Public Finance Live - Tuesday 9th July 2019

On Premise to Cloud – An experience report from a local authority

Selwyn Thompson – Director of Financial Services, London Borough of Lewisham

Southwark

The London Borough

of Lewisham

Introducing the London Borough of Lewisham

Our Organisation Our vision ‘Together we will make Lewisham the best place in London to live, work and learn’

Size and make up of the authority

13.4 square miles Population of circa of 310,000 (2018) 13th largest in in London and 5th largest in inner London Projected growth to 323,000 (2021) and 357,000 (2031) Global borough with 70+ nationalities represented One in four residents aged 0–19 years Political administration is Labour

Number of users

2,500 Council staff 5,700 Schools based staff 600 Lewisham Homes staff (HR and Payroll services) 7,000 pensioners

Our Customers

• Our customers, whether residents, businesses, other councils, partners or

developers, expect high quality services from us

• But technology has changed the way we consume services and

expectation are higher

• While we have migrated some services to online, self service and anytime

access, we must go further, focusing on convenience and speed for the

customer

Investing in our technology

• Adoption of new technologies and

further digitisation of services to

deliver services more effectively whilst

reducing costs and improving

efficiency

• Recent examples include:

• Office 365, SharePoint, new council

website, Skype

• Digital documentation management

and digital mail services

• Oracle Cloud, with additional

functionality for HR

• Reviewing all technologies and

applications for Cloud compatibility as

part of the transformation programme

Lewisham Transformation Programme

• Our workforce is our most important asset

• If the organisation is to change, we need to prepare staff for the challenges ahead

• People have the right skill set

• Putting learning and personal development at the forefront

• Technology to open new opportunities to work flexibly and differently to address work/life balance

• Celebrate excellence and highlight examples of best practice

Investing in the workplace

• The most visible symbol of Lewisham’s transformation is the revamping of

the main civic building, due for completion in Autumn 2019

• Providing staff and customers with accommodation and technologies to

facilitate better working and engagement

• Commencement of a journey to embracing new ways of working, an agile

culture and efficient practices

Our Business Drivers for Change……

Existing solution and business challenges for Lewisham OneOracle platform for Finance and Procurement with five other London Councils. Partner

dynamics, e.g. chart of accounts, change requests

ResourceLink provided by NorthgateArinso for Payroll and HR services – This is a unique position which Lewisham found itself in

Contracts were due to expire for ResourceLink and OneOracle Configuration challenges, functionality and support of our current Payroll and HR solution

Resource intensive to maintain accurate records between the two solutions e.g. different

coding structures

Time wasted adapting information to make it meaningful to the end user

General ‘on premise’ challenges

Why We Felt Oracle Cloud was the right Solution

Lewisham has been in a contractual relationship with the Oracle Corporation since the 1990s – Sought to continue and built this into our business case

Finance and Procurement solution on e-Business Suite generally works well

Opportunity to make improvements to management information

Opportunity to standardise, system and business processes – fully integrated ERP

Reduction in system maintenance and support requirements

Building a stronger self-service culture

Supports flexible and agile working

Digital interactions with customers and suppliers

Reducing manual intervention e.g. data entry Potential cost reductions

Priorities and Opportunities

1. Establishment management robust design and processes that supports accurate budget forecasts, reduces risk of exceptions and supports principle of role-based access across both Oracle and core applications

2. Employee lifecycle single system for people management: recruitment, appraisals, training and development, workforce planning, overtime / timesheet approvals and submission

3. Paying suppliers improve Procure to Pay process, invoice scanning solutions and integration, i-supplier

4. Capital accounting and budget monitoring implement Project Accounting and Fixed Assets and monitoring through Oracle Planning and Budgeting

5. Greater integration with partners both internal and external opportunities, including customer, supplier, citizens.

6. Mobile working improved accessibility and mobile functionality

7. Income and Cash Collection improved integration with AIMS

Partnership, collaboration and team working

Setup Oracle Programme Board bringing together technology provider, implementation

partner and change management, as stakeholders for project delivery

Our Team

The Project

Team “side by side”

