Reuse assessment declares whole-of-government resource management to have failed

A high-level independent review of the Australian Public Service’s systems management reuse program implemented by the previous Coalition government has found it failed.

The GovERP Reuse Assessment Report has just been released publicly, with the four-person panel that reviewed the system declaring that despite an investment of over $340 million since 2019, GovERP did not deliver on its objectives.

The panel went on to say that future investment in a whole-of-government enterprise resource management (ERP) approach should be abandoned.

Instead, government agencies should pursue their own ERP uplifts in line with agency-specific requirements, taking care to do so in an efficient and cost-effective way.

Put simply, the initial program was meant to enable consistent and accelerated government services through standardisation (or reuse) of resource solutions across the sector, instead of introducing new platforms.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

In the Australian Government context, the term “reuse” means using an existing component within the process of realising a new digital or ICT solution.

In 2019, the APS Secretaries Board agreed to prototype a whole-of-government ERP template, prototyped with the Department of Finance.

In 2021, the project moved to Services Australia, but in November last year, Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher announced a new ERP approach for the APS and an independent assessment of GovERP.

In February this year, the related GovERP governance committees were dissolved. GovERP was also renamed SA ERP to reflect the APS ERP approach, no longer pursuing a whole-of-government build.

It was intended that GovERP designs be repurposed for use by Services Australia and any entities who choose to use it, pending the outcomes of the review.

GovERP initially planned to provide SAP-based back-office services, including financial, human resources, and procurement services, as well as reporting as a common platform for the government.

The review, which was delivered to the Federal Government in June, charts a future for government ERP, which the panel suggests can be far more cost-effective if done right.

The assessment made five recommendations:

1. Establishing clear ownership and accountability mechanisms across government for ERP uplifts.
2. Leveraging current arrangements with commercial vendors across government to reuse existing capabilities.
3. Where possible, grouping future ERP uplifts for entities of similar complexity and scale to help achieve economies of scale and reuse without the challenge of pursuing a whole-of-government approach.
4. Ceasing further investment in GovERP for whole-of-government use.
5. Providing a centralised site for confirmed reusable designs.

The review found limited opportunities for agencies to use any of the GovERP platform as it currently stands.

However, the review suggests that for entities with complex ERP requirements and substantial in-house technical capacity, such as Services Australia, there may be opportunities to build on the existing GovERP platform to meet their purposes.

There are also more significant opportunities for entities to reuse GovERP’s business process maps, designs, patterns, and related documentation.

“The panel recognises that multiple APS entities will likely be coming forward soon for ERP uplifts as the need for well-functioning ERP capabilities across government has not abated,” the report states.

“These uplifts reflect the core underpinning capability of all government entities. As such, formal cross-APS governance structures are needed to ensure common approaches and limit customisations as much as possible.

“Guidance from senior executives, such as Secretaries Data and Digital Committee, is particularly important in anticipation of removal of the government’s existing investment moratorium on ERPs.”

Senator Gallagher said the new approach the review panel recommends emphasises agencies pursuing cost-effective ERP uplifts in line with their requirements, as opposed to the “cumbersome and expensive” whole-of-government approach that was previously implemented.

“The Coalition’s approach to enterprise resource planning was an abject, eye-wateringly expensive failure,” the Minister said.

“This independent reuse assessment is an important step that will allow us to salvage what we can from the work that has already been done on GovERP and help government agencies to meet their future needs in a cost-effective way.”