Agenda item

The Chair invited the Lead Member for Finance, Customer Services and Net Zero Council, Cllr Thalassites, supported by the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, Debbie Morris, and the Director of Financial Management, Lisa Taylor.

The Committee:

5.1Contemplated the complexity of implementing the ERP System and asked what contingencies were in place. Officers indicated that discussions had already taken place with Hampshire County Council to temporarily continue service if October 2024 deadline was not met.

5.2Queried which risks were of most concern to Officers in implementation of ERP System. Officers said that data was the biggest risk, and a lot of discussions were taking place regarding how to migrate data from Hampshire to the new sovereign system. There was also an added complexity regarding the retention of data with the Metropolitan Police following the Grenfell Tragedy with regard to Risk D. Officers indicated they were lucky to have staff with experience of changing systems to mitigate risks.

5.3Sought clarity on where each risk ranked in likelihood of occurrence, and the impact should they materialise and whether work had been done to prepare. Officers highlighted that Risks A, C, D and E were all significant risks related to data, B was related to the target operating model which Officers felt confident about how the operate the system going forward. Four of the five significant risks were related to data.

5.4Considered the opportunities of the transition to a new system and ability to sell the service to other Local Authorities. Officers indicated it would not be within their gift and most local authorities had their own systems, the authorities who were in shared arrangements tended to be moving away from it. However, payroll services could be provided to schools as when the Council moved to SAP, it removed such a capability. Officers confirmed while that would not be done immediately to ensure transition to Oracle had gone smoothly. However, it was an option.

5.5Sought reassurance that senior managers considered transition to Oracle as a top priority as an often-cited failure of ERP transformations was due to lack of buy-in by senior managers. Officers recognised this and confirmed that the Executive Director for Resources, was the sponsor for the project and Oracle had been invited to speak to senior management. Officers had also involved Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham where bi/tri-borough arrangements were in place. Officers highlighted that another reason for failure of such projects was due to attempts to adapt such systems which meant they would constantly have to be kept up to date.

5.6Discussed whether there was a high risk of being unable to comply with preservation order from the Metropolitan Police.

5.7Explored what the driving reason behind the transformation to a new system was. Officers explained that as the partnership with Hampshire County Council had matured, Officers had been restrained and did not have input into how reports were produced; most of HCC current partners were Police, Fire Services and County Councils which had a different type of workforce to a London Borough. Officers felt the organisation could not move forward with the current arrangement.

5.8Questioned how significant the slippage in the EPM workstream was as it was the only workstream that was not progressing to timetable. Officers explained there was a recognition that not all workstreams could be progressed at once, so this was identified as one workstream timetable that could be moved. It was also recognised that not everything was going to the original timetable and a close eye was being kept on this.

5.9Deliberated whether the critical path had been identified and had contingencies built into it. Officers indicated the Programme Manager was very experienced and had highlighted this, business integrator and systems integrator partners had also recognised critical paths from previous projects they had done.

5.10   Recognised how important implementation was and acknowledged Officers for responding. The Committee requested that they would look to review progress, Officers indicated they were committed to updating the Committee quarterly.

Action by: Director of Human Resources and Operational Development & Director of Financial Management

The Chair summarised the discussion and thanked Officers for the report.