Leeds Metropolis Council is protecting the alternative of its Oracle finance system secret after deciding to desert plans for a £44 million ($54 million) ERP system to help finance, HR and payroll.

In 2021, the native authority for Leeds, a metropolis in northern England, kicked off procurement of a core ERP system that was to create a 20-year relationship following the alternative of its previous enterprise functions, together with the finance system based mostly on Oracle and an HR and payroll system based mostly on SAP.

The council’s “enterprise change program” could be “supported by the implementation of cloud-based, totally built-in, folks and finance software-as-a-service options using a post-modern ERP expertise technique,” it mentioned on the time.

However now it has modified its thoughts. In a press release to The Register, a spokesman mentioned: “Early in 2022 Leeds Metropolis Council reviewed its proposed procurement route in mild of fast developments out there. Because of this, that route was discontinued and no contracts have been provided. The council is as a substitute pursuing a change programme that may end in a phased alternative of techniques, processes and methods of working throughout core enterprise features: finance, HR, payroll and ‘procure-to pay’.”

However why? Main as much as the primary tender, the council appeared adamant {that a} single answer was finest.

“An built-in single answer, generally referred to as an Enterprise Useful resource Planning system or ERP, is commonplace amongst Councils, being the preferred kind of answer for managing monetary and folks data. This tried and examined expertise is now delivered as a Cloud based mostly service, that means that the Council won’t have to put money into further {hardware},” a report [PDF] mentioned in 2020.

The only built-in system was “essentially the most acceptable approach of assembly the goals of the Council, while making certain ongoing sustainability of the Council’s core techniques on the lowest procurement and implementation price,” it concluded.

Nevertheless, the results of the procurement was disappointing. “Suppliers didn’t ship submissions which met our necessities on transformation or expertise,” a new report [PDF] mentioned in 2022. Three suppliers bid the identical answer with minor variations, whereas one was undecided on expertise and the remaining provider was “unsure about progressing,” the council doc mentioned.

With outdoors recommendation from consultancy EY, the council concluded that the unique 24-month timeline was “unrealistic and excessive danger.”

Because of this, the council is adopting a “phased” method, changing the finance and HR/payroll techniques with totally different expertise in numerous initiatives.

Each initiatives will slot in a 3 to four-year transformation, the council mentioned, however the finance implementation is a “24-month journey… to be operational and deployed to monetary companies employees [in] October 2023,” suggesting that the journey has already begun. The associated fee estimate for part one is £10.48 million ($12.93 million).

However with which provider? The council mentioned it could purchase from an current framework deal and that the “chosen Finance expertise is being saved as commercially delicate in order that the authority can negotiate with the provider on the price of the companies the provider gives to the authority.”

The council spokesman has been requested to establish a brand new provider.

It’s not solely inner ambition placing a ticking clock on the venture. Each Oracle’s finance system and SAP’s HR/payroll system will attain the tip of life by 2025 when mainstream help involves a detailed.

Council taxpayers within the Yorkshire capital can relaxation assured that the authority they pay for has chosen the low-risk possibility in its dramatic 18-month U-turn. ®

 


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