Doing business with the council

In early September 2023, the Council is upgrading its finance systems and as a current supplier, we are providing you with early information about how this will affect your transactions with the Council in future.

Oracle Cloud will replace SAP, and ProContract, to become our new system for managing our contracts, purchase orders and invoice payments.

The cutover from SAP to Oracle will start in August and is being well-planned to ensure minimum disturbance.

Here are some of the key things you need to know:

• Oracle Cloud will go live in September 2023 and prior to this, there will be a deadline for submitting due invoices for the last payment out of SAP. More information about these dates will be shared in July.
• Suppliers will receive email communications about this change if they are deemed to be an active supplier of goods and/or services to the Council.
• Active supplier company and bank details will be migrated to the Council’s Oracle Cloud, based on the information we currently hold in SAP. Oracle Cloud uses a government-level server to ensure maximum information security.

There will be a period of downtime which we aim to keep as short as possible in August, meaning invoices will stop being processed for a time whilst the Oracle Cloud system goes live. We will confirm the dates closer to the time but please be assured that we will continue to comply payment times within statutory obligations.

• Please look out for our email which will come from oracle.suppliers@walthamforest.gov.uk
• Reply to the email to tell us if we have contacted the wrong person, or used the wrong email address, so we can keep you informed of key cut-off dates.
• Please inform your finance team, accountant or staff member who handles invoicing, so that they are aware of this change and to keep an eye out for future communications.
• We will be reinforcing our existing ‘no-PO no payment policy’. It’ll help get your invoices paid on time if they quote a valid PO number on the invoice, before submitting. If you are not provided a PO when you are asked to do business with us, please ask your Council contact for a valid number to quote.

Oracle Cloud provides a major benefit for suppliers to be able to access a self-service portal, via a web browser. This will allow you to:

• View active Purchase Orders you have from the Council.
• Submit invoices for payment which match to the Purchase Orders for payment.
• Ensure your business and bank details are always up to date.
• In addition, it allows prospective suppliers to pre-register for work should it arise.

A subsection of active suppliers will be asked to use the portal when it goes live and if your company is selected, you will receive a separate communication from us about that.

If you have any questions, please email oracle.suppliers@walthamforest.gov.uk