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Erasmus University's move from SAP to Oracle is 70% over budget, at €20.2m. A one-year delay cost €4.5m of that.

Erasmus Magazine, the university's independent news site, reported on 29 October that replacing SAP with Oracle administrative software was €8.3m over budget by its calculation.

ERP LEADERS news desk · · First reported by Erasmus Magazine · Edition no. 56
Photo: Mw007/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · original

Oracle was due to go live at the start of 2026. The university was not ready and moved the launch to 1 January 2027. Another €1.5m has been set aside for work in 2027, also unbudgeted.

A document sent to the University Council added €2.31m. An analysis by PwC found too little project management had been assigned; extra staff cost €950,000. Temporary staff covering gaps in internal time and specialist knowledge cost €823,000. A payroll tool whose funding lapsed during the delay added €473,000.

Our reading: the named additions in the council document are staff, temporary help and a payroll tool. Another €292,000 is listed as unspecified.

The project also has estimated recurring costs of €2.1m a year. The magazine quoted no statement from the university, SAP or Oracle.

Sources

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SAPOraclePwC

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For your next steering committee

Questions for your own programme. They are not findings about any company in this story.

  1. 1Ask for the approved budget and the current forecast on the same scope, side by side.
  2. 2Ask which costs sit outside the programme budget today: internal staff, data migration, parallel running.
  3. 3Ask who may approve the next increase, and at what amount the programme goes back to the board.

Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01

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