An independent review of the Western Australian Government's mammoth Shared Corporate Services Project has recommended it proceed according to its current plan and budget, as it was currently meeting its revised milestones.
An independent review of the Western Australian Government's mammoth Shared Corporate Services Project has recommended it proceed according to its current plan and budget, as it was currently meeting its revised milestones.
(Credit: WA government)
The state initiated the predominantly Oracle-based project in 2003 to consolidate financial, procurement and HR back-office functions from agencies to three shared services centres, with the aim of shaving some $55 million off its annual $315 million corporate services bill.
However, the timeline was not achieved and costs
rose to over $400 million. After a damning report by the Western Australian auditor general, last year a new
plan was developed, scheduling the completion of the project in 2013.
According to IT consultancy Quadrant, which has reviewed
the project's progress since this time,
most of the new milestones, such as the successful implementation of
HR/payroll systems for the Department of Treasury and Finance — Shared
Services department, and the supply of the first enterprise resource planning system for the Department
of Local Government and Regional Development, had been met.
Western Australian Treasurer Troy Buswell yesterday released the report, saying he would give the program a new lease of life on the condition that budget targets and implementation milestones continued to be met.
Happy with the progress, Quadrant recommended that the project proceed according to its
current plan and budget, saying there were no issues that
were significant enough for the government to resort to
the other two options, which were ditching Oracle's human resources
and payroll system for the agencies' own Talent 2 system or
rolling back the program.
Although the risks of continuing the
program were high, Quadrant believed those of carrying out the
other options were higher. An Australian Oracle spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.
Risks Quadrant identified included the high number of agencies
to be rolled in to the services from 2009/2010, compared to a relatively light schedule
to date, and the fact that the Oracle e-Business system upgrade
scheduled to occur in 2013 had not been factored into the overall
budget. The report recommended that some of the agency roll-ins be
moved forward.
Although Quadrant expressed concern that there was no extra time
built into the plan for unforeseen events, it said that since
later roll-ins would be conducted faster than those earlier, some items
would take less time than stated. Good progress had been made on
roll-ins of major and multi-agencies up to this point, with some
occurring faster and ahead of schedule, the consultancy said.
Improvements, such as the removal of workarounds, was given less
vigorous approval, although Quadrant didn't feel any problems
jeopardised the program except one — a workaround
involving cash reporting.
"Currently this issue is causing additional workload within the
SSC (Shared Services Centre), which is seen as unsustainable once more agencies roll in,"
the report said, although it added that an option for resolution
was close to being chosen.
In addition, any move to abandon the integrated Oracle solution at this time would require a considerable program re-planning effort
Quadrant's review
The designing and testing of a HR system, which provides payroll
functions for different employee awards and agreements, was behind schedule.
Although Oracle said in the report that the experience gained so far would help in
speeding work to come, which Quadrant believed had basis.
The ditching of Oracle's HR and payroll system was averted due
to integration problems. Despite success of the Talent 2 HR system
in the Health Corporate Network (HCN) service centre, Quadrant
noted that developing an interface between the Oracle finance and
agency HR product had yet to be resolved by HCN and that the effort
required to achieve this looked to be significant.
"In addition, any move to abandon the integrated Oracle
solution at this time would require a considerable program
re-planning effort, during which time agency implementations would
cease," the report said.
The review was not supposed to provide a financial assessment of
progress, but Quadrant did say that the principles which
underpinned the rationale for the savings were sound.