If you do the X / Bluesky thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy
Those were the days, drinking real ale in the Eagle and Tun, corner of Banbury Street Brum, famous for being used in the pop video for the Red Red Wine single.
Decades on, the crème coloured UB40 unemployment benefit attendance card, is no longer used for signing on, killed by online UC. The old E&T also killed off by demolition, being unfortunately in the path/periphery of that great white elephant HS2.
Birmingham is also now our UK city most likely with kitchens with a rat in it, due to months of bin worker strikes, triggered by pay cuts suggested by a now bankrupt city council. Brum however is not the sole council with section 114 notices. They join Croydon, Nottingham, Woking, Thurrock and Barnet. My own patch Warrington Borough Council is not far behind in £1.8b in debt.
Birmingham is unique however, in that the failed implementation of a new Oracle Fusion ERP IT system was a key contributory factor in its recent downfall. Within social housing, costs of new ICT systems have sometimes derailed actions like mergers.
A detailed 67 page report is now available, which examines what went wrong.
Spookily, it contains plenty of familiar themes that I see in my various projects, soft-market exercises, procurements, reviews and Critical Friend engagements to assist clients (Councils, Housing Associations, Charities, AHB’s, RP’s etc) to reach a timely go-live while not running into too much unnecessary Change Control.
Some of the key gotcha’s are some of the usual suspects:
- Poor governance and lack of independent oversight (no third eye)
- Poor pre-project business case – a moving target
- Internal resourcing of the project poor, project staff not freed from BAU.
- Overly dependent on contractors and suppliers
- Lack of an 'Adopt' strategy, rather going down an Adapt path trying to recreate existing internal processes
- Lack of adequate engagement with operational teams when implementing
- Too much ‘Good News’ reported, led to optimism bias. Risks & issues underplayed
- UAT Testing and design weaknesses
- Go-Live was undertaken with significant known issues and risks insufficiently mitigated, trapping the council
Do any of the above sound familiar to projects you are involved in?
A re-implementation at the city council is currently in play and will be at least another year at earliest, later in 2026. I would recommend anyone changing major systems to read the full report here.
Any comments, observations or queries, please share.
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Related Post: How best to understand the products you know & the vast options you maybe don't know about?
I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009
Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here
Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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