Birmingham City Council's Oracle System Woes Have Continued INTO 2025, with Concerns Being Raised in Monday's Meeting of the Council to Set the Annual Budget, HIGHLILIGHTING CONTING CRINTING CRINTING These cannot be fixed until reimplementation of the enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System is operating.
One Councilor said: “When you look into the budget book, you find that there is a deficit in the budget of £ 380m over the next three years, but what really cONCERNS me is the Effect of OraCle and That WE Hawe A Deficit of £ 141m of Uncollected Business Rates – That is Equivalent to a 30% Increase in Council Tax. ”
During the latest birmingham Audit Committee Meeting, Which Took Place The Following Day, On 5 March, Council, Raised Serious Serious Serious Questions Over Why the Decision to Go Live With The ORACLE SYASTEM WITH WITH SYSTEM WITH WITH SYSTEM WITH WITH SYSTEM WITH WITH Areas of the project being incomplete.
“There was an optimism bias,” said Grant Thornton Auditor, Mark Stocks.
Reflecting the findings of the Grant Thornton Value-For-Money Report In relation to the implementation of the ERP System, which was Published at the end of FebruaryStocks, Who LED the team of two external auditors present, said: “Nobody took ownership.”
Stocks went on to desscribe how the council had lost Corporate Knowledge of the Reimplementation of the Oracle ERP System after its Finance Officer Fiona Greenway Left. Significantly, the suppliers all told the council to go live.
“The information was there to stop this, but all the suppliers said go live. The system wasn’t ready when it was live, ”He added.
As Computer Weekly Previous Reported, Since the implementation of an Oracle Erp System to Replace Sap in April 2022, The Council has Faced Significant Issues With The Processes and Inserties, AS System's ability to produge reports.
Rather than adapting its internal business processes to align with the way the new system worked, birmingham embarked on an erp program involving adapting the ocle system, which resulted in an in -resulted means At the time the system was meant to go live.
Go live with caveats
Regarding the decision to proceed with going live with Oracle, The Auditor Said That Council Officers did not have a thorough undersrstanding of the risks they were takingThe advice from the suppliers was capated and these caveats, according to the auditor, should have been looked at. The areas of concers of inclined the bank Reconciliation System (BRS) and General Ledger in Testing.
“There's correspondence from officers say they were struggling with the brs system, the accounts received and some aspacts of the general line were reported as untestable. Concerns were expressed over past customizations; Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Customisations were not switched on and the program was still receiving changes requests, “He said.
Commenting on the Grant Thornton Report, Councilor Richard Parkins Said: “This report is probally thewst one I've seen. Of all the reports across my desk, this really is a case study in how not to implement an it system. The go-light decision is an astonishing one when you look at where we and how many people are sat there the table. “
When Questioned on Whether the system has been adequately tested before the go-live date, Auditor Thomas Foster from Grant Thornton, said: “Testing was completeted in many. Payroll Had been highlighted as a key area, but the problem was that the testing wasn't complete and there was key area that hadn Bollywood tested and they, perhaps, ware lover download Therefore Didn't get the focus that they deserved at that time. “
The Commissioners' Review of the Audit Committee Report Published on 5 March Stated The Council is Running a Business Change Programme Underpinned by Technology, What requires requires people to be trained and UPSKILLED In how to use the newrp software.
“The council must not deviate from adopting the best practice processes offered by the software, it must focus on completeing the system design and obtaining full Executive Commitment Commitment Stated.
Data quality issues remain
The commissioners also said they remain concerned about the inherited quality of data that was loaded into the 2022 implementation and the current poor-quality data help in the current system.
Even if the council delivers a well-designed system and equips users with the training required to use it, if the quality of the data migrated to the new system is of Poor quality (Missing, inaccurable, duplicated), the system will lead fail to operate and delivery the benefits the council needs, “The commissioners warn in the review document. They are urged the council to address data quality ahead of the implementation.
At the Previous Audit Committee meeting on 29 january, councilor paul tilsey asked if the culture of the council is changing arms Ways of Reporting on Progress of these to make sure that we are on track? ”
The need to change the culture at the council is amon the key recommendations grant thornton highlighted in its report.
Stocks, who was the auditor at the 29 January meeting, ACKNOWLEDGED TILSEY's CONCERNS that the ERP May Not Be Fixed In A Short Time. “The Earliest I Think is April 26,” He said. “Until I see always aligned, I am worried. Until you have an operating financial system, this is Always Going to Be Diffort. “