IBM and Oracle to support 280,000 users after winning mega ERP govt tech contract
(2024/09/27)
- Reference: 1727437454
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/09/27/ibm_and_oracle_uk_contract/
- Source link:
IBM and Oracle have won a competition to supply an ERP upgrade to a group of UK central government departments in a deal worth £711 million ($950 million).
The UK government has signed the tech giants to provide ERP and systems integration services for a massive upgrade across four major Whitehall departments and their arm's-length bodies, supporting around 280,000 employees.
In the graveyard of troubled IT projects, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) leads the Synergy Programme, which will see it and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Home Office transferred to one ERP and HR system with a common set of processes.
[1]
Awarding the tech side of the project to Oracle and IBM, the DWP said it would "procure and adopt a cloud-based service leveraging the capabilities offered by a Software as-a-Service (SaaS) ERP platform and associated technologies."
[2]
[3]
"The prime driver of the Synergy Programme is to drive significant business transformation across the… departments," [4]it said .
The plan is to work with suppliers to jointly develop a new Common Operating Model (COM) and introduce a new "user-centric service including common data standards."
[5]
"The COM design will continually evolve throughout the five programme delivery phases. As a result, benefits will also continue to evolve over time. This will help identify additional benefits for the Programme and provide more robust data and narrative to justify the current benefits profile," the procurement document said.
The DWP has recently kicked off procurement for industry help with the other side of the project. Earlier this month, it published tender documents to attract suppliers to provide business process services for the massive ERP overhaul, with the deal worth up to £958.7 million ($1.2 billion), bringing the total expected tech spending on the project to around £1.9 billion ($2.5 billion).
[6]SAP support auto-renewal gotcha: Do nothing now, pay for another year
[7]Europe's largest city council: Oracle ERP allocated £2B in transactions to wrong year
[8]ERP modernization? Admins have heard of it
[9]City council faces £216.5M loss over Oracle system debacle
It will surprise few that the plans for the new ERP technology center around Oracle. Big Red is the incumbent supplier for all the departments in the cluster. SSCL, a venture owned by outsourcing firm Sopra Steria, provides the system for the DWP, Defra, and the MoJ. The so-called Single Operating Platform (SOP) is built on Oracle eBusiness Suite 12.2.6, which has recently been migrated from on-prem to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The Home Office completed the move from the old platform to the Oracle Fusion cloud platform – on OCI – in 2021.
Brit civil service claims there's enough money for mammoth ERP refresh project [10]READ MORE
The Synergy Programme is part of a broader mission across central government departments to consolidate and upgrade their ERP and HR systems into clusters. The mega-project has been heavily criticized for a lack of funding and an insufficient business case.
In January last year, chief operating officer for the civil service and permanent secretary for the Cabinet Office Alex Chisholm [11]told MPs that Whitehall departments had initially sought £400 million ($535 million) for the spending review period to March 2025, but the Treasury offer was well short. He said the departments and the Cabinet Office were closing the £100 million ($134 million) funding gap for the ERP refresh left in the November 2021 spending review.
The spending review period from 2025 will be set in the Autumn Statement, expected on October 30. ®
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[4] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/028834-2024
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZvbWrSNOTMolAxtMZcgVaAAAAUs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/sap_support_renewal_deadline/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/birmingham_oracle_finance_woes/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/19/erp_slow_to_modernize/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/20/birmingham_oracle_cost/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/18/uk_shared_services_/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/18/uk_shared_services_/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The UK government has signed the tech giants to provide ERP and systems integration services for a massive upgrade across four major Whitehall departments and their arm's-length bodies, supporting around 280,000 employees.
In the graveyard of troubled IT projects, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) leads the Synergy Programme, which will see it and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Home Office transferred to one ERP and HR system with a common set of processes.
[1]
Awarding the tech side of the project to Oracle and IBM, the DWP said it would "procure and adopt a cloud-based service leveraging the capabilities offered by a Software as-a-Service (SaaS) ERP platform and associated technologies."
