Report to:	Audit Committee
Date of meeting:	21 November 2025
By:	Chief Operating Officer
Title:	Audit Committee Oracle Subgroup Update
Purpose:	To provide an update to the Audit Committee of the Oracle Subgroup’s most recent activity

 

1          Background

1.1       The Committee at its meeting in September 2021 approved the establishment of a Subgroup to provide oversight of progress with the Oracle implementation programme, seeking assurance that the programme is performing adequately.

 

1.2       The Oracle Implementation Programme was established by the County Council in 2019. Prompted by the expected expiry of support for the Council’s existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, SAP, the vision for Oracle is ‘to implement a suite of back-office systems that best meet the current and future needs of the Council and which provides optimal return on investment’.

 

2          Supporting information

            Work of the Subgroup

2.1       Since the last update to the Audit Committee on 7 July 2025, Phase 2 of the Oracle implementation (Finance, Procurement and Recruitment) has successfully exited its period of hypercare as planned and is now being used effectively as part of business as usual.

 

2.2       Since 7 July 2025, the Subgroup met on 11 September 2025 and a summary of the minutes is included in Appendix A. The information presented to the Subgroup is included in Appendix B.

 

2.3       At this meeting the Subgroup recognised the positive progress made, and that the programme had successfully undertaken a series of ‘firsts’ such as a direct debit run, a payment run, a month end, a quarter end and a quarterly Oracle update cycle. It also noted that Phase 2 related activity continues in order to now get the best use out of the system.

 

2.4       The Subgroup also discussed the scope, approach and key challenges to Phase 3 (payroll) and received a progress update on this phase, which has now moved into its testing period.  

 

3.         Conclusion and reasons for recommendations

3.1       The Committee is recommended to note that the Committee’s Oracle Subgroup has reviewed the Council’s Oracle programme to its satisfaction and continues to receive regular updates.

 

 

ROS PARKER

Chief Operating Officer

Contact Officers:        John Davidson, Oracle Delivery Lead, Tel: 07534 699102

Email: john.davidson@eastsussex.gov.uk

 

 

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:     

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