1      Time certainly flies, especially when there are so much work and it is only a very short month.  Nevertheless, work is progressing and we are highlighting some of them below for your reference.

User Group Meeting

2      Please note that we have sent out the notes for the last User Group Meeting already.  If you would like to have a copy of the notes, it is also available on our CAP Website.  There are various follow-up activities going on.  If you are interested in the progress of any of them, please talk to us directly if we have not yet reported about them anywhere.

Support Service for Batch I and Batch II

3      We reported previously that the warranty period, offered by the service vendor for Batch I and Batch II of the Project, would expire by 28 February 2006.  We are glad that we have agreed with the vendor that it will still be offering service to us in the meantime.  It allows us more time to properly design and recruit the relevant service supplier(s) in the longer run.

4      In the User Group Meeting, we learned that NGOs would like to have a more transparent vendor selection process.  In particular, some of the NGO users would like to know more about the cost details.  Some NGO users even enquired about joining into the vendor selection process.  After a serious consideration by our management, it suggests that inviting NGOs into the selection process is inappropriate because of the following 2 major reasons:-

a.     We have obtained some very special commercial offers with the conditions that the details are not to be disclosed to any other parties.  Our management considers that giving out only some of the cost figures would present only an incomplete picture which would serve to confuse than to clarify things.

b.     The management also considers that in the recurrent support, NGOs and the Council are of a customer / vendor relationship.  With this understanding, the Council should be responsible to arrange and deliver the appropriate services to the NGOs without having the NGOs to get involved in the background management work (including for instance selecting the service suppliers, etc.) of the Council.

5      Although we are not planning to get the NGOs involved, rest assured that we would keep you posted on the process and give as much details as relevant and possible.

6      Lets turn to the problem-resolving rate in January 2006 as portrayed below:-

7      The problem-resolution rate is consistent at 89%, although in fact there is a slight increase of unresolved problems after the Chinese New Year Holiday.  It has caught the management’s attention already and we hope to rectify the trend before it deteriorates.

End-users’ Training

8      Our final preparation for the training is by and large complete.  We have even some internal rehearsals so as to make the actual training as smooth as possible.  We have some problems in arranging venues but that would be resolved shortly.  The courses would be offered latest by late March.  Please watch out for our subsequent announcements for enrollment.

Change Requests (CRs) for SWD

9      The application for supplementary fund to handle the CRs identified during the relevant nursing period would be discussed in the coming JCIT (Joint Committee in Information Technology) scheduled in mid-March.  We would report to you further once the status is clarified.

Batch III Progress

10    Unfortunately, the situation about Batch III is still not yet confirmed.  We have separately reported the progress to the management of the Batch III NGOs today (28 February 2006) although this Newsletter is not the appropriate channel to disseminate the details.  If you would like to know more, please contact us directly and we are pleased to provide the required relevant information if possible.  Anyway, we are expecting that the situation would be clear towards end-March.

11    Stay tuned, and contact us immediately if you would need any further information in the meantime.