Nevo/Rialto is an IT system implemented by Swisscom for the Bern canton police and public prosecutor’s office. The project was commissioned in 2016 and was to be implemented within three years with a budget of CHF 13.5 million. However, as research by “SRF” show, the software was only put into operation two weeks ago and already cost over 50 percent more than planned in 2020.
The project was intended to digitize, optimize and simplify processes between the police and the public prosecutor’s office. The system has been available to use at least by the Bernese cantonal police for two weeks. According to the report, the public prosecutor will have to wait until 2023.
Overtime worth millions
The implementation of the project seems to be much more complex for everyone involved than initially assumed. This affects the canton police, the public prosecutor’s office, but also the contractor Swisscom, as it is also called. Swisscom would have provided free additional hours worth a seven-figure amount to get the project this far.
A pilot project in which police officers tested the software was canceled in advance. The software was too immature and worked too unreliably. One point of criticism was that the developer was too far away from police work. The project management has also changed too often.
Costs are likely to increase further
In 2020, the price increase of the project was already more than 50 percent. And there is likely to be more as work still needs to be completed on the software’s prosecution module.
With reference to a report by the financial control department, which examined the project in March 2021, the recurring operating costs are likely to be higher than expected, according to “SRF”. According to the same report, the Nevo/Rialto project fails to meet expectations in terms of schedule, cost and quality.
Too many interfaces and complex documents
The many interfaces of the software seemed to cause great difficulties. According to sources in the public prosecutor’s office, the cantonal police had already had problems accepting the document templates. And for the public prosecutor, these templates should be even more complex and also bilingual.
The “Swiss Police IT Congress” SPIK recently showed that Swiss police IT has a lot to show for itself despite this example. Find out more about new technologies related to police work here.
In addition, official IT projects do not always have to become unexpectedly more expensive, as an example from Seco shows. It recently modernized the RAV’s IT system more cheaply and faster than expected. Learn more here.
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