Financial accounting software used by Education Scotland: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/01612
Date received: 8 June 2018
Date responded: 3 July 2018

Information requested

Information concerning the types of accounting software and applications that may be in use by your organisation.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested, please provide advice and assistance, as to how I can refine my request to be included in the scope of the Act.

1. What financial accounting software do you use?

2. Who supplies your financial accounting software (name of vendor or supplier)?

3. What was the original date of purchase or contact start date for your accounting software?

4. When is the contact renewal or expiry date for your accounting software?

5. If relevant, what is the cost of annual support and maintenance (last financial year April 2016- March 2017) for your accounting software?

6. Is Your IT in-house or outsourced, if outsourced, who is it outsourced to, and when is this contract up for renewal?

7. Could you confirm if your organisation has any applications (computer systems) running on the Fujitsu (formerly ICL) VME operating system?

8. If so, please list the names of these applications and their main role within your organisation?

9. Please also confirm if you have applications;

a. Operating on any other legacy platform such as OpenVME, IBM iSeries or written in legacy code such as Powerbuilder, COBOL etc.?

b. Any operating system considered expensive or (technically) challenging to enabling digital transformation?

c. That are critical to the business but are at risk due to the scarcity of ageing support personnel or limited documentation?

10. Please confirm if these applications have been developed in-house i.e. they are bespoke to your organisation and that you own the source code.

Response

1. What financial accounting software do you use?

Oracle Financials running on e-Business Suite R12.

2. Who supplies your financial accounting software (name of vendor or supplier)?

Oracle Corporation UK Limited.

3. What was the original date of purchase or contact start date for your accounting software?

The Scottish Government began using Oracle e-Business Suite on 24 December 2001.

4. When is the contact renewal or expiry date for your accounting software?

The Scottish Government has perpetual licences to use the software; however the support is re-procured in accordance with UK and EU procurement rules. The current contract will expire on 31st March 2019.

5. If relevant, what is the cost of annual support and maintenance (last financial year April 2016- March 2017) for your accounting software?

£637,000.

6. Is Your IT in-house or outsourced, if outsourced, who is it outsourced to, and when is this contract up for renewal?

Scottish Government's ICT services are in-house. We do have access to external resources through framework contracts if the appropriate expertise in-house is not available.

7. Could you confirm if your organisation has any applications (computer systems) running on the Fujitsu (formerly ICL) VME operating system?

None.

8. If so, please list the names of these applications and their main role within your organisation?

9. Please also confirm if you have applications:

a) Operating on any other legacy platform such as OpenVME, IBM iSeries or written in legacy code such as Powerbuilder, COBOL etc.?

The Scottish Government does not run any legacy platforms as described.

b) Any operating system considered expensive or (technically) challenging to enabling digital transformation?

This question would require clarification before answering fully. All digital transformation can be considered as technically challenging or expensive when compared to the status quo. However, as an organisation that is largely Wintel-based and 99% virtualised, we believe that we do not have services that would be prohibitively expensive or complex to transform.

c) That are critical to the business but are at risk due to the scarcity of ageing support personnel or limited documentation?

None.

10. Please confirm if these applications have been developed in-house i.e. they are bespoke to your organisation and that you own the source code.

As previous response.

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