Philly flushes Oracle out of water bill project

Computerworld - The city of Philadelphia has restarted a troubled water billing system project after signing a contract for new software that will replace most of the Oracle Corp. applications it initially planned to use.

Citing figures released by the city solicitor, Philadelphia CIO Terry Phillis said this week that the city also has signed an amended contract with Oracle in which the company agreed to pay or forgive costs totaling $6.9 million as part of the revived Project Ocean initiative.

Philadelphia CIO Terry Phillis

Work on Project Ocean was suspended in October 2005 after the city had spent $18 million -- twice what it initially expected to -- without getting a working system. Last September, officials said they had reached an agreement in principle with Oracle that would let the city install unidentified third-party utility billing software at no extra cost.

Phillis became acting CIO in September after predecessor Dianah Neff left to become a consultant, and he was given the job on a permanent basis in late November. This week, he said the city plans to use Basis2, an off-the-shelf billing and revenue management package developed by Prophecy International Pty., an Oracle business partner in Adelaide, Australia.

Most of the custom-built software that Oracle developed for the billing system "will be thrown out," and Oracle will have "no part" in the revived project, Phillis said. He added, though, that Basis2 will run on top of an Oracle database and work with a set of Oracle's E-Business Suite back-office applications that are used for a variety of city functions, including its finance operations.

Work on the Basis2 implementation began Dec. 11, according to a press release issued by Prophecy. Phillis said that the software is already running in test mode and that he expects a proof-of-concept bill for an average customer to be produced within four months or so. He added that the billing system should be up and running by December, which would meet a goal of having the system in place before Mayor John Street leaves office next January.

In signing its amended contract, Oracle admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to the $6.9 million in payments and givebacks, Phillis said. Among other things, the deal includes $1.5 million to cover the cost of Prophecy's software, a payback of $1 million for prior consulting services and a promise not to charge the city for another $1.6 million worth of work done by the company.