Frequently Asked Questions

The Great Service Board took the decision on Thursday 9 July to postpone the go live for Atlas from November 2026.

The Board is evaluating dates for early 2027 and a decision will be based on cost, risk, business readiness and stakeholder feedback. 

We will update the webpages once we have a new date. There will no longer be the previously planned system freezes happening this October and November.

Following the announcement that the implementation of Atlas has been delayed, we have reviewed the 2026 Pay Review timeline and are pleased to confirm that the implementation of pay review awards will now take place in November 2026, rather than January 2027 as previously communicated.

View the updated timeline for the discretionary pay review.

The impact on cyber security was considered as part of the decision to postpone go live.

The infrastructure supporting ICIS is hosted within a restricted network zone. The service is protected by Unified Access/Zscaler and is currently being further strengthened through the introduction of passkeys. Together, these controls help to mitigate cyber security risk.

For more information on staying safe online see the Be Secure webpages

Core ICIS systems dealing with Finance, Procurement, Expenses, HR, Payroll and Post Award Research are all within scope. Some additional systems such as recruitment and absence management will also be brought into Atlas.

Systems within scope of the programme include: ICIS, Talentlink, Teamseer, FreshService and My Imperial Payslips. A full list of systems in and out of scope of the programme can be found in our Programme Scope. Detailed design work will be carried out to ensure effective integrations between Atlas and systems outside the scope of the programme. More information can be found in our Integrations Catalogue.

Our Process Catalogue details each of the processes that are in scope of the programme.

Key changes affecting most staff and managers are: 

• Recruitment Against an Award - New staff costing tool for projects will streamline recruitment approvals.
• Expenses - Ability to create expense reports via mobile will allow colleagues to do this at the point of need.
• Receipting - All goods and services will need to be receipted in the system to enable payment of an invoice.
• Absence Management - All absence will be managed through Atlas, replacing TeamSeer. Leave to be calculated in hours instead of days.
• Requisition and Expense Approval - Academics (Principal Investigators) will be in the approval chain for requisitions and expenses charged to research projects.
• Raising Requisitions - All staff will be able to raise a requisition with consistent approval processes.
• Standard Probation Approval - Line Managers will be required to confirm that staff have passed probation. 
   
  For more detailed information on changes, refer to our Design Summary papers. 

• Our programme team are ensuring the new system works as required in readiness for the second cycle of user acceptance testing. In cycle two, colleagues from outside the programme team will get their hands on the system to check it works as expected.
• Our Change team and business analysts are working together to map end-to-end processes and change impacts, to identify how teams and processes will be affected and plan for a smooth transition.
• Training and practical guidance are in development to ensure teams are confident and equipped from now through to delivery. 
• We are starting to share details of cutover (the transition to Atlas) and working with teams to ensure everyone is prepared.