Is it a coincidence that these two articles appeared in the same few days?
This appeared a few days ago:
Qld Health's SAP implementation led to $540m in invoices paid late
By Justin Hendry on Sep 28, 2020 10:02AM
System issues, poor staff training mar project.
Problems with Queensland Health’s SAP enterprise resource planning system last year resulted in $540 million in late payments to vendors over just three months, the state’s auditor has revealed.
An investigation [pdf] by the Queensland Audit Office uncovered “significant issues” with the new S/4 HANA system after go-live in August 2019.
Some of the issues were technical or to do with the software's functionality, ultimately resulting in a re-platforming to improve performance; others were attributed the department's implementation and to a lack of user training.
The $135 million system replaced Queensland Health’s 22-year-old and out-of-support SAP ERP called the finance and materials management information system (FAMMIS), in all 16 hospitals and health services across the state and the department.
It was the result of the department’s heavily delayed financial system renewal (FSR) project, which replaced a $36 million earlier effort to replace the FAMMIS system that was aborted in 2014-15.
Problems with the S/4 HANA system emerged almost immediately after it went live, despite the department having delayed the rollout twice before at the cost of an extra $30 million.
Late payments
The report, released last week, found that “$540 million of vendor invoices were paid late” in the three-month period following the system’s go-live - a “significant backlog of payments” that peaked in October, when “$335 million of vendor invoices [were] paid past their due date”.
The backlog was attributed to a range of issues.
The issues included that “invoice scanning software" had not been trained to recognise and capture key data from invoices “consistently and correctly”.
“As a result, staff had to manually check and record the correct information in the system, which delayed the payment of invoices," the audit found.
A large number of invoices - approximately 481,768 - were also rejected by the system “as being duplicate, in invalid file format or non-invoice documents” in the first weeks after go-live.
This was largely due to “not all vendors [choosing] to format their invoices in the required manner”, and also to vendors filing multiple copies of the same invoices to different places in the hope of improving their chances of being paid on time.
Broken workflows
Other issues included “workflows in the system not operating as expected” at go-live for 14 of the 16 hospitals and health services (HHSs), six of which were still experiencing issues at the end of the system’s “hypercare and transition periods”.
Hypercare refers to a period of "elevated system support" that ran between August and November 2019.
This was exacerbated by problems with the delegations of authority - effectively which staff were authorised to approve transactions - that were uploaded to the system.
“Delegation data errors and low user training resulted in ineffective workflows, which increased the risk of fraud and errors not being detected early in the system, and the risk of delays and duplications,” the audit said.
Lack of user training
Staff also struggled with new system processes, including how the new system measured quantity, causing “delays or errors in ordering” while others bypassed the system altogether using manual workarounds.
"For example, an order for a box of 100 gloves is specified as ‘100 EA’ in S/4 HANA, compared to ‘1 box’ in the previous system," the report noted.
"When HHSs placed an order for ‘1 EA’ gloves, the system tried to deliver a single glove when the HHS expected a box of 100."
Some HHSs placed direct orders with suppliers to bypass the issues, "despite warehouse stock being available for order.
They also used “corporate credit cards to pay outstanding invoices to reduce the risk of vendors withholding supplies”.
One reason HHSs encountered usability problems is that just 10 days from the launch, only 39 percent of users had completed training in the new system.
The audit also found that not all recommendations made in the final independent review of the system were implemented. Only 7 of the 12 implemented just days out from the launch in August 2019.
The system issues resulted in unexpected costs, with 12 HHSs reported to have spent an additional “$3.1 million managing post go-live issues”, including by hiring additional staff or consultants.
“The post go-live experience showed that Queensland Health underestimated the compounding delivery risks,” the report said.
Many more issues are identified later in the article here:
WA Health embarks on massive payroll system overhaul
By Justin Hendry on Sep 30, 2020 6:58PM
Kicks off procurement with $8.5m in initial funding.
Western Australia's health department has started searching for an integrated HR, payroll and rostering solution to serve its 50,000-strong workforce after receiving $8.5 million to kick off the procurement.
WA Health’s shared services unit, the Health Support Service (HSS), approached the market for the new HRMIS on Wednesday, actioning a key recommendation in the government’s sustainable health review.
The review, released last year, called for widespread IT reform across the WA health system, including replacing the WA Health’s ageing HR, payroll and rostering system with a single workforce information system.
The government has committed $8.5 million in the upcoming budget to finding a HRMIS, and plans to use a proof-of-concept process - capped at $250,000 - to find a solution that meets the needs of the department.
Further funding for implementation and delivery is expected in the 2021-22 budget, with the final solution expected to be used to improve workforce reporting, governance and planning and give staff the ability to access information about shifts, leave and pay online.
The five-year transformation will see WA Health replace four “duplicate and independent software applications” used for HR, payroll and rostering, which are “outdated, not integrated and rely on manual processing to serve the workforce”.
Lots more here:
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wa-health-embarks-on-massive-payroll-system-overhaul-554135
One has to really hope that the Qld Audit Report is carefully studied by those at the other side of the country. Reading the list of problems I have to say they are all pretty generic and there are well known ways of managing each of the risks listed.
There is really no excuse for anything less than a perfect procurement and implementation given all the experience and learnings both here and globally!
What do you reckon are the chances of that actually happening? I have to say I would not bet big bucks on a pretty smooth project but maybe I will be proven wrong. As they say “time will tell”!
David.
All started to unravel about 3 years ago David. New leadership in eHealth Qld totally dropped the ball and throw cash to cover things up. Where some have gone to continue their blind belief and falsehoods is a worry for Queensland
ReplyDeleteThese lessons are rarely learned or applied. As government (our taxes) cash starts flowing in vast amounts in attempts to stimulate economic growth, these good intentions will fall short as snouts gorge and luvies without a clue stumble around in the darkness hoping something works.
ReplyDeleteHappy to be corrected and evidence shown
Very difficult to pin the tail on the donkey. Seems everyone and no one was at fault. Qld Health is a huge organisation to tar the failings of an IT implementation and change management failure on all is a bit lazy.
ReplyDelete