City council halts delayed IT system launch

A major overhaul of IT services at a council is years overdue and its launch date has been pushed back five times, the BBC can reveal.

Norwich City Council is embroiled in a legal dispute with the contractor, Civica, and has sought compensation.

The £1.3m project is now suspended, though the council says it is looking for a "positive outcome".

Civica said "active discussions" were taking place.

The council had been trying to implement a new system called Civica D360, a workflow management tool covering benefits, council tax, revenues, business rates and housing.

A new contract with Civica (UK) Ltd started in April 2022 and D360 was due to go live a year later.

Progress reports released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have revealed a catalogue of setbacks as staff and contractors struggled with technical issues and problems migrating data from the council's old system, known as W2.

The contract specified that 2.5 million documents would need to be transferred.

"The system has had stability issues," according to one report, which continued: "Whilst issues have been fixed, other issues appear."

The project status has now been downgraded from a risk rating of "amber" to "red".

By the end of last year, six major technical problems - described as showstoppers - remained, alongside "70 other issues pending resolution".

In November, the council's executive decided to pause the project when it became clear an updated version with fixes would not be ready by an agreed deadline.

There were continued talks between the council and Civica at this time and to compound matters, the decades-old W2 system that was due for replacement would need upgrading, as otherwise it would be unsupported.

Civica has held a contract with Norwich City Council for the past 20 years to provide and support W2, and a new agreement was reached after it offered the updated D360 system.

One person familiar with the situation described it as "depressing and embarrassing".

They said: "Initially it looked good but it quickly became obvious that the system did less and wasn't anywhere near finished.

"Instead of looking at alternatives, the council has double-downed and spent a fortune.

"It often feels like IT policy is just made up on the spot.

A Norwich City Council spokesman said: "We are continuing to have legal discussions with our contractor for this service and we are hopeful that a positive outcome will be agreed by both parties in the coming months."

The authority would not comment further, owing to legal discussions.

Civica said: "Norwich City Council is a highly valued and longstanding customer, using fully supported Civica products.

"We remain engaged in active discussions with the council and are fully committed to achieving a positive outcome for both parties."

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