Wayne County approves $20 million amendment to staff up Connect 43 rollout; total program cost now projected at about $128.8 million

The Wayne County Commission on a voice vote approved Amendment 6 to a professional services contract with Pierce Monroe and Associates, adding $20,000,000 for staff augmentation to support the county's Connect 43 rollout to Oracle Cloud.

Commissioners and county project staff said the funding reflects a replan that pushes the enterprise resource planning (ERP) go-live from April 1 to Oct. 1, 2025, increases testing and integration work, and aims to stabilize the human capital management (HCM) system already in production.

The action came after commissioners received and filed the steering committee monthly reports for November and December 2024 and January 2025. Mike Jamieson, Connect 43 project director, briefed the commission and said the program is "deep into this. There's no going back, but we have to be looking at just being very diligent with our time and money." Jamieson told commissioners the $20 million amendment is part of a triangulated estimate for additional resources the project expects to need.

Why it matters: County staff said the additional contractor resources would cover day-to-day functional and technical tasks now performed by Wayne County subject-matter experts (SMEs) so those SMEs can focus on priority work and avoid repeated replans. Jamieson described the proposed staff as Oracle-functional and technical specialists who would handle ticket resolution, enhancement requests and regression testing while county employees are recruited or transitioned into permanent roles.

Project status and milestones cited at the meeting: - Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), the budgetary planning system, had a soft launch Jan. 27 and is in limited production for the budget office and IT while staff "kick the tires" ahead of integrations with ERP. - The county pushed the ERP go-live from April 1 to Oct. 1, 2025, which adds a second round of integration testing between ERP and EPM. - The county also put the human capital management (HCM) data warehouse into production and began rolling it out to end users.

Costs and budgeting: Jamieson presented a steering-committee financial summary the project lists as projecting a total program spend of about $128,800,000; he said that figure includes the Pierce Monroe amendment and the replan work. Commissioners noted the ERP program was initially estimated several years ago at roughly $30 million and has grown substantially. Commissioner Killeen warned that the project has had "a lot of false steps over the last few years" and said the commission must see it through to completion.

Staffing details discussed: Jamieson described two scenarios used to size the amendment (a full complement and a reduced complement), and said the $20 million figure represents a triangulation between them. He gave examples of roles the county needed immediately: additional report writers for IT (the county currently has two) and a procurement/business analyst dedicated to inventory tasks after learning the county's inventory processes were more complex than first assumed.

Hiring plan: Commissioners and staff discussed hiring some roles through the county's human-resources process when timing allowed. Jamieson said the goal is to transition temporary, contracted resources to county employees when possible.

Formal action: The commission voted to approve Amendment 6 to the Pierce Monroe contract and separately voted to receive and file the steering-committee reports for November and December 2024 and January 2025.

What remains: Jamieson said another contract soliciting Oracle functional and technical resources (to start with HCM stabilization and phase into ERP/EPM support) was expected to appear on a future agenda. Commissioners asked for continued monthly updates and that staff provide more detailed fiscal breakdowns for follow-up committees.