Led by the Assistant Secretary-General & Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO), Choi Soon-Hong, the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Project Team, on Monday, 12 May 2008, convened a kick-off workshop for the technical evaluation of the ERP software.

The workshop, which drew close to 100 staff members from UNHQ, Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna, was aimed at preparing evaluators in selecting the software solution that best fulfills the Secretariat’s requirements. The selection of the software, along with the business process re-engineering, is a critical element of the ERP implementation.

The UN scorers will evaluate the proposals received from two leading companies in the ERP marketplace, Oracle and SAP, which responded to the Request for Proposal (RFP) that had been issued earlier. The ERP Software Evaluation Committee, chaired by the CITO, will oversee the evaluation activities. The evaluation exercise consists of three components: technical, commercial and contractual. The ERP Project Team, as the client, is responsible for the technical evaluation.

The technical evaluation consists of three parts with more than 112 subject-matter experts representing UN HQ offices, offices-away-from HQ and peacekeeping missions serving as scorers over the next 2 months. Every effort is being made to ensure that the process is fair and transparent including the use of a third party consulting firm to assist the technical evaluation.

A typical ERP system uses multiple components of software and hardware to achieve full implementation. The implementation of the ERP software will be assisted by third party firms. Concurrent procurement activities are being undertaken for the implementation services. The Expression of Interest (EOI) for implementation services attracted 8 respondents and the Statement of Work to be included in the RFP is being developed.

During the 63rd session of the General Assembly, Member States are expected to consider the Secretary General’s Report on Enterprise systems for the United Nations Secretariat worldwide [A/62/510/Rev.1 and A/62/510]. The following are highlights of the Secretary-General's Report:

• The project will be implemented in two waves commencing in mid-2008 and concluding in December 2012.
• It is expected that certain staff members, mostly heavy users in specialized functions such as finance, human resources, budget, and procurement, will receive classroom training. Other users will receive training through e-learning, DVDs, emails, and brochures. Strong emphasis will be placed on e-learning and "train the trainer" programs.
• The Report proposes a full-time project team consisting of 44 temporary posts that would be responsible for various aspects of project implementation including process re-engineering, project and change management, software configuration and functional activities.

While funding is being sought for a dedicated project team, the Business Process Re-engineering sub-team has already engaged business owners and expert users to identify and analyze major process, policy, and structural opportunities to maximize ERP benefits. The result will be used to establish a high-level strategic framework that will guide the detailed design and implementation work to come.

For more information please refer to the Secretary-General's Report: Enterprise systems for the United Nations Secretariat worldwide, A/62/510/Rev.1 and A/62/510 and the attached PowerPoint presentations (PDF of slides).

As the project has gained traction, branding has become a recurrent theme. We strongly encourage staff members to send suggestions for a project name to erpproject@un.org.

Originally published in iSeek Thursday, 29 May 2008, New York