The NBN Co. has finished the three initial stages of a primary software installation. The new software systems will upgrade its inventory tracking on fiscal management while the NBN is being built.

Within two months or 61 days, the National Broadband Network Company has completed the installation of an Oracle ERP software suite as a portion of hardware and software agreement for three years worth $23 million with IBM and Oracle to set up systems for management of internal operations.

The ERP software suite was provided by Oracle, while IBM supplied the server hardware and operating environment. It was Accenture who installed the system and put them into operation.

The installation of the ERP has permitted the company to move up from the basic Quickbooks accounting applications for the maintenance and supervision of its procurement and financial systems.

"ERP rollouts can often be big disasters," Kevin Brown, NBN Co.'s head of corporate services, said.

"It's rare to pull one off without any hitches, but ours is working.

"Standing up all our financial management system and our purchasing system at NBN Co in 61 days is a great achievement.

"Oracle has advised it is a world record, but more importantly it works. And that gives us greater capacity to manage the continued expansion of the NBN."

NBN Co. deployed three full-time personnel and employed the aid of 70 contractors from Accenture to install and test the ERP system.

The rollout's next stage, projected to start in October, will put the reliability of the system to the test as NBN Co. begins to accumulate more assets and as the building of the ambitious national network worth $43 billion quickens its pace.

"The next step for us is program and construction management, which is scheduled for release in October, and next year we will see additional functionality around supply chain to keep track of the million of bits of equipment that will go into our network," Mr. Brown added.