Gov's £63m IT project 'to complete on time'

Monday 24 October 2022

The Government’s largest ever IT project is due to finish next year - on time and within its updated £62.5m budget.

The Integrated Technology Solution, or ITS project, is a new computer system which will replace the Government’s disparate finance, HR, inventory and asset management, health and safety and supplier systems.

The project was initially earmarked to cost £28m in the 2020-23 Government Plan, which increased to £40m in the 2021-24 plan, and then £63.5m in the next one.

Last year, the Government conceded that that it had significantly underestimated the cost and scope of the project when it was launched in 2020.

Last March, then-project political head Deputy Scott Wickenden said that the initial £28m had been to get the project off the ground and extra costs had been found.

He said at the time: “We had to get something in the Government Plan to get funding to start the project but as we have gone through the discovery phase [selecting a partner and then negotiating a contract], we have picked up rocks and found problems. 

Pictured: The ITS project has provided funds and placements to Highlands College.

“We realised that because a lot of programmes were pushed back by covid across many departments, the resources we were relying on to help us deliver this change programme were too stretched to do both this and the work that has been put off by the pandemic. 

“We have had to look at it properly, be honest about the challenges we have come across over the last year, and re-evaluate our business plan.”

Since then, the project has kept within its modified budget, as figures in the last Government Plan, for 2023-26, reveal. 

It shows that £54.7m will be spent on the first two releases of the ITS, of which the final £9.7m will be spent next year. 

£7.8m will be spent on the third and fourth releases this year, making a total project cost of £62.5m.

Each of the four releases of ITS are due to complete in 2023.

Three components: ‘Connect Finance’, ‘Connect Suppliers Ariba’ and ‘Connect People’ will be live from January, while ‘Connect Assets’, ‘Connect Estates’, ‘Connect H&S’ and ‘Connect Inventory’ launch in April.

Firms that supply the Government, from sandwiches and paper to fuel and technical expertise, will have to learn how to use 'Connect Suppliers Ariba', a platform which allows real-time tracking of purchase orders and is expected to make payments easier.

The Government say it will guide suppliers through the transition to Connect Suppliers Ariba.

Part of the ITS project involved creating ‘social value’ through partnerships with Highlands College, Skills Jersey, the Back to Work team, local charities and schools. 

The Government say it has employed three full-time employees on the project via the Back to Work scheme, provided nine Trident work placements and worked with Digital Jersey and Skills Jersey to run two coding courses at the Digital Jersey Academy.

It added that students at Highlands College had been trained in SAP – the software on which ITS is built on – and the project has also funded two student bursaries and laptops for disadvantaged students.

The project is expected to save taxpayers’ £3m a year by having a single joined-up system behind many of the Government’s day-to-day functions.