RBS/Natwest the 'glitch' and what the general public doesn't understand [Archive]

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RecQuery

25-Jun-12, 08:53

I find it hilarious how RBS/Natwest are blaming a random 'computer glitch' for their recent banking problems. The glitch was the false economy of them cutting back on their in-house IT and outsourcing to dodgy companies to try and save money. This isn't an isolated incident, it's just the first story to make it in to the general media. I see at least three of these dodgy financial sector IT stories a week.

You can only wonder if the people who got these jobs paying 9-11k a year (http://hyderabad.quikr.com/Batch-Admin-with-CA7-tool-W0QQAdIdZ81783921), based out of Amberpet, India (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ais_t/7174897940/) had anything to do with this mess. Lot's of competent people in Amberpet (http://ibmmainframeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=7485). Good to know the banking systems are safe in the hands of experts(!) Surprised they didn't just ask for someone to plz send them the codez (http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/plz-email-me-teh-codez.aspx) [sic]

Rather ironically they would have paid a lot more fixing this than it would have cost them to run a proper IT department all this time and that doesn't include the cost of compensation.

RecQuery

26-Jun-12, 11:18

Called it. They even used the same links as me. What caused the RBS 'glitch' (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/25/rbs_natwest_what_went_wrong/).

RecQuery

27-Jun-12, 12:23

This just gets better and better.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/26/rbs_natwest_ca_technologies_outsourcing/

Dialyser

30-Jun-12, 11:11

RecQuery

02-Jul-12, 08:38

Possibly not due to outsourcing after all. Or is it? Hard to know who or what to believe when discussing recent banking history.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2166379/RBS-boss-Stephen-Hester-forgoes-bonus-revealed-IT-glitch-originated-Edinburgh-NOT-India.html

They were very specific with their wording in the technical press and refused to answer any additional questions journalists had. The software and system is based in Edinburgh but the people who work on it are based in India - RBS do outsource other IT functions to other countries though - and do it remotely. Hence those job adverts that mention the processing application and those forum links to dodgy below beginner level questions from people with Asian sounding names about how to use the it.

The RBS spokesman stated that "the software error occurred on a UK-based piece of software" but declined to give details on where the staff overseeing the software were based.
UK-based software, they didn't say the employees were UK-based. The comments on technical articles are full of horror stories from former RBS IT.

It's fixed now so no one especially the general press will even care and they'll brush it under the carpet. Outsourcing can be useful, Offshoring - the name given to crappy dodgy outsourcing - is just a joke that only makes it look like your saving money and even then only in the short term.

RBS aren't the only guys doing this BTW.