AUDIT COMMITTEE                                                                                                Appendix A

ORACLE SUBGROUP

11 September 2025

ATTENDEES:

Councillor Colin Swansborough

Councillor Gerard Fox

Councillor Matthew Beaver

Councillor Philip Lunn

OFFICERS IN ATTENDANCE:

Ros Parker, Chief Operating Officer

Ian Gutsell, Chief Finance Officer

Mark Winton, Audit Manager - Delivery

Sophie Webb, Governance and Democracy Manager

APOLOGIES:

John Davidson, Oracle Programme Lead

1. VERBAL UPDATE from Chief Operating Officer

1.1       RP updated the subgroup that since the last meeting, Phase 1 has seen many modules now live, budgeting is currently being built and demoed to be in place in time for the 2026/27 budgeting cycle.

1.2       RP highlighted a series of ‘firsts’ within Phase 2 such as a direct debit run, payment run, month end, quarter end and quarterly system update from Oracle.

1.3       RP informed the subgroup that following the end of the period of Hypercare, training has continued to be rolled out to a variety of users and the information available through Oracle Guided Learning has been expanded.

1.4       RP informed the subgroup that date options for Phase 3 go-live are being explored having regard to timings for Local Government Reorganisation and school term times.

1.5       RP highlighted that in terms of organisational readiness, although Phase 3 will affect all staff, most staff will only interact via accessing their payslip and claiming expenses.

1.6       IG gave the subgroup assurance that Finance Teams have moved out of hypercare and are successfully using Oracle on a day-to-day basis.

1.7       MW noted that Internal Audit are in the process of planning Internal Audit work to be undertaken pre-Phase 3 go-live.

2. DISCUSSION

2.1 The Subgroup discussed the following points:

· The challenges surrounding payroll migration and how to support staff through changes

· User confidence in Oracle