Fresh Novopay software fix looms

Taxpayers may have to fork out tens of millions of dollars for a fresh fix to the Novopay school payroll system, which most teachers will now know as EdPay.

State-owned company Education Payroll kicked off a $26 million project in 2018 that it hoped would avoid the need to replace Novopay’s core software before 2025. That fix involved rolling out new ‘‘front-end’’ software, called EdPay, to 2600 schools. But Education Payroll chairwoman Sandi Beatie told a parliamentary select committee yesterday that it had learnt that the payroll database and payroll engine that sat below EdPay were ‘‘not robust’’. Chief executive Arlene White said the Oracle database would lose its support at the end of next year.

She said that while the database would be upgraded to a new version, there would be a ‘‘lot of challenges’’ getting that to work with the Alesco payroll engine which was originally developed by Australian supplier Talent2. Alesco is now owned by

Australian firm Ascender, which rebranded it Ascender Pay.

More than 70 per cent of Alesco’s code was customised which was ‘‘very rare’’, White said, referring to the software by its original name. ‘‘Alesco is incredibly complex and there are a lot of challenges ... in trying to get the two to work together going forward,’’ she told MPs.

‘‘Right now it runs the pay but we know it continues to age and is non-compliant with the Holidays Act and we do need to invest in it.’’

White said Education Payroll and the Education Ministry hoped to put about six options to Cabinet. It was not yet known what those options might cost.

‘‘We will look to evaluate what we can do in the next year to get those numbers a bit more solid before we approach the minister and the ministry.’’

Speaking after the select committee session, White said one of the options might be to completely replace Ascender and another might be to buy a licence to a newer version of Ascender that was compatible with the new Oracle software.

‘‘They are currently on version 19. We are on version 12.’’

But if it upgraded Ascender, the new version would again have to be heavily customised to meet Education Payroll’s needs, she said. ‘‘There would be considerable effort in that customisation, absolutely.’’

White could not rule out an upgrade or replacement costing many tens of millions, saying that at this stage any figure would be a guess. ‘‘I think a fresh fix to what we have been doing is not necessarily going to be at that high end of the spectrum.

‘‘We will be looking for the best possible investment option for the Government.’’