INCIS: The Integrated National Crime Information System (A) 2005-30.1

On 23 September 1994, New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard MacDonald, and the CEO of IBM New Zealand, Gowan Pickering, signed a contract in Wellington, which represented the largest single capital investment New Zealand Police had ever made. It committed IBM to deliver the Integrated National Crime Information System (INCIS). Both had spent a good deal of money getting to this point, prompting one of the IBM team to remark, on seeing the 4,000 pages of documents: “That’s $8 million sitting on the table”. For IBM New Zealand, the contract was a golden opportunity to get back on its feet after some difficult years; for NZP, INCIS was the tool that would propel New Zealand crime-fighting into the 21st century.

This case looks at the introduction of an IT system to New Zealand police that required operational, legal and organisational changes to implement. Part A describes the planning and partnership arrangements of the project, including the challenges it brought.

Read more:

• Part B describes changes made to the original contract between NZP and IBM and the problems it created leading up to the cancellation of the contract.
• The postscript gives an overview of “What happened next” after IBM repudiated its contract with New Zealand Police to deliver INCIS, with updates to 2005.
• The timeline was prepared to assist with teaching the case, listing the events impacting on the delivery of INCIS up until 1999.