{"id":390096,"date":"2026-04-21T07:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390096\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T07:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:58:08","slug":"rotorua-lakes-council-writes-off-12-4m-it-system-after-move-to-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390096\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua Lakes Council writes off $12.4m IT system after move to cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

The move came after the provider, TechnologyOne, advised the council in September 2021 that it would end support for on-premises systems in October 2024, resulting in reduced security protections and fewer system updates over time.<\/p>\n

The council was granted a limited two-year extension, after which it would no longer receive new software releases, patches or fixes, or ongoing technical support.<\/p>\n

As the original version is no longer in use, it is now assessed to have no remaining value.<\/p>\n

Under public sector accounting rules, assets must be written down if they no longer provide a future service benefit. <\/p>\n

The remaining book value of $12.4 million must therefore be removed from the balance sheet.<\/p>\n

While phase one of the initial programme passed without a hitch in 2018, phase two went live in May 2023, with its total cost, about $18.4m, making headlines when it was fully launched after a five-year delay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It exceeded its original budget by nearly $15m. <\/p>\n

\"RotoruaRotorua Lakes Council has moved OneCouncil to a cloud based system. Photo\/File<\/p>\n

The overruns were attributed to Covid-19 disruption, project complexity and the challenges of Rotorua being an early adopter of the software, which required significant configuration and external consultancy support.<\/p>\n

At the time of the full rollout, the council said the platform would support operations for \u201cat least a decade\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a meeting on Friday, the council\u2019s chief financial officer, David Jensen, allayed any fears that this may not be the case. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis impairment is a purely accounting requirement,\u201d he said, adding the council was still \u201cusing everything\u201d it had paid for through the continued use of the cloud-based OneCouncil platform.<\/p>\n

Council director of finance Michelle Overbeek said the change was necessary to ensure the organisation remained efficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology has moved very quickly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Overbeek described the move as a \u201cpermanent strategic decision\u201d which rendered the previous on-premise model an \u201cobsolete legacy\u201d system.<\/p>\n

She said the write-off would not impact rates. <\/p>\n

Mayor Tania Tapsell was disappointed it would affect the council\u2019s financial reporting, though it was an accounting responsibility. <\/p>\n

\"RotoruaRotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell at an October meeting. Photo \/ Laura Smith<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have done such significant work on savings for the Annual Plan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disappointing that this will now impact our financial reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council chief executive Andrew Moraes said the transition to the cloud-based system was completed in December without issue, with the new platform now fully embedded in council operations.<\/p>\n

Councillor Don Paterson had concerns over \u201cdata sovereignty\u201d with a cloud-based system, which Moraes planned to investigate and report back on at a later date.<\/p>\n

Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The move came after the provider, TechnologyOne, advised the council in September 2021 that it would end support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[77276,201780,74,138,6162,201782,5770,5205,71,49531,702,5365,35145,1132,2683,2686,111,139,69,6662,201781,1327,112804,8183,6211,16512,61,13020,9192,64460],"class_list":{"0":"post-390096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-77276","9":"tag-124m","10":"tag-after","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-cloud","13":"tag-cloudbased","14":"tag-core","15":"tag-council","16":"tag-from","17":"tag-hosted","18":"tag-it","19":"tag-lakes","20":"tag-locally","21":"tag-million","22":"tag-move","23":"tag-moving","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-off","28":"tag-onecouncil","29":"tag-rotorua","30":"tag-setup","31":"tag-software","32":"tag-system","33":"tag-tied","34":"tag-to","35":"tag-version","36":"tag-writes","37":"tag-writing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}