The Scottish Government Corporate Transformation Directorate is set to move forward with a significant upgrade by consolidating two Oracle business systems into a single portfolio, according to a recently published contract award notice. A key initiative under the Scottish government’s Shared Services Programme (SSP), the integration is facilitated by a £2.4m contract awarded to IBM.
The new unified Oracle Cloud solution will replace the existing SG Enterprise Accounting System (SEAS) used for finance and purchasing and the e-HR system for human resource (HR) and payroll functions. This will migrate to a single, consolidated cloud solution supported by standardised processes, policies as well as a target operating model.
The transition to a consolidated system is expected to support both the Scottish government and its shared service customers, enhancing corporate systems and services. The Directorate-General (DG) Corporate is also seeking a service provider to enhance the delivery and support services for the SSP’s Corporate Hub and Digital Operations teams.
In 2021, the Scottish government conducted a preliminary study to explore the potential for a shared service enterprise resource planning system that could extend to the wider public sector in Scotland. To gauge market interest and capabilities, particularly in HR, payroll, and finance management, a prior information notice was published.
Oracle expansion overseas
Last week, Oracle opened its second public cloud region in Saudi Arabia. The new Riyadh cloud region is expected to support public and private sector organisations to migrate all types of workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). It will also provide them with access to a broad array of cloud services to transform their applications and innovate with data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Prior to this, in the last month, the cloud giant announced the general availability of its intelligent data architecture Exadata Exascale. Designed for the cloud, the new architecture offers extreme performance for all Oracle Database workloads, including AI vector processing, analytics, and transactions at any scale.
Read more: Can the sovereign cloud become Oracle’s crowning glory?
