West Sussex County Council has once again delayed the implementation of Oracle Fusion for HR and payroll – set to replace an ageing SAP system – following a series of setbacks that have seen expected costs swell to more than 15 times the original estimate.

In a notice to schools, the council said the program team had reviewed the previously planned April implementation date and confirmed that Oracle Fusion would now be implemented in October 2026.

“This revised timeline reflects the scale of the change, impacting over 20,000 users, and the need to ensure a safe, stable system with a reliable and accurate payroll, particularly for schools and term-time employees,” it said.

In January, the council’s Performance & Finance Scrutiny Committee said the Oracle Fusion finance and procurement system was deployed earlier that month to 917 users in line with the “approved timeline,” which was itself a revised timeline. It was supposed to go live in 2021.

It has previously been reported that, as well as being responsible for delays and overspending, the council has taken the step of allowing capital receipts – mainly from the sell-off of council buildings – to fund the project.

In January, documents released to a council committee show the expected use of funds from the sell-off is set to triple in the current financial year compared to a year earlier, up from £4 million in 2024/25 to £12 million in 2025/26.

In November 2019, the southern English authority, which manages a budget of around £2.3 billion annually, agreed to spend £2.6 million on moving off its legacy SAP system onto Oracle Fusion, a report to the committee said in 2024. It later decided it needed more suppliers to help change its business processes and reset the budget to £14.07 million, including £7 million in March 2021 and £7.07 million in October 2022. Systems integrator DXC began working with the council on the project under a five-year, £4 million contract in May 2020. Auditors EY later said there were “weaknesses regarding budgeting, governance and risk management.”

In July 2023, the council found there was no real prospect of a deliverable plan being agreed. It terminated the agreement with DXC on September 1, 2023, despite the company winning a lucrative contract variation. Published data detailing council spending shows that throughout its time working with the council on the project, DXC was paid around £6.6 million, more than 50 percent above the original contract price. The company was approached for comment at the time.

In a statement earlier this year, a spokesperson for the council said the total estimated cost for the program is around £41 million, comprised of the initial £14.07 million spent during the earlier phases and the current approved budget of £27.048 million for its completion.

“We generate capital receipts from the sale of assets and routinely sell assets that we no longer have an operational use for. West Sussex County Council has made a financial choice to use the receipts available to help fund the implementation of Oracle,” they said.