The thin end of the wodge

The coming weeks will be unremittingly busy for me. We are now on course for a triumphant relaunch of this computer thing that Wodger keeps telling me about. I cannot, for the life of me, see what was wrong with it in the first place apart from the fact it failed to do what it said on the tin. But Wodge insists that I must not worry. He sent me this e-mail yesterday:



Sent: Mon 12/10/2009 16:11
To: AllUsers
Subject: SAP Release Two

I am pleased to announce the proposed roll out dates for the next phase of SAP, but before doing that I want to say that the decision to proceed with Release Two has not be taken lightly.

There is always some level of upheaval associated with a change programme that involves all managers and staff. However, we want to absolutely minimise disruption with Phase Two by making sure that we incorporate the lessons we have learnt from Release One.

As further assurance, to staff who are working with Release One we will continue to provide support for you, as well.

As we commit to push forward, we will be focussing on the following activities:

full testing of all the applications coming up in Release Two
providing improved training material with a greater emphasis on help and guidance
allowing for 'go/no-go' decisions to be made along the way to make sure we are ready as an organisation
improved checks of data going into SAP to ensure accuracy before we start using it
providing our support teams, consisting of Super Users, floor walkers, change team members and service desk advisors with sufficient training to handle enquiries and to help staff from day one
Proposed Dates

To make sure we are driven by readiness rather than deadline dates, we are using 'proposed' dates at this stage.

23 November 2009 - A new Customer Feedback system to capture complaints, compliments and comments and a new Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) system will be implemented. SAP CRM will be used by the Customer Contact centre. This will coincide with the new joint County Council and Taunton Deane Borough Council website, known as Citizen Portal.

4 January 2010 - Employee Self-Service (ESS) and Manager Self-Service (MSS) systems, for everyone who has access, will be implemented. This means we will be using the electronic system instead of paper to record items such as expense claims, sickness and leave requests.

Business Intelligence Reporting - This is information that managers will be able to use to help them make business decisions in future.
Procurement - 2 November 2009
HR - 1 February 2010
More details about these new SAP modules, plus key updates relating to our roll out plan will be provided over the coming weeks.

Please make every effort to read these messages as they will help your understanding of the changes SAP will deliver as well as the benefits it will bring to you and the County Council as a whole.

Roger Kershaw
Corporate Director - Resources

I fear this will mean that I will be obliged to spend rather more time than I would prefer at my County Hall desk. Eunice has taken the news with her usual sang froid. I urged her not to fret in my absences and to concentrate upon her many absorbing hobbies. She is a great fan of one of the stars of some tv crime saga called CSI. Can't think of his name, But Eunice says he reminds her of someone.