NSW Education SAP project sparks redundancies

The NSW Government has revealed plans to cut "the equivalent of around 400 school administrative staff positions" as a result of its eight-year SAP rollout project.

State Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said in a statement that the reductions around the Learning Management and Business Reform (LMBR) program would be made by 2015-16 (pdf).

Accounting for a small part of $1.7 billion in cuts announced in the State’s education budget, Piccoli said the administrative cuts were a result of “efficiencies” from the LMBR program.

“This was agreed to by the previous Government and the Public Service Association to offset salary increases already paid to school administrative and support staff,” the statement said.

LMBR began back in 2008 as a staged replacement for the finance, human resources, payroll and student administration systems for schools, TAFE colleges and Education department staff.

This year, the department contracted Accenture to assist in the eight-year SAP rollout, months after an audit revealed a $57 million slip in the project timetable. 

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

LMBR is projected to cost $386 million once completed.

In a presentation, the School Administrative and Support Staff Professional Association (NSW) noted that “key challenges” of LMBR included leadership, change management and managing expectations.

The system is to be used by some 90,000 staff.