Agenda item

Business World ERP System Re-design Update

(To receive a report by Louisa Harvey, ERP System Delivery Manager, Business World

Andrew McLean, Assistant Director – Corporate Transformation, Programmes and Performance, which provides an update on the progress of the re-design of the Council's Business World ERP system following approval from the Executive on 17 December 2019 to move to the Hoople Limited platform)

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by the ERP System Delivery Manager, which provided an update on the progress of the re-design of the Council's Business World ERP system following approval from the Executive on 17 December 2019 to move to the Hoople Limited platform.

 

The Board received a presentation, which gave an overview of the project including the following:

 

-       A recap of the business case

-       The approach to the project

-       The design of the system

-       How the system was built

-       The testing methods used

-       Change management

-       Proposed plans for the system to ‘go live’ including ongoing monitoring

 

The Board was advised that the Council was currently in the ‘test’ stages of implementation, which included full system testing and payroll testing ahead of the system going live. Testing activities had also been used as a method of identifying any issues with that data to ensure that all of the issues were resolved and that where possible, existing (un-necessary) manual calculation work-arounds were removed to prevent manual error and automate processes. Changes to the payroll system to date had been positive and testing had been successfully completed for each of the four areas of the Council’s payroll systems. A training strategy with guidance had been implemented and all relevant Officers would be trained on the new system.

 

It was recommended that a report on the progress of the project be reported to the Board at its meeting on 26 May 2022, subject to the completion of the next test phase, which was scheduled for 29 April 2022. 

 

Consideration was given to the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

 

·       The Board was reassured that although Hoople Ltd was a Limited Company, the Council attended Board meetings alongside other shareholders, allowing them to have input into the development of systems and future priorities.

·       Assurance was provided that there were stringent requirements in place to ensure that the Council’s data was secure within the system. Officers worked closely with the Council’s information assurance team to ensure that data was as secure as possible which included routine testing on a regular basis to ensure the security of the Council’s data. The Board was assured that before entering into the agreement with Hoople Ltd, stringent information assurance checks were made and were carried out on an ongoing basis to ensure the security of the Council’s data.

·       The team was focused on the immediate benefits that the system would bring alongside introducing a development plan which would be implemented in the following 12 months to ensure the system was being used to its fullest effect.

·       Officers were working with the HR service on the complexities of the system which would highlight any areas for review to ensure that the system was as streamlined as possible despite the number of payment and deduction codes.

·       The Board was reassured that the project was taking longer than expected because the Officers were passionate about ensuring that all due diligence had been carried out and that the roll-out was successful and systems as accurate as possible. Officers were therefore satisfied that the time taken on the project was necessary to ensure that the roll-out was a success.

·       At the next update to the Committee there would be a clearer picture of the next milestones and a date in which the system would ‘go live’.

·       Providing that all testing was successful and carried out to the proposed schedule, it was hoped that the system could go live around three months after the final test phase, which was planned for April 2022. 

·       As a result of challenges posed by the pandemic, there had been some challenges for the availability of testing and training within schools. Extra support was being brought in to ensure they were familiar with the system and were confident using it.

·       Assurance was provided that lessons had been learned from the previous change in payroll system and that systems would be much simpler to use with the changes made. 

·       Delays were due to staffing resources and difficulty in obtaining experienced and appropriately trained staff for the new payroll system. The Council had faced challenges in finding staff that were experienced and resourced to investigate and review the system, as well as data migration exercises taking considerably longer to complete than anticipated.  It was also noted that the delay in the project had impacted other areas in the Council as it had reduced the ability for project officers and IT officers to support other areas of the Council whilst ensuring that the Business World  programme is delivered to its fullest.

 

RESOLVED:

 

  1. That consideration be given to the report and the comments made be noted;

That a report be received by the Board on progress of the Business World ERP System Design at its meeting on 26 May 2022, subject to the completion of the next test phase, which was scheduled for 29 April 2022.

Supporting documents:

 

 
 
dot

Original Text: