LTB 257/24 - BRANCH ACCOUNTS – SAGE SYSTEM
No: 257/24
TO: ALL BRANCHES
Dear Colleagues
BRANCH ACCOUNTS – SAGE SYSTEM
The purpose of this LTB is to provide Branches with an interim update on where we are with regard to the above.
When the CWU suffered the cyber incident in March of this year we shut down all our systems until we could ascertain what systems were safe to bring back to operation and importantly what systems may not be or were not safe to restore.
Given the multitude of IT systems we operate with and given the nature of the attack we were the victim of, there was a long and detailed process of arriving back at a “business as usual” position.
This meant prioritising working environments and the systems that support them, to ensure engagement with Branches and members and to ensure that we remained compliant with a variety of regulatory requirements.
To ensure the future safety and integrity of our operations this has proved to be, by necessity, a very long and time-consuming process.
Obviously, as Branches will be aware, one of the systems we shut down was the SAGE system in use for Branches to input their own financial transactions. There were a number of technical reasons why we had to follow this course of action and for us subsequently to not bring it back online.
We then had to begin the process of identifying a new system, identifying how we could install the new system and develop training and instruction in its use.
We have worked with SAGE to go through the suite of accounting packages that they now offer and then to identify, separately, an installation partner, to transfer data, synchronise it with other finance products in use at CWU HQ, as well identify training needs.
We are now at the end of that process and following a meeting earlier this week we are aiming to be able to have this programme available during the month of October for Branches to start inputting 2024 branch financial transactions.
Whilst we now finalise this programme of works, we are considering asking Branches to start inputting 2024 financial transactions information into excel spreadsheets in readiness to be able to export this data into the new system when it goes live. This would give us a head start on capturing the information. We should finalise our position on this in the next week to 10 days and we will then contact branches again to set out what these arrangements look like.
In the meantime, we want to thank Branches for their patience in waiting for us to get to the position we have, we appreciate this has been a difficult position to be in but following discussion with 3rd party suppliers we are optimistic we will shortly be able to restore normal operations a set out in this LTB.
Any enquiries on the content of this LTB be addressed to the SDGS Department sdgs@cwu.org
Yours sincerely
Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary
Comentários