An organization as large as the federal government should not be using "off-the-shelf" systems.  The switch to Phoenix, SAP, and other systems was mandated by the Conservatives and was sold on "saving money."

Except that these systems never do save money. There ends up being far too much customization required, and/or organizations that have existing processes in place have to change them to fit with the software. This costs way more than keeping a stable staff to provide in-house systems. And to make changes requires more contract negotiation and is always fraught with errors or things they didn't think of.

I've seen it time and time again. Keeping it in house costs less, creates more jobs, provides more control how the software works and the ability make changes quickly and efficiently.

Outsourcing to off-the-shelf products should be limited to smaller organizations that can't justify having a full time staff to develop in-house systems.