The Syracuse City School District’s Oracle payroll implementation is a case study in how poor data mapping, limited testing, and weak governance can derail modernization. After switching from an outdated PeopleSoft system to Oracle Cloud, nearly 900 teachers and staff reported payroll errors ranging from missing paychecks to incorrect deductions. The issues stemmed from mismatched legacy data, faulty configurations, and minimal user training. To make matters worse, the district’s consulting partners, Street Consulting and Barry Dunn, were accused of being slow to respond and too reliant on remote work.

This video examines how technical missteps turned into a public and organizational crisis, and what business leaders can learn from it: prioritize data accuracy, plan for user adoption, demand accountability in vendor contracts, and never rush testing for critical systems like payroll.