UK council awards Oracle another £10m for professional services due to ERP implications • The Register

Struggling Birmingham City Council, which was virtually bankrupt last year due in part to a disastrous Oracle implementation, has awarded the tech giant £10 million ($12.8 million) for extra professional services.

In an award notice published late last week, the council said the contract – worth £9.987m – began on June 4 and is due to be completed on September 3, 2026.

Birmingham City Council, Europe’s largest local authority, failed to start the new financial year in April using audited accounting software after a disastrous implementation of Oracle Fusion that was delayed by almost two years and resulted in a budget increase from £20 million ($26 million) to £40 million ($51 million).

The total cost of the project could now be as much as £131 million ($163 million), as it plans to completely rebuild the software “out of the box” after efforts to build a bespoke solution failed.

The council did not initially implement security and audit features into the software, meaning there is no way to tell if fraud occurred between April 2022 and September 2023.

A number of firms have taken on an advisory role in helping the board recover the project, including Oracle Consulting, Gartner, PwC and KPMG, as well as original partners Insight Direct and Evosys.

Beyond the new Oracle Professional Services award, the technology sector will have a lot of work to do as the council prepares to re-implement Oracle while grappling with making its current system fit for purpose.

The council is to launch a tender for a new Oracle solutions partner who will “develop, implement and work with the council to implement an initial solution by March 2026 and provide the service for a further three to five years”.

In May, the council’s finance and resources committee heard that Oracle’s re-implementation plan would require significant changes to the business. The committee was assured that the council would use “phase gates” to control the rollout and that “a tighter governance process has been implemented this time.”®