Well a) the costs of the system (still undelivered) is 4x the initial contract ; and b) they've determined that the ERP was incapable of performing the functions of the contract because it orientation for manufacturing rather than HR. So not even Oracle has a competing product!
On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 1:49 AM Justin Clift <justin@postgresql.org> wrote: > > Heh Heh Heh. This is pretty funny: > > https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/05/birmingham_city_council_oracle/ > > "Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, has > declared itself in financial distress after troubled Oracle project > costs ballooned from £20 million to around £100 million ($125.5 > million)." > > Wonder if they'll make the smart choice next time around, and choose PG > + a decent vendor instead? :)
In fairness, that project is about Oracle Fusion, not the database. So PG doesn't have a competing product. There are opensource ERP products out there, but I'm not sure they're advanced enough to handle something like that...
Indeed. It also only amounts for a fraction of the council's liabilities. The vast majority is from an equal pay judgement against them, which iirc, totals a couple of billion pounds (of which they've paid off over half in the last decade I believe).
So, yeah, the Oracle thing is a massive screw up. But it's not what caused the majority of their problems.