By Mario deSantis, December 3, 1999

I read the article "Info-tech questionable investment(1)" where Murray Mandryk questions the effectiveness of the recent implementation of Information Technologies by the Saskatchewan Government. In particular, Mandryk makes reference to the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN) project, the SaskPower's Delta project and the new Land Titles' software system. Mandryk is very timid in his intimation that these projects have fallen short of expectations. The SHIN project has not fallen behind expectation, it has been a complete disaster which we have depicted as a hole in the ground(2). But there is more to this Information Technology flop: when Gord Nystuen resigned as CEO of SHIN he admitted that funds were diverted to cover the Y2K nightmares of the health districts(3). These big brains not only dig holes into the grounds but in bypassing the mandate of their corporation they break the law. And as this is not enough punishment for the public these same big brains are rewarded with new positions within businesses close to the present political leadership(4).

As the Delta project is concerned, SaskPower anticipates that the implementation of the SAP AG's software will cost $55.6 million and produce $131.7 million in benefits. The cost for the new Land Titles software system has ballooned to $47.5 million from $20 million, however our reductionist bureaucrats are anticipating savings by displacing close to 140 employees and extracting the marginal resources from the leftover 80 employees. I can just imagine the eagerness of the surviving employees to go to work for an organization which pays more attention to machines than to the care of its people. In the meantime, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers claims that its members are being either overpaid or underpaid since the new SAP payroll system went on stream last August. This problem seems to be analogous to the one experienced by the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) in the processing of retroactive pay for the Saskatchewan Nurses(5).

The bean counters have claimed benefits of at least $58 million per year for the SHIN project(6), $131.7 million for the Delta project and $38 million over ten years for SAHO's payroll(7). The benefits in the implementation of the Land Titles software system include $27.5 million overspending to grease the global high technological businesses. Premier Romanow has stated prior to election time that the opposition party can't add up numbers(8), but now that I hear these figures I have the impression that our leaders have shifted their tactic from playing magic(9) to tossing fat numbers and playing the lottery. These bean counters have been shown to be professional liars(10) and unable to understand how to create wealth in the Knowledge Economy(11). New push button computer systems per se don't create new wealth, it is the accumulated knowledge of the employees, the sharing of their innovative ideas and their continuous learning which provide wealth to our organizations. Therefore, the alliance of our bureaucracy with the gigantic SAP AG software business could be interpreted as another orchestrated design of our leaders to dilute and minimize all the internal shortcomings of our organizations within the maze of international relationships with global businesses(12). Again, our leaders shift the blame of their shortcomings to outside entities and in doing so they perpetuate a management philosophy of "break and conquer" and utter confusion for the benefit of the few and privileged. I have already mentioned in previous articles, that our present leaders "...can't recognize an asset from a hole in the ground(13)..."; as a consequence, it is time that we have a change of political leadership and the opportunity to create wealth through the talents of our own people, rather than through push button computers or mausoleums(14).

Endnotes

1. Info-tech questionable investment, by Murray Mandryk, FORUM, The StarPhoenix, December 2, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2. Health Reform in Saskatchewan: Digging Holes in the Ground, by Mario deSantis and reviewed by James deSantis, October 20, 1999

3. Saskatchewan Health Information Network: Gord Nystuen leaves his post to cover his assets, by Mario deSantis, October 23, 1999

4. Gord Nystuen, previous CEO of SHIN, has recently joined the Paradigm Consulting Group of Regina, Saskatchewan

5. Healthcare Payroll and SAHO's Big Brains, by Mario deSantis, November 20, 1999

6. Saskatchewan Health Information Network, Backgrounder, Benefit Analysis and savings of $58M to 114M, by Ernst & Young, March 98

7. SAHO Payroll Policies: Saving Money out of Ongoing Catastrophes, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 1999

8. Premier Roy Romanow: Balancing the Budgets & Downsizing Education, by Mario deSantis, September 10, 1999

9. Premier Romanow's Latest Magics: Shuffling Numbers & Mysterious Bank Account, by Mario deSantis, May 15, 1999

10. Saskatchewan Healthcare: Using Researches to Blatantly Lie to the Public, by Mario deSantis, November 27, 1999

11. Calculating Knowledge Capital. No mumbo-jumbo. Here's a simple method for deriving the value of intellectual assets. By Paul Strassmann http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/km/calc-km.html

12. Insider probe continues to dog SAP, by Earl McGuire, Special to ZDNN, June 3, 1997 4:00 PM PDT. An excerpt of this report "...Although Frankfurt prosecutors are now focusing on four lower level employees, Germany's securities trading authorities said records showed five upper level executives sold shares in the month before SAP's stock plummeted last fall. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdnn/0603/zdnn0011.html

13. TRYING TO GRASP THE INTANGIBLE: The assets that really count are the ones accountants can't count--yet. Here's one way to put a dollar value on corporate knowledge. Thomas A. Stewart, Join Tom Stewart in the Fortune Forum on CompuServe (GO FFORUM) or by E-mail: 74774.3555

14. The U of S Synchrotron: A Mausoleum for a Museum Mentality, by Mario deSantis, November 16, 1999