Even the most balanced assessment of the armed forces’ Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system must conclude it is a debacle.

The technology itself works well, but that is no surprise. Massive human resources (HR) systems are by no means new and the commercial sector routinely deals with larger payrolls than that of the UK armed forces.

But the genuine anxiety, frustration and upset of those affected cannot be brushed under the carpet with talk of business process change and the redefinition of call centre models.

To underestimate the amount of cultural change involved in moving from disparate local HR systems and their administrators, within three separate forces, to a single system establishing unprecedented administrative co-ordination, is a serious error, even discounting the benefits of hindsight.

It is a truism among experts that the technology component of a so-called IT programme only constitutes perhaps a fifth of the effort, cost and risk compared with staffing issues.

And with so many disastrous precedents, there is little excuse for insufficient training and inadequate assessment of the upheaval involved.

How many times does the same thing have to happen before the lesson sinks in?

Watch this space

The digital TV switchover is finally happening. But the big question has always been: what’s in it for consumers?

The government stands to make lots of money from auctioning the newly-freed spectrum. The broadcast industry stands to benefit from greater efficiency and flexibility. And hardware suppliers stand to make a killing from equipment upgrades.
Use of the spectrum for delivering high-speed internet connectivity could be the answer.

The next-generation television set ­ delivering both multi-channel broadcast content and always-on high-speed internet access ­ could finally replace the PC as the communications hub of the home.