Accenture snares $109m NSW Education job

NSW Education has contracted Accenture to assist with its eight-year SAP rollout, months after an audit revealed a $57 million slip in the project timetable.

The IT services firm said it had won an 18-month contract for the Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) program, which it valued at $109 million.

The project will replace all finance, human resources, payroll and student administration systems for schools, TAFE colleges and department staff with SAP. It will impact about 90,000 people directly.

An audit of the project (pdf) by NSW Auditor-General Peter Archestraat late last year uncovered the expensive delays to the rollout timetable.

Archestraat said the project would be "revised" and "the implementation dates for the majority of components ... realigned".

He also said that a "transformative service provider" would be appointed to the project - now known to be Accenture.

"The Department selected Accenture due to the company's proven experience in large-scale transformations, end-to-end capabilities and delivery excellence," the IT services firm said in a statement.

An Accenture spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the company had specifically been tasked with getting the project back on track.

She also declined to comment further on what services Accenture would provide to the Department, referring questions to the prepared statement.

Accenture spoke of its role only in generic terms, saying it would "draw upon... education and human services transformation, consulting solutions and technology capabilities".

Project background

iTnews reported late last year that the Department of Education and Communities had spent $176 million on the LMBR project to date.

It was expected to cost $386 million once completed.

The first phase of the project was expected to cost $57 million more than initially envisaged, which would be partially offset by revised costs for the second stage.

However, Archestraat had warned that "without proper guidance" the project could face further slippages.