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Subscribe via EmailMost email-to-email migrations cannot be justified in terms of ROI, especially when the existing infrastructure will be retained for applications.
Migrations that are purely based on a senior executive's personal preference are even more difficult to defend.
A migration that is thought to have cost $5.8m to complete, when those funds would otherwise have been passed to sick, needy and starving children around the world is plain shocking...
InnerCityPress.com covers a recent leak from a whilste-blower within the UNICEF organisation:
In response to an enquiry from InnerCityPress.com, UNICEF simply say this:UNITED NATIONS, August 24 -- The jewel of the UN system, its children's agency UNICEF, now not only refuses to provide simple budget information such as how much it spent flying country representatives to New York for a photo op with director Ann Veneman -- it defends without putting a dollar value on an initiative to switch all of UNICEF from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook.
Whistleblowers within UNICEF say the switch was entirely Ms.Veneman's idea, that she worked on Microsoft as George W. Bush's Secretary of Agriculture and proposes to spend $5.8 million entirely unnecessarily. Below is what Inner City Press received from within UNICEF, then UNICEF's official response.Here is another example of how UNICEF under the inept leadership of Ann Veneman wastes its public and donor contributions. We are extremely concerned about what is going on in our Organization. Signed by: Concerned UNICEF Staff.
$5.8M being spent to please Ann Veneman to install Microsoft Outlook as her e-mail preference.
In the name of the Office Modernization Investment Project, UNICEF is spending USD5.8M, which would have gone otherwise to the world poorest children, to switch from the current well-functioning IBM Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook/Exchange. Not only this project was opposed by some of UNICEF’s own IT experts because there was no compelling technical reasons for such migration but also confirmed by the world’s IT consulting leader, Gartner Group (please refer to the research paper dated 22 December 2008) that the migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook/Exchange environment would yield no return on investment (ROI). Furthermore many parts of the IBM Lotus Connections packages are far better than what Microsoft has to offer. This research paper goes on to say that end-user demand, for example, senior executives who came to appreciate Outlook on their previous assignments, is the No.1 e-mail migration driver, based on emotions and not focusing on business issues.
According to the whistleblower, this is what is exactly happening in UNICEF. When Ann Veneman came to UNICEF in 2005, the first thing she complained about was her e-mail; “why aren’t we using Outlook? I want us to move to Microsoft.” For the last four years she has been pressing the IT division to migrate from IBM Lotus Notes application to the Microsoft environment to which she was accustomed while working with an US Government agency. Ann Veneman fired her first IT director in 2006 giving him the golden hand-shake, and then personally involved in selecting the new CIO who was familiar with Microsoft Office Suite. As soon as the new CIO joined UNICEF in the summer of 2007 she pressed him to migrate into the Microsoft environment. It was supposed to happen over a year ago…..He has just gotten his two year contract extended on the condition that he would finally deliver on the commitment made to introduce Outlook.
This is quite ironic when the UN has recently upgraded its IBM Notes to version 8 (from 6.5) for about 30,000 employees. The latest version apparently is quite powerful and users love it. Even non-IT people in UNICEF are saying it's hard to cost-justify migrating e-mail from IBM to Microsoft. Some staff who used to work with other agencies using Microsoft emphasize that IBM Lotus Notes products are superior to Microsoft. Calculating the e-mail migration cost is relatively easy. But calculating a tangible return on investment (ROI) is much harder, yet UNICEF’s own business case proposal inflated this cost savings which were disputed by some of their own experts.
In the current economic environment, moving e-mail users from Notes/Domino release to Outlook/Exchange is difficult to justify when you think about unnecessary user training for over 12,000 staff, 80 percent of them are spread over 150 field offices all over the world. To make the matter more complicated, other mission critical data are stored in Lotus Notes applications
Of course this Office Modernization Investment Proposal went through various internal review processes but controlled by the CIO and Ann Veneman whose only interest is to make sure she gets “Outlook”, no matter what. No one dares to say in public this is a waste of money and time in UNICEF.
UNICEF decided to migrate to Microsoft Exchange/Outlook because doing so meets organizational needs and priorities. The process was based strictly on organizational needs and cost-saving options that we have studied carefully. UNICEF has looked at the ongoing licensing burden, as part of its assessment of options, and found significant cost-savings based on this decision. The evidence shows this effort will be a building block in a superior email and communication environment. UNICEF is one of several UN agencies taking this step.Clearly there is a story to be told here, and if I was one of the stakeholders in UNICEF, I am sure I would be asking questions right now as to how this was allowed to take place.
By: Stuart McIntyre | 5 Comments | On: 25 August 2009 06:31:34 | Tags: unicef whistleblower
Comments
I actually feel quite sick reading that. It's bad enough wasting the money of a commercial company. Unicef know the cost of getting clean water into a village, so they must be able to calculate how many lives they're playing with.
... that I am not going to buy any products with the Unicef logo, if they don't stop that stupid migration project.
How about you?
Let's make an avalanche...
The reputation of Unicef is bad enough. They should not make it worse. And even MS should be sensible enough, that they are in the same boat with them and will be considered as greedy.
Christian, do you have an email address that we can use to tell Unicef our opinions?
