3:20
Kate Terroni, Deputy Director Joint Commissioning, will attend to give a brief presentation to the Committee.
The presentation will update the Committee on the progress of two interlinking projects:
· The Adult Social Care IT Project which will deliver replacement computer systems for Adult Social Care (Swift) and Client Finance (Abacus); and;
· The Adult Services Improvement Programme which is delivering significantly more effective and efficient business processes using LEAN methodologies.
The Committee is RECOMMENDED toreceive the presentation.
Minutes:
Kate Terroni, Deputy Director Joint Commissioning, and Martyn Ward, Service Manager ICT Business Delivery, gave a presentation to update the Committee on two interlinking projects:
· the Adult Social Care IT Project which will deliver replacement computer systems for Adult Social Care (Swift) and Client Finance (Abacus); and;
· theAdult Services Improvement Programme which is delivering significantly more effective and efficient business processes using LEAN methodologies.
The Committee heard that the projects were entering their final stages and were currently in the data quality testing phase.
Mr Ward told the Committee that time and resources were being put into data migration with a focus on achieving as close to 100% of data matches as possible. He explained that this was a vital and complex task and that to press ahead with the planned go-live date of 1 June 2015 would present a significant risk with poor quality data matches.
Mrs Baxter explained that it was the multitude of resources from which financial data had been pulled which had caused the difficulties regarding data matches. She added that, for billing and payment reasons, it was essential to achieve data matches as close to 100% as possible.
Mr Ward went on to explain that the training support side of the project was also taking more time than was originally forecast and that this was also an area which meant that planned go-live date was going to be unachievable.
Mrs Terroni explained that the decision had been taken, with the agreement of CCMT, to postpone the go-live date and that a new date was yet to be set.
A number of Members agreed that postponing the go-live date was the right thing to do and accepted that the original go-live date of 1 June 2015 was optimistic.
Mrs Terroni stated that there would be no impact in postponing the go-live date for service users and that staff would continue to work with the existing systems that were in place.
Councillor Smith and Dr Jones questioned what the potential costs of postponing the go-live date would be.
Mrs Terroni explained that it would depend on the new date but added that the funds for the project were coming from a Better Care Fund Capital Grant and nowhere else. She stated that she would come back to the Committee with a timeframe and a figure.
Mrs Baxter added that missing the original go-live date was an opportunity lost. In the meantime, the Council would continue with the existing systems and not reap the benefits of the new system as quickly as otherwise. However, she explained that the risks of getting it wrong outweighed the potential costs of postponing the project.
Dr Jones expressed his disappointment that the problems that are holding the project back had not been foreseen.
Councillor Lovatt stated that there may never be complete data matches and that there are always crossover problems when new software programmes are implemented. With that in mind, he asked how irregularities and errors would be highlighted once the system is up and running.
Mr Ward explained that the Council was fortunate to be able to learn the lessons of other organisations who have implemented the project and that testing scripts had been made available to enable the Council to pre-empt a lot of problems, but agreed that the knowledge within the ICT department would be important going forward.
RESOLVED: to note the presentation and request a further update at its next meeting.