self-assessment-trial-an-update/ -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk