Unit4 handed police ERP deal after 'significant deficiency' found in Oracle Fusion system

Cheshire Police has awarded mid-scale ERP vendor Unit4 a £3m two-year contract to replace a troubled Oracle implementation, which only went live on the latest Fusion software in 2019. A simple procurement notice shows the police and crime commissioner for the English county issued a call-off contract via the Crown Commercial …

[Steve Davies 3]

Unit 4?

Where is the + 2 or are the 'Plod' stuck in 'concrete and clay'?

I'll get me coat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Unit 4?

Wow, that's an obscure reference! I only got it because I used to be in a band with the singer's son - the guitarist used to pull his leg about it.

[chubby_moth]

Yet another pork barrel

Another Tory donor who is to be made happy I guess. The previous one has been paid by now. Anyone here involved in the roll out of the new UK customs system? How's that going these days?

[Version 1.0]

Payment method?

Discovering "a troubled Oracle implementation" like this usually results in someone being paid in bitcoin.

[Anonymous Coward]

system or config?

"18 MFSS or Capgemini system administrator's accounts – service accounts that have the IT security manager role assigned to them – also had privileged access to the finance system"

Maybe missing something here but this sounds like a configuration issue rather than software issues.

[Jon 37]

Re: system or config?

The question is, does the software allow them to be configured in the "right" way? If not, that's a software issue. Presumably they wouldn't be switching suppliers if it was something that could be easily fixed with a configuration change.

[Gordon 10]

Re: system or config?

Unless they were looking for an excuse.

Or that Crap Gemini bolted on some kind of extension with a b0rk3d permissioning framework.

[Anonymous Coward]

Something in the water?

What is it with the UK? It seems like every week or two some government entity has to replace a failed replacement system they installed two or three years ago. Is this an unexpected consequence of Brexit? A lack of people brandishing firearms whenever they get cheesed off? An extended Monty Python skit? Something in the water?

[Gordon 10]

Re: Something in the water?

Not unique to the UK, but unhappily frequent anywhere near a Govt pork barrel.

It does lead you to wonder if outright bribes like in certain other parts of the world are ironically more honest.

[czechitout]

Re: Something in the water?

It would be interesting to see how many of them are Oracle. They have, in my experience, the least honest salespeople, who will outright lie to your face, thinking that you've not implemented their system before, so don't know any better.

Of course, most companies don't know any better and only find out after the solution has been implemented and it fails to meet their expectations.

[EnviableOne]

Re: Something in the water?

It's a symptom of using the same useless outsourcing companies over and over, to implement the legacy products, loaded with technical debt, that need extensive customisation to work for their specific use case.

[Anonymous Coward]

Surprised the scumbag career-politician outgoing PCC who opened the tender didn't award the contract before he was kicked out - he appointed a new Chief Constable only a few days before the sodding elections...!