Key facts
With the “Human Resources (HR-IT)” project, the Federal Office of Personnel (FOPER) is harmonising and standardising the personnel processes, which are currently handled very differently, as part of the SUPERB programme. In addition to modern digital process handling, the use of the cloud should also increase efficiency. The aim is to achieve a full cloud solution by the end of the project. However, due to SAP’s product strategy, this cannot be implemented until 2030 at the earliest. In November 2022, the programme owner SUPERB, in consultation with the director of the FOPER, decided to implement a hybrid solution as an interim step.
The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) audited the project for the second time. In this second audit, it reviewed the decision in favour of the hybrid cloud option. It also evaluated the implementation of five
recommendations from the first audit.
The audit shows that the decision in favour of the hybrid cloud variant was mainly made for political reasons, e.g. due to concerns about data sovereignty and the fear that a full cloud solution would not be accepted. In addition, SAP is unable to offer a satisfactory cloud solution for payroll accounting. The financial implications and the cost-effectiveness analysis were given less weight than other criteria and therefore did not play a primary role. However, not everyone involved in the project was aware that personal data is already stored and managed in the cloud with the hybrid cloud solution, despite the fact that various committees had been informed about this. As a result, discussions on data protection requirements will have to be held again late in the project.