Mega-city's Oracle system won't have effective cash management until 2025
- Reference: 1721218808
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/17/birminghams_oracle_system_cash_management/
- Source link:
Birmingham City Council’s plan to switch from SAP to software from Big Red has seen its budget balloon from £20 million ($26 million) to [1]potentially £131 million ($170 million) in a project [2]once hailed by Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison as an exemplar of the company's competitive wins.
Although the new system went live in April 2022, which was already nearly 18 months late, the Council has been unable to produce auditable accounts using the Oracle system while it has experienced acute problems with bank reconciliation and cash management. The ongoing software problems have been compounded by an equal pay claim; together they caused the authority to become effectively bankrupt in September last year.
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The council had implemented Oracle with significant customization — seemingly against its original plans — and since disaster struck in 2022 it plans to re-implement Oracle Fusion "out of the box."
[4]
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A [6]new report by external auditors Grant Thornton reveals that the Council, which is responsible for an annual budget of just under £3.2 billion ($4.1 billion), said: "We note that the council will not have a fully functioning cash system until April 2025 and the reimplementation of the ERP system will be circa September 2025. Until this point, the council will not have a fully functioning financial system."
Grant Thornton says the council had reviewed standard Oracle processes and came to the conclusion they would work effectively although the new software "will require significant transformation and culture change across people, process and technology, and the council Governance."
[7]Brit council gives Oracle another £10M for professional services amid ERP fallout
[8]Labour wins race to lead UK, but few would envy the load in its tech in-tray
[9]Brit council fumbles Oracle Fusion launch, leaving SAP to die another day
[10]Oracle Fusion rollout costs 15 times council's estimates in SAP rip-'n-replace
While considering reimplementing Oracle, the council was also executing a recovery program for the current implementation which Grant Thornton's report describes as "reactive and operationally focused."
One of the more serious problems, performance of the Bank Reconciliation System, was "being addressed in an incremental and incomplete manner," the report adds.
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Earlier this year, The Register revealed that manual workarounds were set to cost the council [12]around £5 million ($6.5 million) in the current financial year.
The Council has now chosen software CivicaPay — known as Civica Income Management — as the replacement for the BRS, and plans to have this in place for April 2025. It is also set to procure a new Oracle delivery partner, which will work with the council for three to five years. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/22/europes_largest_local_authority_weighs/
[2] https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/03/12/oracle-orcl-q3-2021-earnings-call-transcript/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZpfqmcofSX3nUL8j0EPnCQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpfqmcofSX3nUL8j0EPnCQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZpfqmcofSX3nUL8j0EPnCQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://birmingham.cmis.uk.com/Birmingham/Document.ashx?czJKcaeAi5tUFL1DTL2UE4zNRBcoShgo=wWDQhK8VOrTAKuo9zNcIHgYgdXFzVNC%2fboxFfnH7oJzu9T1qmK7eYA%3d%3d&rUzwRPf%2bZ3zd4E7Ikn8Lyw%3d%3d=pwRE6AGJFLDNlh225F5QMaQWCtPHwdhUfCZ%2fLUQzgA2uL5jNRG4jdQ%3d%3d&mCTIbCubSFfXsDGW9IXnlg%3d%3d=hFflUdN3100%3d&kCx1AnS9%2fpWZQ40DXFvdEw%3d%3d=hFflUdN3100%3d&uJovDxwdjMPoYv%2bAJvYtyA%3d%3d=ctNJFf55vVA%3d&FgPlIEJYlotS%2bYGoBi5olA%3d%3d=NHdURQburHA%3d&d9Qjj0ag1Pd993jsyOJqFvmyB7X0CSQK=ctNJFf55vVA%3d&WGewmoAfeNR9xqBux0r1Q8Za60lavYmz=ctNJFf55vVA%3d&WGewmoAfeNQ16B2MHuCpMRKZMwaG1PaO=ctNJFf55vVA%3d
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/08/oracle_professional_services_birmingham/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/05/labour_tech_challenges/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/23/east_sussex_oracle/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/uk_council_sees_cost_of/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpfqmcofSX3nUL8j0EPnCQAAARY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/28/birmingham_city_council_to_spend/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
All at sea
In unrelated news, Larry Ellison has bought another yacht...
And heads will roll when?
Pissing away taxpayer money like this ought to be a behind-bars offence. If no heads roll, there's no incentive to give a shit about the huge waste of money that isn't yours.
"a project once hailed by Oracle co-founder and CTO Larry Ellison as an exemplar of the company's competitive wins."
And so it was and is. Just think how it boosts Oracle's income every time the price goes up.
Central IT
I know the direction of travel for UK politics over the past few decades is devolution and I'm a supporter in the main. I don't trust our central government to do much of anything, so the less power at the centre the better. However, given the constant stories of local council IT project failures and security blunders, would we not be better off with one central system for managing all council IT. I know central government's record on large projects is pretty bad but once we have the five years and £50 billion over budget project finished, then councils can get on with the job they are meant to do. We won't have civil servants trained in accountancy or planning attempting to run huge IT projects.
Admittedly not my idea but one I picked up in the comments on El Reg. As pointed out by others the councils won't like it but they all do essentially the same job. I'll be upset when Palantir get the contract but happy when my council has enough time and money to get essential services working properly.
Re: Central IT
The only people less competent than central government in running and outsourcing things in the UK, especially tech, are local government. Devolution means that the gravy train will become a veritable shinkansen of loot moving from tax revenue to private pockets. And every local authority will deploy their own unique apps for car parking, LTN tolls, bridge tolls, tram tickets, local discount cards and all the rest. Driving across a county border will require a great deal of research, planning and handing over of cash. If you thought losing free movement across the EU was bad enough, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Re: Central IT
Indeed.
Pavement parking is a case in point.
Edinburgh (Capita I think) have already rolled it out and are happily fining people.
Glasgow (again Capita) were going to roll it out but hit 'snags' with the software so can't start happily fining people until September.
One would have thought that Capita would have happily rolled out the same software to both councils which they've been using for various London councils for decades and charged them both for the 'customisations' as usual which would no doubt be very similar in both cases.
But it seems not. No doubt Glasgow wanted all the bells and whistles or somesuch.
Bookies for the win
...the council will not have a fully functioning cash system until April 2025.
You Brits are happy gamblers betting on all horses... What are the odds if I want to put money on the council (*) for a bet that they have a functional cash system on time?
(*) No, silly, not using the council's administrative system, of course.
Europe's largest local authority
It might do well to divide itself into four or more parts and allow for more localized, less byzantine management.
But I'm sure that would not suit the people sitting at the top . . .