Agenda item

To receive a report on SAP Development PID.

Mark Stone, Interim Programme Director – ICT, IM and The Campus and Operational Delivery Programme updated the Committee on the SAP Project Initiation Document. 

He thanked KPMG for their comprehensive SAP Post Implementation Report from November 2010.  SAP is now a subset of the ICT project.

Outstanding actions that remain unresolved are detailed within Appendix A included in the agenda at pages 27 – 32.  This is aligned to phase one of the Information Services Technology Plan.

Short to mid – term business development requirements were identified in Appendix B included in the agenda at pages 33 – 38.  These are aligned to phase 2 of the Information Services Technology Plan.

The Committee acknowledged that this was a useful document and recognised the difficulties of merging 5 Authorities into 1 Unitary Council. It was agreed that this report detailed a way forward, but it was felt that the document did not resemble a plan as there were no start or finish dates and therefore monitoring progress would be difficult.

This point was noted, start dates and risk assessments would be added, in addition the Information Services Technology Plan would be made available to Members via SharePoint.

Concern was raised over the number of outstanding projects and work to be done.  In particular the number or workarounds that were in place.

The Interim Project Director explained that the number of projects was not considered to be large in terms of a £1Bn organisation.  Workarounds were being systematically removed when issues had been resolved.  Issues were being addressed holistically rather than using a ‘sticking plaster’ approach, ensuring that the ‘end to end’ process was right.

Confirmation was requested that all members of staff had been trained in SAP. 

In response to this it was confirmed that all members of staff were trained prior to SAP ‘going live’, however training will be an ongoing, due to staff movement and development.

A number of the Committee raised concern over the bullet points, within the conclusion of the report in particular:

• Business processes are not well aligned with SAP leading to duplication of effort.

Corporate Director, Resources, Dr Carlton Brand, explained that the business of Wiltshire Council is continually changing, and currently is going through major restructuring.  Business processes would constantly be reviewed and developed.

Members of the Committee queried the future SAP developments road map (Appendix C) expressing concern that there was no allocated budget for these projects.

The Interim Project Director explained that the future road map for SAP contained 25 projects some of which have been investigated and costed, and that business cases were in development for financial approval.  He went on to explain that as a department resources were finite and budgets were managed to deliver the best options.  However with more resource the projects could be delivered more quickly.

The Committee acknowledged that as a Council there was a 4 year Business Plan and that the main priority was to deliver the objectives within this plan.

Resolved

To note the report and the work that is taking place.