Kevin Samuelson (Infor)
A business case for Waikato Regional Council's "Project Reboot" systems replacement has revealed Infor is being considered for a wider role in a refresh of the shared regional council platform, IRIS.
Waikato Regional Council (WRC) is banking on SaaS software from Infor to deliver a systems transformation in an $11.1 million effort dubbed "Project Reboot".
Under the plan, SaaS software from Infor would replace software from Oracle (E-business suite), Conquest (asset management) and PS Enterprise (HR and payroll) among 28 systems to be replaced.
However, the strategic business case for the project supplied to Reseller News under the Local Government Official Information Act indicated Infor could be poised for a much wider role.
The case said there were potential future "synergies and opportunities" related to the future of the IRIS [Integrated Regional Information System] solution shared by various regional councils.
WRC is a shareholder in Regional Software Holdings Ltd (RSHL), which aims to re-platform IRIS in the coming 12-24 months.
"In line with principles of this proposal to adopt standard, consistent, best practice business processes we are also looking to ensure that council’s business processes are as integrated as possible across council business functions," the business case said.
"To achieve this the future IRIS platform will need tight integration with council’s corporate system, and while a separate and independent process will be undertaken for RSHL, Infor will likely be a contender in that selection."
The business case went on to explain that it was highly unlikely that the Oracle platform would be considered in the IRIS process due to a lack of functional fit for those requirements.
"Oracle have shown commitment to this area of functionality for the future, however RSHL needs to begin a move within 12 months and Oracle are not currently ready to support this time-frame."
Asked for comment, the general manager of RSHL, Mark Donnelly, said that with an request for expressions of interest (REOI) in progress he was limited in what he could say.
"The REOI document is very comprehensive in terms of explaining RSHL's objectives. As the REOI says we are open minded about how those objectives are achieved," Donnelly said, adding RSHL preferred to channel its communications with the market via the Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS).
RSHL is owned by the Northland, Horizons, Taranaki, West Coast, Southland and Waikato regional councils and also serves Hawke's Bay regional council as a customer.
WRC is replacing its current financials, budgeting and planning, property and rating, HR and assets solutions with Infor’s CloudSuite Public Sector solution.
The council has also gone to market separately for a payroll system to replace a 2009 implementation of PSE HR/Payroll, to manage pay for around 500 staff and integrate with the new Infor stack.
