SAP up and running

By ADAM GIFFORD

The Auckland City Council is evaluating German software giant SAP's real estate, human resources and payroll modules now that it has finished a $7 million implementation of a core SAP financial system.

Finance director David Rankin, the project sponsor, said the system went live in October "with only micro teething problems" and the first month end accounts ran smoothly.

To keep the project under control, Auckland City and implementation partner Deloitte Consulting concentrated on the core financials for the first stage.

"We will gradually extend the modules.

"We are in an advanced stage of evaluating the real estate module and should make a decision before Christmas," Mr Rankin said.

The $1 million module will replace the OPM property management and financial system used by the council's property group since amalgamation in 1990.

The council used to run its financials on the Australian-made Total Corporate System (TCS) software.

"The property database we use for rates and the dog licensing system is still on TCS, so there's an issue what we do with that," Mr Rankin said.

The council is already seeing the benefits of a fully integrated financial system.

"The system is more able to give the business information the council needs, and it enables us to automate a lot of previously manual processes such as accounts receivable and accounts payable."

That means fewer clerical staff. The council put a freeze on employing permanent staff in the middle of 1998 in expectation of the new system, and has relied on natural attrition to bring numbers down.

Mr Rankin said having a fully functioning ERP (enterprise resource planning) system gave it a good base for future developments, such as allowing ratepayers to pay their rates and conduct other transactions with the council online.

"We are actively thinking about those issues and we will progress those concepts next year."