Moo Pig Wisdom is a brilliant combination of Antiquity and Prequel Modern Flea Market. We respectfully ask you to mind your children while here.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Passport Schmassport... IT is not just gov.Debacles

Hurry up and Wait! And what do Passports have in common with iPhones?

June 25, 2007
U.S. Passport System Comes Up Short
By Larry Barrett
The State Department's backlog in handling passport applications provides CIOs with a chilling reminder on what could go wrong if they fail to ramp up both systems and staff ahead of record-breaking demand.

http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2150728,00.asp

Despite having almost two years to prepare for a predictable onslaught of new passport applications this summer, the U.S. State Department and its information processing systems are now so backlogged that Congress is cracking the whip on the behalf of irate travelers who are waiting and waiting and waiting for their passports.

Tell us what you think: mailto:editors@cioinsight-ziffdavis.com


The debacle, which began in April 2005 when the Homeland Security and State departments instituted new travel regulations requiring Americans flying to nearby countries such as Canada, Mexico and those in the Caribbean to carry a passport, provides CIOs with a chilling reminder of just how wrong things can go if your organization isn't able to ramp up both its systems and its staff ahead of anticipated, record—breaking demand.


What used to take between four and six weeks is now taking three or four or sometimes even five months, leaving travelers angry, stressed out and uncertain if they'll receive their passports in time for their vacations.

In a letter last week, no less than 56 senators lambasted the State Department's woeful performance and called on Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to intercede now before any more travelers are inconvenienced.
"People are angry and frustrated," says Rick Webster, a lobbyist for the Travel
Industry Association of America. "Companies have to respond to shareholders. The
government has to respond to constituents. [The State Department] anticipated
the demand but they guessed far too low. It shouldn't have come to this."
State Department analysts say the agency originally predicted about 15 million passport applications this year, up from 12 million in 2005. Then the figure was revised to 16 million. Now, they're expecting upwards of 17.5 million or more.
Despite hiring an additional 130 passport workers and expanding the number of locations that accept applications from 7,500 to 9,500 this year, the frustrating delays continue and will likely continue though the fall.

Chief Information Officer, CIO
Could something like this happen in the private sector ahead of a new product release or perhaps a new compliance or regulation deadline?
"A good CIO would have the lead members of his or her team interview key internal clients or constituents so the IT department has the clearest possible understanding of the business situation," says Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "Technology is the enabler, and can do almost anything, provided the people who are responsible for the managing that technology have the clear insight from those who run the business side of the enterprise."
For the State Department and the passport processing sites, the situation was further complicated when it turned to the private sector for help. Citicorp, which processes the passport fees for the agency, hired an additional 400 workers to an existing staff of 800 to help clear the backlog.

However, a State Department spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times that once the new hires were trained and began processing the fees, all that paperwork was sent over in enormous batches, further swamping the overwhelmed passport processors.
Citicorp officials were not available for comment.
"On the corporate side, there are efficiencies and incentives built into the process to avoid something like this from happening," Webster says. "In government there's only accountability to the citizens."
Also, unlike a Sarbanes—Oxley deadline or a new product release, the government had the luxury of relaxing the new travel requirements it had created for itself. That's not how it works in the private sector.

One company that's about to experience a similar deluge in demand, AT&T, announced Thursday that it had hired an additional 2,000 temporary workers to meet what's expected to be frenzied demand for Apple Inc.'s iPhone on June 29.

A FAQ on what the iPhone has and what it lacks By David Pogue
Published: June 27, 2007 ...With its new iPhone, Apple pulled off two masterful feats: creating the machine and creating the buzz around it. But just how much of a phone, iPod and Internet machine is this thing?... http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/27/technology/ptiphone28.php

As the only carrier to provide service for the iPhone when it debuts, AT&T's sales staff received a total of 100,000 hours of training to sell and support the device, according to spokesman Mark Siegel.

However, Siegel told Baseline the company would not discuss how much of the training and additional resources were allocated for updating or improving order processing and customers service systems.

And while the State Department desperately struggles to catch up with the millions of applications it's processing this year, travel analysts say the worst may be yet to come. In 2009, Americans traveling by land and sea—in addition to air travel—to nearby countries will also have to carry a valid passport, adding another 26 million applications to the pile.
"The State Department got caught because the normal turnaround time is six weeks," Harteveldt says. "They should have known that human nature being what it is; people generally wait until the last minute to do things."
Dear Readers:
My friends at Ziff-Davis are some of the most helpful business partners a small to medium Mom2Pop like ours could have!!! Don't hesitate to look at what they offer the IT world, er, that would be Everyone! PD

Tell us what you think: mailto:editors@cioinsight-ziffdavis.com

No comments:

Blog Archive

SUNDAY :: bishop FM 105.9 Auckland



[Go To SOURCE]

Gary Grainger LIVE BluesShow from Auckland, 6 to 8PM LondonTime .... you listen too.

DISCLAIMER

: It is PROHIBITED by law to use our service or the information it provides to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or for any other purpose subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq. MooPig Wisdom does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency. The information available on our website may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date, so do not use this information as a substitute for your own due diligence, especially if you have concerns about a person’s criminal history. MooPig Wisdom does not make any representation or warranty about the accuracy of the information available through our website or about the character or integrity of the person about whom you inquire. So dip your balls in turpentine and get rid of your own fleas before calling me out.

Ask Someone Who Cares -- SUCH AS SUCH MULCH

To report any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist,
homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, please click
--ask_someone_who cares -- ASWC to report with pertinent details.

Anyone posting such material will be immediately mesquitte blackened over a very hot pit fire down at C and J's BBQ on Harvey-Elmo-Weedon Road, and permanently removed from all servers, its IP
owner will be locked in a small room with back issues of
The ECONOMIST, and one scratchy re-mix 8-track tape of Steely Dan's first album...
IP addresses might be recorded to aid us in enforcing these conditions, that is if we cared.

A Fantastically Flawed Script for a Jazz Rock Opera -- "GAZA"

A Fantastically Flawed Script for a Jazz Rock Opera -- "GAZA"
GAZA by Pat Darnell for the Age of Attritionally Challenged

Email MooPigster Customers' Alert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CywR3ouHKP4
If you receive this post via email, you notice it is mostly 'blank'.
We at MooPig Surmise, that at this point, one either says:
"WOW, I'm off the hook, and don't have to pay any attention to that pesky MooPig STUFF!!"
-- OR --
"Hey, where is it ...?"
The answer is: "IT IS A youTUBE presentation"... and you will now click on the http above to go see this modern miracle of technology.

MooPig Wisdom is Your Life-Line to Parody:
24\7 -- We accept all Calls from Contestants

MPW Unique Value Proposition, UVP
Shards of Evidence ... Opinion and Editorial ... We Blunderbuss indigestible Ersatz of Readers' and Writers' ... Explain Strategies of quasi-firms... and some not so quasi ... 110% Proof
One Only
Advertisement Only One
Publisher of Satire ... Enemy to Bombast ... Very Swank ... More Fun to Write than to Read

MooPig Wisdom is online to provide spring board for writers.
MooPig is the Writers' Writer that encourages voice, content, and style. PD

Bill Gaines said it

Bill Gaines said it
"My staff and contributors create the magazine," declared Gaines. "What I create is the atmosphere."