ANCHORAGE – Mayor Ethan Berkowitz met with the Assembly SAP Committee this morning to lay out his decision to pause implementation of the over-budget, overdue SAP Enterprise Resource Planning system and create an external review committee to ensure proper stewardship of the public’s tax dollars. The review committee and the administration will use this pause period to ensure the most fiscally prudent and operationally responsible decisions are made before moving forward.
“This project is tens of millions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. It is prudent and responsible to pause, do our diligence, and evaluate all of our options,” stated Mayor Berkowitz.
The SAP project commenced in 2011. The first “go-live” date missed was January 1, 2013. In October of 2014 the assembly began an independent review of the ERP project. In January 1, 2015 the second “go-live” date passed. The entire project was proposed with an initial budget of $9.8 million. To date $35 million has been spent. Another $11 million has been budgeted. Current projections indicate that a further $20-30 million will be required to complete the project on its current trajectory. The Municipality is currently spending $250,000 per week on the project.
The Mayor previously announced the hiring of a Deputy CFO, Alden Thern, whose primary focus will be formulating a plan in regards to an ERP and the SAP project. Today, the Mayor requested assistance from community members with expertise in business IT and ERP implementations to serve on an ERP Review Team. The ERP Review Team will look at ways to build project momentum, add fiscal accountability, and provide maximum return on investment to the Municipality.
The ERP Review Team will include:
- Pat Shier, CIO University of Alaska-Anchorage
- Bill Rosetti, CIO Alyeska Pipeline
- Kathleen Plunkett, Anchorage School Board
- Sunil Sethi, President of Computing Alternatives
- Michael Carr, VP of Finance, Conoco Phillips
- Paul Wiltse, Co-Owner of The Venture Group North
- Jeff Yauney, President and CEO of AlasConnect, Inc
For more information, contact Myer Hutchinson at (907) 343-7133.
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