Welsh council extends contract for Oracle EBS 12.1 as it waits for Fusion

Delays risk accounting and government compliance, documents reveal

Swansea City Council has been forced to extend an IT service provider contract to keep its unsupported and unpatched ERP system up and running because its replacement is running two years behind.

A procurement document published last week shows Infosys was awarded £2 million contract (c $2.40 million) extension, until 30 November 2023, to support the Welsh council's Oracle eBusiness Suite ERP system while it waits for the replacement Oracle Fusion system to be ready. It takes Infosys's total for supporting the old system to £6.7 million (c $8.1 million).

Council documents reveal the authority runs its finance and HR systems on EBS R12.1, which moved into Oracle Sustaining Support in January 2022 and will therefore no longer receive new fixes, updates, or security patches.

In 2019, the council approved plans to move to Oracle Fusion [PDF] in the expectation that the new system would be live by November 2020.

However, the council had to change the schedule due to time lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Council risked failing its Public Service Network accreditation: report

It said using unsupported software "increased the risk of cyber-attacks and potential data theft" while there was also "a risk payroll may not function, staff and pensioners may not be paid." The report also said the council risked failing its Public Service Network (PSN) accreditation, which meant it could be prevented from sharing data with the health service, police, and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

However, in March 2020, the council invoked a force majeure clause – which alters parties' contractual obligations – with the support provider Infosys and began discussions to resume the program.

It opted to suspend the program and start back up in February 2021, with the aim to go live in October 2021. The plans said Infosys had agreed to absorb additional costs for this extension.

It said Oracle had agreed to extend support from November 2020 to 2022 so it could get regular updates and patches. "Although this risk still exists, it has been mitigated," it said.

Given the council has awarded a contract well after the planned go-live of its replacement, it seems those assumptions are under threat. The council has so far failed to respond to The Register's request for comment.

Its Fusion project might provide some lessons for the London Borough of Waltham Forest, which plans to have its core solution – a move away from an ageing SAP ERP system – live within a year of the project's start.

Other councils have learned about the complexity of ERP projects the hard way. In December last year, The Register revealed that West Sussex County Council was facing a two-year delay to a £7.5 million ($9.2 million) Oracle ERP project to replace its 20-year-old SAP system with Fusion. Surrey County Council has also seen its project to move from SAP to Unit4 delayed and incur additional costs. ®