The Lotteries Commission of Western Australia, Lotterywest, has selected Fujitsu to implement an SAP ERP system in a AU$7.3 million deal.
The ERP replacement of Lotterywest's existing gaming and business systems is part of Lotterywest's MATRIX project, which is expected to improve the organisation's revenue growth over the next 10 years.
Lotterywest faces annual operational costs of AU$41 million per year -- some seven percent of the AU$599 million it made in lottery sales during fiscal 2006.
MATRIX project director and Lotterywest's information services director Don Wharton said the project is expected to deliver services to the organisation over a "good many years", but that it is not meant to reduce operational costs.
Wharton's MATRIX squad will team up with Fujitsu for the duration of the project. The joint force plans to implement the first phase of the project by the end of June this year, said Wharton.
"It's taking up all our team's attention," he said.
MATRIX's phase one encompasses customer relationship management, financial management and procurement, and human capital management, which will connect to its new gaming and transaction processing system, Intralot. Lotterywest selected Intralot in 2006 to replace its 20-year-old gaming and transaction system, GTech, said Wharton.
Phase two is expected to be complete by the end of 2008, and incorporates document management, occupational, health and safety and business analytics.
Since Lotterywest redistributes its profits to community projects in Western Australia, its grants management system will also be upgraded as part of the second phase of the project.
"Grants processing is an area where we want to do a very good job and it has some risks attached to it. We're effectively dishing out government money against a criteria and need to ensure it's done in an accountable fashion. So, the more streamlined processes you can apply to that process, the better and safer it is," Wharton said.
