The War of Wellington... Council under fire for Aussie tech hire

A major row has erupted between prominent Wellington IT consultant and commentator Ian Apperley and the Wellington City Council over the cost of the planned council IT replacement contract, awarded to Australian company TechnologyOne.

Wellington mayor Celia Wade Brown says she has been assured that the proposed budget is in the region of $10 million.

“$10 million-ish to replace 120 different IT systems of which a propostion are aged, legacy and complex, plus the same across eight other councils,” Apperley blogged, saying he had never seen a total system replacement that cost $10 million dollars.

A report by Deloite, titled Wellington Local Government Re-organisation Options – Transition Costs and Benefits for Technology Changes, puts the total cost of a “one Wellington” solution at between $105 million and $150 million.

In a subsequent post, Apperley posed 36 questions to the mayor and councillors, including the total expected cost of the council's Project Odyssey, which systems are being replaced, the business case that supports the cost and how many staff at the council were former employees of TechnologyOne, and vice versa.

He's asked that among nine items, the gift register for the council's IT department be made public.

In response to questions from Computerworld New Zealand, a council spokesman, Anthony Wilson, says the information being contrasted around computer spend comes from three different initiatives and therefore isn’t comparable.

“The Local Government Commission released a document that discusses regional amalgamation. Deloitte developed potential costs for the merger of nine councils across the Wellington region," Wilson responded.

"The scope included all ICT services – infrastructure, applications, outsourcing etc. The $100 million figure I gather is referred to in this report.

“This Deloitte report in turn refers to a different Deloitte feasibility study that was funded by the Wellington region Shared ICT Infrastructure Programme (SIIP).

"SIIP is a separate initiative where four councils within the Wellington region and Wellington Water (a council-controlled organisation) are looking at a common ICT infrastructure platform ahead of any form of regional amalgamation.

"We are currently working on a business case. No further information can be provided as we are working through a procurement phase."

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According to Wilson, Project Odyssey is the third initiative.

"Wellington City Council is running a programme of work to replace approximately 70 business applications using a local government software platform," he explained.

"TechnologyOne has been selected as the preferred supplier. The $10 million referred to is an estimate of the cost to deliver project Odyssey over a number of years and includes both internal and external costs.

"We are still working through the procurement phase and no further information can be provided.”

Apperley said that in relation to Wilson's first point, the report has a range of options from very low, to very high ($150 million).

“The question is, if this is irrelevant, as the council seems to be alluding to, then why does it mention Project Odyssey 14 times?

The reference to SIIP, he describes as “standard obfuscation” - "What is this? How come we haven’t heard about it before? How much will this cost?" he questioned.

He says the reference to Project Odyssey differs from what the council has previously said: “Where’s the business case? Who can replace 70 business systems for $10 million? The website upgrade cost them $2m alone. Where is the business case?

“This is pure obfuscation. They have chosen to focus on cost and I don’t believe their figures; nor does anyone else. Replacing 70 applications will cost far more than $10 million.

"They have chosen to answer none of the 36 other questions, which are critically important and of high public interest.

“This is a non-answer and my opinion is that they are in damage control. It appears that they have no business case, yet they are in negotiation with a single supplier."

According to Apperley, this has all the hallmarks of yet another IT project disaster that will have a direct impact on the rate-paying public of Wellington, who have shown a high degree of interest in this project.

“Their communications are still confusing," he added. "It is simply not good enough for a public entity that is funded by the citizens of Wellington to behave this way."