[2]
[3]
"The prime driver of the Synergy Programme is to drive significant business transformation across the… departments," [4]it said .
The plan is to work with suppliers to jointly develop a new Common Operating Model (COM) and introduce a new "user-centric service including common data standards."
[5]
"The COM design will continually evolve throughout the five programme delivery phases. As a result, benefits will also continue to evolve over time. This will help identify additional benefits for the Programme and provide more robust data and narrative to justify the current benefits profile," the procurement document said.
The DWP has recently kicked off procurement for industry help with the other side of the project. Earlier this month, it published tender documents to attract suppliers to provide business process services for the massive ERP overhaul, with the deal worth up to £958.7 million ($1.2 billion), bringing the total expected tech spending on the project to around £1.9 billion ($2.5 billion).
[6]SAP support auto-renewal gotcha: Do nothing now, pay for another year
[7]Europe's largest city council: Oracle ERP allocated £2B in transactions to wrong year
[8]ERP modernization? Admins have heard of it
[9]City council faces £216.5M loss over Oracle system debacle
It will surprise few that the plans for the new ERP technology center around Oracle. Big Red is the incumbent supplier for all the departments in the cluster. SSCL, a venture owned by outsourcing firm Sopra Steria, provides the system for the DWP, Defra, and the MoJ. The so-called Single Operating Platform (SOP) is built on Oracle eBusiness Suite 12.2.6, which has recently been migrated from on-prem to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The Home Office completed the move from the old platform to the Oracle Fusion cloud platform – on OCI – in 2021.
Brit civil service claims there's enough money for mammoth ERP refresh project [10]READ MORE
The Synergy Programme is part of a broader mission across central government departments to consolidate and upgrade their ERP and HR systems into clusters. The mega-project has been heavily criticized for a lack of funding and an insufficient business case.
In January last year, chief operating officer for the civil service and permanent secretary for the Cabinet Office Alex Chisholm [11]told MPs that Whitehall departments had initially sought £400 million ($535 million) for the spending review period to March 2025, but the Treasury offer was well short. He said the departments and the Cabinet Office were closing the £100 million ($134 million) funding gap for the ERP refresh left in the November 2021 spending review.
The spending review period from 2025 will be set in the Autumn Statement, expected on October 30. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZvbWrSNOTMolAxtMZcgVaAAAAUs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZvbWrSNOTMolAxtMZcgVaAAAAUs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZvbWrSNOTMolAxtMZcgVaAAAAUs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/028834-2024
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZvbWrSNOTMolAxtMZcgVaAAAAUs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/sap_support_renewal_deadline/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/birmingham_oracle_finance_woes/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/19/erp_slow_to_modernize/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/20/birmingham_oracle_cost/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/18/uk_shared_services_/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/18/uk_shared_services_/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Oracle, seems I've heard that name before
Steve K
Far be it from me to defend Oracle, but it wasn't Oracle's consultants who implemented the Birmingham ERP fustercluck
Re: Oracle, seems I've heard that name before
Doctor Syntax
Are you saying it could have been worse?
keithpeter
The Birmingham Oracle experience was, I gather, to do with people originally deciding to change the processes in the council to match what the Oracle product provided, but then, over time, realising that either could not be done or wasn't going to be done. The result was a cost inflation from 20 megapounds to around 150 megapounds.
This new project apparently also requires a number of the large central government departments to change their processes and to adopt a common model... we shall see.
Doctor Syntax
""The COM design will continually evolve throughout the five programme delivery phases. As a result, benefits will also continue to evolve over time"
But benefits to whom? Carefully not stated so as not to alarm HMG.
Oracle, seems I've heard that name before
Oh, right, I've heard of it in the [1]£2B ballsup at the perennially failing Europe's biggest council.
And yet they get another £700 million (which, as we all know, will balloon to over a billion) to play with.
If I screw up at a customer site, they'll never invite me over again, let alone sign over a paltry €70K.
Too big to fail, hmm ?
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/birmingham_oracle_finance_woes/?td=readmore