Reply To: BA ‘all systems down’ again (apparently) at T5

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Lady London wrote:

dougzz99 wrote:

@LL – “Unfolding before our very eyes in serious meltdowns with major, core issues that will now require a from-ground-up new build to fix (if they’ve got any sense). A pity we’re not seeing it with a few more companies who’ve screwed staff and loyal customers and failed to keep investing in the long term future of their companies in favour of short term rewards to management and shareholders.”

I honestly feel that a company the size of BA couldn’t (properly) build and test a new system in less than 3 years, probably longer. I suspect their strategy needs to be a gradual unwinding of the worse parts and a porting where possible of separate parts to newer more robust platforms. Even this is a huge task, and if you go with lowest tender the problems will multiply. Not that price provides and guarantee in IT.

I agree Dougzz99. This is closer to 10 years than 5 to fix. And that’s if they get the best IT people in to build then change their strategy to actually keep the core expertise inhouse longterm. New build looks expensive but is far, far cheapr in the long run.

Trouble is, as you say, the big names that don’t deliver will have similar upfront pricing to those that will eventually deliver.

3 years is ridiculous but 5 years is perfectly doable if you have strong management and the right IT providers. It won’t be easy and needs the right people to make it happen and the right budgets, but it is perfectly possible. You would face issues trying to re use legacy products, so you’d need to shield the team from outside pressures.

Particularly with platforms like AWS, Tanzu, Open Shift etc. It is easily done in 5 years. 7 years to be safe. Plus not exactly ground breaking as Singapore Airlines are already doing it