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> provided by IBM in June 2011 In Czechia we have a system where all sellers have to log bills to prevent tax evasion. IBM also provided the system. It cost ~
by vletal 5y ago
> provided by IBM in June 2011
In Czechia we have a system where all sellers have to log bills to prevent tax evasion. IBM also provided the system. It cost ~ 15m$ to set up and ~15m$/y to run.
Given the rate of ~millions of bills submitted per day, of which the government only gets the total price and taxes, you have like ~hundred bills per second.
I could scale a gunicorn+sqlite on my 2014 MacBook Pro to be able to receive this rate of requests with a payload which could fit inside a single TCP packet. Sure, there is auth/backups/analytics... etc. Yet, I still just do not see how could IBM charge the extra 14m$ to set that up...
- soco 5y agoFor one, it pays an army of "analysts" creating all kind of "documentation" nobody ever reads.
- chupchap 5y agoBased on my limited experience in govt projects, there is a lot more to such implementations than what meets the eye. The number of backend systems this application would need to integrate with, the long list of compliance requirements that adds complexity to development process and setup, redundancies that need to be setup at different levels, odd technical requirements mentioned in the RFP to name a few are things that can bloat up the cost and implementation timeline. Now add dependency on any parallel development or upgrades to the mix and you have a very tough project to execute.
- Aeolun 5y agoI can guarantee you that there’s like 1000 different idiotic rules that are applied to each of those items. They probably need to be stored on servers stored behind balistic glass, and cooled with helium. I’m not saying IBM is not still charging the government 14x more than necessary, but at least some of the expense is likely their own fault for having ridiculous requirements.