In 2008 a number of councils had become very unhappy with their ICT regulatory and
financial system service quality, and lack of response from the vendor to fix problems. The
Ozone financial regulatory integrated package is used by 12 councils in the central north
island (Tauranga, Rotorua, Whakatane, Western Bay, Opotiki, Kawerau, Palmerston North,
Manawatu, Ruapehu, Taranaki Regional and Horizons Regional.)

Collectively the councils would have needed to spend perhaps $25-30 million to exit a
poor performing product; instead they have spent only $1 million and have not only got
the product fixed but also the major benefit of a process of continuous innovation of the
product and of council performance. It had cost Rotorua over $2 million to put a system
in. Palmerston would have been facing $2-2.5 million in external costs, licensing and
consulting, plus 20 staff internally over 2 years.

So the real costs for a large council would be between $3-4 million, and for a medium
council such as Whakatane $1.5-2 million.