In its FY-2024 financial report (released in December 2024), NYCERS stated that there was a serious delay in completing its Legacy Replacement Project with only a vague reference to changes in the legacy systems. NYCERS promised a report with a new schedule at its February 2025 Board meeting. See the text below:
LRP began in June 2021, with a plan to complete the transformation over five years/five phases, with a target completion of September 2026.
Phase 1 was launched in January 2023, introducing foundational functionality that future phases will build upon.
In the midst of Phase 2 delivery, a range of legacy system changes surfaced that impacted the overall timeline. The Systems Integrator proposed to deliver a subset of Phase 2, called Phase 2.0, as this functionality did not rely on those legacy system changes, and we are currently on track for a January 2025 launch.
In parallel to a Phase 2.0 delivery, the Systems Integrator and NYCERS are working on a re-baseline plan for the remaining phases, which will be discussed during the February 2025 Board of Trustees Meeting.
February 2025 board of Trustee Meeting
Last week at that meeting, the staff reported to the trustees that the new tentative completion date for the LRP project would be at the end of 2030 rather than the original September 2026 date. That is over four years behind schedule for a five-year contract.
Since December, Accenture (the "systems integrator"), the firm developing the project, delivered a revised high-level plan for the completion of the remaining scope of the project with a target date as of the end of 2030. The NYCERS staff stated that it had reviewed this plan.
Going forward, Accenture will provide a detailed resource plan supporting the 2030 completion target date. This detailed plan is needed for NYCERS to be able to give final approval for the new plan. The NYCERS approval of this new plan is targeted for the spring of 2025.
After a two-minute presentation there were no questions from the trustees concerning this four-year delay. This is obscene.
Background
NYCERS started the LRP project in July 2015. It was the brain child of Liz Reyes, the IT director at the time. She now is the deputy executive director and is hoping to become the executive director in May when the incumbent retires.
NYCERS signed the LRP implementation contract with Accenture in April 2021. It had an approximate term of five years with a total cost of $85.1M.
Three years later in 2024, Accenture notified NYCERS that the September 2026 completion date was not achievable.
When does gross incompetence become criminal?
I am not aware of any evidence of corruption involving the LRP project.
However, NYCERS’s glaring incompetence and obvious inattention to the project’s risks raises red flags that should be investigated.
NYCERS has never produced a cost/benefit analysis for this project.
Gartner has been under contract to NYCERS since 2015 providing advice on the LRP project. What was that advice?
During 2019 and 2020, NYCERS paid Accenture approximately $12M to install a Salesforce application. This means that Accenture has had extensive experience with NYCERS’s operations. Why did it take Accenture three years to come up with a new completion date four years out from September 2026?
