Grant Thornton has is issued a Forensic 66-Page Report Relating to a Failed Oracle Fusion Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation at Birmingham City Council, which has left it without a functioning Finance System Until At LEST 2026.
When the council's oracle implementation steering commissions took the decision to go live in April 202, say the auditors from Grant Thornton, “The Level of Risk Inhet in the Oracle Soltration was not proceding This resulted in the implementation failing at a significant cost to the council, contributing to a breakdown of financial control 2022/23, 2023/24 and Into 2024/25.
“The Governance and Program Management for the Oracle Program Had Fundamental Weaknesses that was Never Efficiently Remedied and Were Further Expeded by High Turnover of Staff in BOTH SENIRER and Operational Roles,” Said.
Birmingham City Council implemented an SAP ERP System, ECC6, in 1999, For Finance, Procurement, HR and Payroll purposes. Over the Years, it was customized to fit the Organization's Business Processes. In 2006, Capita was engaged to provide council services, including the hosting of the sap instance.
And then Came Sap's ERP System Based on Its Reportedly High-Speed, Columnar, In-Memory Database, Hana, S/4 hanain 2015. Extended to 2027,
Like many other sap customers, birmingham had a choice to make. It opted to switch to cloud-based Oracle fusionFollowing Advice from Socitm Advisory, and Announced Its Decision in July 2019.
It also announced program support contracts for insight uk ltd, in partnership with evosys for Systems Integration; Socitm Advisory, For Program and Change Management; And egress, for data migration services.
Ameo professional services was appointed to provide program management and assuance to the council form January 2021. By the council, Grant Thornton Says. Its findings are legalized privateGed, according to the auditor, and they are not included in the 11 February 2025 report.
As Previously reported in Computer WeeklyThe Financial Business Case for the upgrade showed that the sap system, run by capita, was caught the council £ 5.1m per year. Over the Nine Years Between 2022/2023 and 2031/2032, this would Amount to £ 46m. For the same period, the Oracle system was meant to save £ 563k in 2022/23 and £ 788k in 2023/2024, with the savings accumulating over the nine years to £ 10.9m.
In August 2019, The Council Ended Its Contract With Capita and the Majority of It Services WEREVICES WERE SERENSITIONED to an in-House Team, Including 300-Plus Capita Staff, for the Most Part Not the Most Part not ORACELESTESS. Building in-House Oracle Capability Proved to be “very challenging”, according to the report.
As Previously reported in Computer WeeklyAfter the go-light in 2022, the Oracle System Required Manual Remedies to Fix Accounting Issues. The Council's 2024 Financial Report Showed A Budget of £ 5.3M for Continued Support and Manual Intervention on the Oracle System.
The report's authors note that failure of the implementation of Oracle fusion has been a “Contributory Factor to the Council's Financial Position Rather Than Being a Fundamental Factor”.
It also notes that implementation programs failed to adhere to its design printers to adopt-standard functionality, instead choosing to adapt it to align with the council '.
Business Culture Change Ignored
Grant Thornton also found that the council did not focus selfily on the business and culture change required to prepare the Organization for the Oracle System. End users were “Unprepered and Unequipped to use the system”, it claims.
It also notes that culture of the council appears to be one where eater bad news was not welcome or officers fed uncomfortable to communicate bad news. We have reported previously on the high level of turnover of Senior Officers at the Council. If the council is to successed with other Major projects, Including The Current ERP Project, And Avoid Similar Issues to the Failed ERP Implementation, THEN it will need to carefully conn change Its culture to one of openness, mutual support and transparency. “
Among the impacts of the failed Oracle implementation, the auditors note its overall cost, plus the investment next to put it right, will be at least $ 90m in exaces of its origger. The reimplementation of the system is not expected to be complete until 2026.
The council will hold a meeting on 11 March 2025 to consider the grant thornton report, which draws Lessons from the botched implementationThese include “Learning points” with respect to governance and oversight, program management, solution design, business change and culture.