OK - these sound bites are perfect:
"no compelling technical reasons", "yield no return on investment (ROI)", "parts of the IBM Lotus Connections packages are far better than what Microsoft has to offer", "it's hard to cost-justify migrating e-mail" and finally - the real kicker - "other mission critical data are stored in Lotus Notes applications." They'll another poster-child for the care and feeding of duel infrastructures.
Nice move guys - really!
No matter what logic you throw at people, in the end, you can't save people from themselves.
I wonder how many people they could help with all that money? What a tragic waste!
Brian
from Reuters Alertweb:
YOUR TURN TO ASK: Send us your questions for UNICEF chief Ann Veneman
{ Link }
You can participate by using the comments section below or by using the #askunicef tag on Twitter .
Please send your questions by Tuesday, Sept 1
Go to the unicef site www.unicef.org and then choose your countries unicef site. I found it on the swiss site www.unicef.ch and there is a contact page on the US site:
{ Link }
Germany:
{ Link }
UK:
{ Link }
... and so on.
1) former Bush administration official. need we say more?
2) I doubt if she'll actually be reading all the tweets and emails. Probably goes into a Notes db anyway! :)
me...
From a comment on Ed Brill's post on the same topic:
"I'm not usually this cynical...and I'm a believer in the adage: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." But, The Gates foundation donated 50MIL to UNICEF last year and well over 150MIL over the last ten years. Microsoft is a regular corporate donor. Not a corporate donor: IBM."
http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_Annual_Report_2008_EN_31July09.pdf
Check the history when Ann Veneman was the Secretary of Agriculture. She did the same thing forcing their main office to move to exchange while they were doing find with Lotus.
The pattern here is Bill Gates existence, as he was funding many projects and donating for USDA. Isn't it illegal to abuse your donation to make money and sell your company's products??? Microsoft has a black record of that.
The USDA move to Exchange has been reverted back once Ann Veneman left them. The whole thing cost the USDA a seven-figure number of tax payers' money. Now is it the turn of UNICEF donors' money to be wasted?
We trust your integrity and honesty to research and publish those facts . Maybe you will be able to stop wasting millions of dollars in this tough time.
----- Original Message -----
From: "UNICEF FACTS"
To: Editorial@innercitypress.com
Subject: Att. Matthew Russell Lee - Scandal in UNICEF
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 16:46:25 -0500
--
An Excellent Credit Score is 750
See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!
From: UNICEF FACTS
To: Editorial@innercitypress.com
Subject: Att. Matthew Russell Lee - Scandal in UNICEF
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 16:46:25 -0500
Dear Mathew,
Referring to your previous report regarding UNICEF move to Outlook. Please allow me to correct some points:
1. The figure you mentioned (5.8 M$) is completely INCORRECT. The correct amount of the first phase for that project is more than 10 Million $$ (this is without the training cost for 14000+ users)
2. Not only the UN has upgraded its Notes version to ver. 8 from 6.5 but UNICEF recently upgraded its email system to the latest Lotus Notes 8.5 for more than 14000 employees. Everyone I know in UNICEF is sending his positive feedback to the IT people as the new version has many useful enhancements.
3. The reply from UNICEF spokesperson is a total LIE, he doesn't know what to say (organizational needs and priorities!!?? please check any news broadcast and count how many children are dying everyday around the world from hunger and fatal diseases). Isn't UNICEF supposed to help and save these children? Instead of using the donors' money for a single source contract!!!!!! Mathew please be assured that their priorities are to satisfy Ann Veneman so she keeps everyone on his chair.
4. The spokesperson is manipulating the truth saying "cost-savings". As you mentioned earlier Gartner Group said there is no cost-savings at all. And it is an established fact that the running cost of Outlook is higher than Lotus Notes in such a big organization. (To be honest: Outlook is more cost effective for a small organizations 2000~4000 employees). These are facts (not openions) that anyone IN THE WORLD can easily verify.
5. The spokesperson LIED again saying "UNICEF is one of several UN agencies taking this step" Couldn't he mention who are these agencies??? do they have a similar number of employees? do they have the same number of offices??? with the existence in the most challenging locations on earth??? is it necessary that UNICEF would spend that much money instead of doing their business because OTHER agencies are doing that??
6. Currently UNICEF is having troubles keeping up with the running projects (Child protection, Health, Education and Emergencies) due to the economy constraints. Money is a big issue in UNICEF now. What kind of priorities that force the organization to spend such amount of money for something that is not justified? Instead of doing what UNICEF is supposed to do: saving children's lives????
7. UNICEF is depending on the current email system since 2000. UNICEF has ALL the organizational memory stored in Lotus notes format. That worth years of conversion to Outlook. Ironically, this cost is NOT included in the 10 M $$ I mentioned!!!
Unfortunately I do not expect my message or any other message to stop UNICEF from wasting that money and start saving children's lives. We are counting on you to raise this issue. Maybe the needy children can find someone to defend their right to exist.!!
It is very sad to see such an organization (which you referred to it, as the "Jewel") is diving down like a burnt dying star.
We have spent so many years UNICEF and we used to be very proud of our participation and direct efforts to save children's lives. It is so sad now, as we feel really embarrassed by what the management is doing to that "Jewel".