Insolvency Service delays IT shutdown for second time

The Insolvency Service has delayed its planned shutdown of IT services at its
head and official receivers’ offices again, with no date set for reschedule.

The government agency is currently upgrading all its IT systems which meant
all its technology would go offline for a period of ten days.

Initially the shutdown was due to run from 2 July to 12 July, however, just
two weeks before this date it was delayed to 16 July to 26 July. The Insolvency
Service now hopes the downtime period will commence in August.

A spokeswoman for the Insolvency Service said: “The ISCIS application is now
fully built but the final stage of testing has been delayed. As a result the
Service has decided to postpone the planned down time which was due to begin on
16 July 2010 until the final stage of testing is complete, and we are confident
that the applications are stable and fit for purpose.”

During the IT downtime insolvency practitioners’ requests for payments, on
behalf of creditors, to the Office Receiver will not be processed. The Official
Receiver pays out approximately £19m a week to creditors.

Implementing the IT services project, “Enabling the Future”, was due to cost
more than £80m over five years. The Insolvency Service said the new delay would
not increase the cost of the project beyond what was already budgeted.

Advisers have previously raised concerns the IT system would be shut down
altogether, rather than running two systems concurrently prior to switching off
the old technology.

Further reading:

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