The state’s most expensive IT project, the police’s Vitja system project, has been running for 14 years.
The police’s Vitja project has cost more than 90 million euros over 14 years. Node Salminen
An information system project called Vitja has been under development in order to stop the police from circulating papers and to connect numerous information systems. The project has already been under construction for 14 years, during which time more than 90 million euros of state money has been spent.
The project originally had to be completed in 2018, after which it has taken a backseat for a while. According to the latest estimate, Vitja will stretch until at least 2026.
The one who reported on it Tivi tells, that the project threatens to wither, because the technology used by Vitja is getting old. The Police Board has launched a technology report on the matter, which will be completed by the end of September.
Vitja’s platform is Oracle Siebel -customer management system was originally published in the 1990s. At the beginning of the millennium, Siebel was still a significant supplier of customer systems, which ended up being owned by Oracle in 2005.
Today, however, Siebel’s market share has shrunk to a margin.
“We wanted to make a good technological solution”
The Chief Inspector of Police of the Police Board commented on the matter to Tiville Hannu Kautto said that, in the opinion of the police, Siebel was not directly ready for a police system, but it was nevertheless decided to modify it to suit the authorities. The project goals have been very ambitious.
– We wanted to make a good technological solution, the like of which had not been made before in the world, Kautto said.
The license plate register and the police intelligence system in use are parts of Vitja implemented by Siebel. However, the cooperation with Siebel in the Vitja project is now at stake.
Police Chief Inspector Hannu Kautto of the Police Board. Police Board
– We need to find out if there is another more effective way to solve the needs of crime prevention and implement the system.
Oracle has promised to develop Siebel at least until 2030. If the development support ends after this, the police would have to start a new IT project of the same scope.
The problems are not only in technology
However, the project, which resembles the infamous Olkiluoto, is not only problematic because of the withering technology. Additional challenges have been produced by, among other things, developed legislation and increased data protection and information security regulations.
There are also not many Siebel experts in Finland and the project is dependent on foreign labor. This raises questions about the security of the critical system.
– It is one of our points of view, what does locating work and support elsewhere than in Finland mean in terms of overall safety, Kautto told Tiv.
According to Kauto, the costs of the police IT center are high and the resources are relatively small, which also causes its own challenges.
You can read a longer and more detailed story From Tiv’s website.
Tivi and Iltalehti belong to the same group.