• Lewisham, Evosys and Socitm

Project Managers

• Lewisham Functional Leads &

Evosys Cloud Leads

• Lewisham Change Lead working

with stakeholders

• Lewisham Technical/Migration Lead

• Lewisham Change Advisor

Supported by:

Evosys Off shore Functional &

Technical Consultants

Organisational context and how Oracle Cloud fits with the Lewisham Smarter Working

Reports into the Digital Council Transformation

Board - chaired by Chief Executive

Oracle Programme Board

Chaired by the SRO, and including senior representation from

each of the functional areas, IT Services, Communications and

representatives from Evosys and Oracle

Engagement and Consultation

Undertaken with a wide range of stakeholders, from CE,

Executive Directors, Directors, Service Managers and

Service Users

Change and Engagement Programme

Organisation impact assessment

Business change built into the delivery plan

Communications strategy

Where are we on our journey and what are the key learning points….

What we have completed so far….

Extensive range of workshops Conference Room Pilots Demonstrations and walkthroughs Understanding Business requirements Organisation impact assessments development Developing the change, communication and engagement programme Live with finance and procurement – Since May 2018 Go live for Payroll and HCM expected from August 2019

Key learning points so far….

Development of a solid working relationship with Evosys, Oracle and other partners Maintain an open and continual dialogue Oracle Cloud solution is a new product, still evolving – Evosys consultants have sound product knowledge

and have been an effective critical friend. Take time to understand the end-to-end solution and the enormity of cultural shift Important to challenge existing business processes. We have done this with the functional leads, Socitm

and Evosys consultants e.g. Adopt vs Adapt

Top Three Lessons Learned

Our approach and development of our toolkit

has evolved to take account of our Learnings and to address

the risks

Data Migration Strategy

Understand your stakeholders

External suppliers

Council leadership

Budget Holders

Line Managers

Non-managerial

staff

Purchasers

Departmental senior

managers

Suppliers, Customers

and Partners

Business SMEs

Ambassadors

HR & Finance Professionals

Departments

Real Life Impacts of Not Doing Change Management (well)

Significance

Bu

sin

es

s Im

pa

ct

/ C

os

t

Data readiness – key phase for success

• Approach

• Only migrate what is necessary

• Be consistent with cut-off dates and align key data sets and dates

• Clearly defined scope, subject to change control

• Cleanse what you can before migrating

• Effort required

• Data extracts, fully tested and use version control

• Methods for cleansing; Scripts vs Dataload vs Manual

• Resourcing

• Technical resource for extracts and scripts

• Business resources for testing and cleansing

• Prioritisation

• Collection our income

• Paying our suppliers

• Paying our people

Where we are starting to understand how the product will help us realise our benefits

At Lewisham, we are developing a set of core principles:

The scope of the programme will not only cover the implementation of the new solution, but also other related

systems and the culture change required to make the new system a success. In particular we intend to:

• Ensure that ongoing support and training arrangements are considered early in the programme

• Create an expectation that ALL staff will use the new system with no additional input from business support

Benefits to be realised:

• Revenue budget savings from Finance, HR, Business Support and IT etc.,

• Better financial forecasting

• Better supplier management

• Better workforce planning

• Reduced burdens on business support

• Improvement in key SLAs (e.g. days taken to process payroll changes)

What’s Next….

Lewisham Council’s Focus Talent & Partnership

Mobility

May 2018 GDPR

Are moving from

Preventative to

Protection? Risk

Management strategies

need to re-evaluated

Security

Early Days! Hidden

Value of untapped

information resulting in

efficient processes, &

changing the way we

work forever!

AI & ML

Technology trends

ranging from 5G to voice

commands, What

innovation will that bring

to the finance teams

and others in the

organisation