Edinburgh University to pay extra £8m for controversial finance system

The University of Edinburgh will pay an extra £8m to the supplier of its controversial new finance system.

Payments to students, staff and suppliers were delayed last year by the rollout of the revamped HR, payroll and finance set-up.

The university has revealed that its contract with supplier Inoapps for the People and Money (P&M) system will rise from £25.3m to £33.5m, excluding VAT.

It said this is to account for "changes in requirements and additional work".

The P&M system was introduced at the university in 2020 and completed its rollout in August last year.

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Problems in the final phase of the project meant thousands of invoices issued to the university were left outstanding and payments to staff and students were delayed.

The £33.5m price tag for the contract is more than double the £14m that it was initially advertised in 2017.

Last month, a group of senior academics on the university senate, tabled a motion that stated the university's response to the crisis was "not an adequate foundation" for confidence in the implementation of the P&M system.

The paper said the lack of sufficient planning and oversight "was a tremendous and costly risk" to the university's operations.

Further improvements

In the university's latest accounts, principal Prof Peter Mathieson said "we have been acutely aware of the disruption caused to our staff, students, suppliers and partners" by the final stage of P&M's implementation.

He said "robust measures to address these problems" had been taken.

The university has also said it would commission an external review to inform further improvements.

A public contract notice issued by the university states that it has "undertaken a number of contract modifications with Inoapps" to take account of changes in requirements and additional work needed.