GSIS Fires IT Head

faced by the ongoing issue of system failures, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) recently sacked it’s Information Technology Services Group (ITSG) Sr VP for allegedly entering into illegal and questionable deals with Questronix Corp. and IBM Philippines.

Edilberto P. Ocampo was said to be dismissed after being found liable for entering into multi-million peso contracts with IBM without authority and into anomalous contracts with Questronix.

i don’t know what benefit this would do with the current issues they’re facing with their system unable to handle voluminous data (and crashing!), a pending case against IBM/Questronix, plus of course processing of pension still being delayed. (i just remembered earlier this week when i had to take the MRT and heard GSIS’ appeal to the Filipinos for understanding and still blaming IBM for this mess up).

read more [abs-cbnnews.com]

IBM/Questronix Blames GSIS’ System Crash

IBM Philippines washes it’s hands and Questronix puts blame back to Philippine government agency – GSIS, which early this week expressed that it’ll file charges due to it’s defective pension software.

“If you look at the project, we’re really nowhere near it…How can we establish the root cause if we don’t have a contractual obligation to them?” IBM said. the giant software company further claims it did not take part of the selection, customization and implementation of the GSIS system.

IBM is the OEM to the solution firm SAP by providing DB2 database software. Questronix, a partner of SAP, was the one who did the customization and systems integration for GSIS.

Questronix on the other hand, countered today that if the pension agency had prioritized it’s disaster recovery and implemented proper backup and restore procedures, they would have avoided this big mess right now.

well, looks like the ball is back to GSIS!

read more [inquirer.net] and [abs-cbnnews.com]

GSIS Takes Legal Action Against IBM

IT giant, IBM might be facing charges from the Philippine Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for “incalculable damages” that the pension fund sustained due to defective computer software.

GSIS chief legal counsel Estrella Elamparo stated that the issue pertains to IBM’s database management software – IBM DB2, which as early as 2008 has shown problems when handling voluminous data. eventually the system crashed 2mos ago and paralyzed major pension fund operations resulting to major slowdown of claims and loans processing.

“IBM upgraded its database system purportedly to enable it to handle unlimited volumes of data,” Elamparo said. “However, the reported upgrade only worsened the problem because instead of fixing the problem, the database began mishandling data and prevented the simultaneous use of data.”

IBM Philippines however rejects GSIS’ claims. “We are disappointed with the approach taken by GSIS, which is ultimately not helpful to resolving this matter, nor in the best interest of its members.”

from experience, problems like what GSIS is experiencing now might be caused by several things – wrong infrastracture setup, incompatible tools vs purpose/data usage, or sometimes limited/no support from vendors as well. well, let’s wait and see how this shapes up!

read more [inquirer.net]