If Bullying is the hallmark of Excellence in Somerset, then surely SAP must be its pinnacle. An enterprise-wide solution (aka "a Problem in Disguise") costing tens of millions of pounds, being managed by a foreign body, is held up as the ultimate achievement of the Excellence Years (2003-2009).
So it was a bit of a disappointment to be joined by someone claiming to be a "School Bursar" when we were discussing it down at the Dog & Duck last night.
A growing number of regulars work for organisations who are owed money by SAP but have not been paid, ("it's getting silly!" is the sort of facile statement we are having to put up with from ignorant yokels who do contracting or whatever for the Council).
'You think you've got problems,' said the Bursar, 'schools haven't been able to reconcile SIMS to SAP since the beginning of the year!'
'Huh?' chorused the ignorant yokels.
'What's that got to do with how I'm supposed to pay my wages tomorrow?' yelled some lout from the bar.
'What's a SIM?' asked Daffer.
'SIMS' the Bursar corrected him. 'It's the schools' management system, what we do our accounts on.'
Now, if Albert Einstein were still with us, he would have understood immediately. But for the rest of us, this poor Bursar chappie had to spell it out before we would allow him to go back to drowning his sorrows at the bar.
It seems that the County spends most of our money (hundreds of millions a year, in fact) through schools, and the schools all do their own budgeting. Now, due to the SAP débâcle, none of them can check that they've got it right this year, and if they haven't .... well they won't find out about it until it's too late anyway.
None of which will explain how SAP's creditors are supposed to pay their wages this week ... :-(
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
IBM are the preferred bidder in Essex, so their non-delivery record in Somerset (or Bradford or DEFRA or Dept for Transport) simply isn't an issue.
Down to "cultural problems" with council staff no doubt.
http://www.kable.co.uk/essex-ibm-preferred-bidder-transformation-24jun09
Wish Essex CC a lorra lorra luck 'cos whatever their problems, a large & expensive IBM box and SAP everywhere will be the answer:
SAP will even organise & deliver social care...and schools.
It will indeed be a tragedy if the world class IBM staff from Somerset are whisked off to Essex before their excellent work here is complete.
Rumours that FlyBE and Easyjet are bidding for new routes from Bristol/Exeter airports to Chelmsford.
If your Dog and Duck informant would care to contribute a few more details I know a local ginger cat who would love to hear them!
Schools input invoices onto the financial management system part of SIMS – these are uploaded via network to SAP which then generates payment to the supplier. Each month the school is sent (or should be sent) a reconciliation file from that contains all the transactions that have been paid against the schools budget by SAP: invoices, salaries and central payments. The bursar or finance officer will check the details in this file against the schools SIMS system to ensure that the school is only being charged for goods and services that relate to them. The reconciliation file also contains payments that have been made directly from the schools budget by SCC, usually for services provided by SCC or their agents, IT support and contract support for example. In addition to expenditure the file shows income that the school has paid in or generated – there is a rumour that so far this financial year no income received has been credited to schools budgets, but without the reconciliation files the school can't tell etc!
Oh dear, Mr Plod!
"..reports from the High Court in London, suggest that Mr Port is determined to keep on expressing the point of view that had him hauled up in the first place – and legal experts question whether his grasp of the law is all that it should be."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/17/bates_hard_drives_home/
Post a Comment