Croydon Council has completed its Oracle Improvement Programme, aiming to enhance efficiency and transparency across its financial and HR operations.

The Audit & Governance Committee received an update on the programme's progress at its meeting on 18 September 2025. The Public reports pack highlighted key improvements delivered to the finance, HR, and procurement modules, as well as the focus for the next six months.

Key achievements of the programme include:

  • Implementation of an expenses reimbursement module.
  • Improvements to accounts receivable and collections.
  • Enhancements to the planning and budgeting module.

The Oracle Improvement Programme is a significant investment by Croydon Council to modernise its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The council commissioned Oracle to undertake a review of the system to understand where improvements can be made to align the system with Oracle best-practice and ensure the Council maximises the benefits it can achieve from its investment. The review involved over 70 key users across the council with 12 workshops held. Oracle concluded that it is realistic to aim for a best practice level of maturity.

At the Audit & Governance Committee meeting, the committee reviewed the Oracle Improvement Programme Highlight Report, which provided a snapshot of the programme's status. The committee also noted a Substantial Assurance conclusion from a recent internal audit of the programme. The internal audit identified some areas for improvement, resulting in three Priority 2 (Medium) and three Priority 3 (Low) recommendations:

Priority 2 (Medium)

  • Improve the regularity of budget monitoring
  • Improve the communication and management of change
  • Keep up to date the documentation of risks

Priority 3 (Low)

  • Systematically maintain a lessons learned log
  • Keep the financial forecast up to date
  • Maintain an up-to-date benefits tracker

While the programme has made significant strides, challenges remain. The council is focused on ensuring that the business is effectively utilising the capabilities available to them. To address these challenges, the council plans to:

  • Deploy controls to track and monitor financial system risk.
  • Revise the approach to creating journals in the system, changing how business users are able to request journals and ensuring there is appropriate scrutiny before being submitted.
  • Deliver training to finance staff to ensure they all have a strong understanding of the functionality which is available to them to support them to undertake their roles.
  • Evaluate features of the system which are not currently being utilised to see if it would support business processes. While the specific features are not detailed in the report, the potential benefit of utilising them is to ensure that the business is effectively utilizing the capabilities available to them.

Looking ahead, the council will focus on embedding the new planning and budgeting functionality and ensuring it is effectively supported by the Finance Systems Team.

At the Audit & Governance Committee meeting, Tariq Aniemeka-Bailey, Democratic Services Officer, introduced the Agenda frontsheet.