Case Study - Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln

Background

Established in 1862, and named after Robert Grosseteste, one of Lincoln's most famous bishops, Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln was awarded full university college status in 2006.

The College offers a diverse range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses to its 1500 students.

Challenge/Requirements

• Needed system to meet growth plans

• Suitable for self-service accounting

• Ability to handle document management

• Deliver better reporting and integration

Since 1989 the University College had relied on a ‘stand-alone' financial system that had been supplied by a local reseller of a major software developer. Initially this proved to be a reliable financial tool, however it had limited ability to expand beyond its current users and was entirely paper-based.

Andrew Mason, Assistant Accountant at the University College explains the problem, "Our incumbent system was probably ‘state of art' in 1989, but now nearly 20 years on it was beginning to creak at the seams. Its biggest limitation was the number of users who could log-on to the system at any one time, so for instance if any of our staff wanted to use the system, it was a case of asking someone else to log-off first. During busy times this was a very inefficient use of our time and not surprisingly caused a certain amount of frustration. Furthermore the system could not manage purchase ordering, produce sales invoices or offer any kind of devolvement to our budget holders - this ALL had to be done manually."

Stephen Kirby, Financial Officer at the University College concurs, "We needed to bring our accounting system into the 21st century. Being paper-based it was prone to duplication and other errors, the reporting was virtually non-existent which meant that budget holders would continually call us and query their numbers even if they turned out to be correct. All of this put a considerable strain on the department. The final straw was when we received notice from our reseller that our system would no longer be supported."

Stephen continues, "This seemed an ideal point to carry out a complete review of our accounting system requirements. It was decided that we needed a solution that would not only meet the University College's growth plans, but one that could support self-service accounting, improved reporting, greater integration, paperless document management plus the ability to embrace new electronic procurement processes in the future".

The Procurement Process - Direct is best

The senior accounts team drew up a detailed ‘wish-list' that formed the basis of a procurement specification that was sent out to ten prospective suppliers specialising in financial management software. Of the ten, eight responded and these were invited to make a presentation to the University College over a period of two days.

Stephen comments on the selection process, "We were amazed at the breadth and depth of the systems available, however one of our key selection criteria was that we wanted to work directly with the software manufacturer, rather than work through one of their reseller partners. We did not want the risk of ending up as we had before when we were left high and dry with no support!"

The finance team then selected a short-list of two, who were each given a day to further present their solution. This time the forum was opened up to include the non-financial staff that would use the system such as Heads of School, Senior Managers and a number of other staff. The question the finance team put to the users was simple - "Which system do you prefer?"

Impressive system that was easy to use Andrew describes the outcome, "As soon as the session finished the over-whelming consensus was that bluQube was the clear winner. The feedback from the staff was very positive. Being accessible via a standard web interface such as Internet Explorer, the staff found it very familiar and therefore easy to use, and it provided them with all the information they needed at their desktop. We also liked the ‘Cash Office' module that handles cash collection and receipting and in general felt very comfortable with the overall look and feel of the system."

Stephen adds, "bluQube was by far the easiest to use. Another supplier who had very similar features was dismissed purely on the basis that it was too cumbersome to use, requiring too many key strokes to access even the most basic of functions."

A company that was prepared to deliver a completely ‘paperless' solution

One feature that bluQube did not have at the time was invoice scanning which was required to meet the University College's drive towards a 100% paperless office. However, in order to overcome this last requirement Symmetry partnered with electronic document management and imaging company, Version One, to add this scanning functionality to its financial management software. This partnership enabled bluQube to duplicate, store and retrieve paper-based financial documents and allow its users easy access to electronic copies via the central accounting system.

Implementation - devolvement was key

The system was rolled out over a few months, starting initially with the Purchase Ledger followed closely by the other financial modules.

The key issue however, was the ability to devolve the appropriate financial information directly to the budget holders. Stephen explains how this was achieved, "Devolvement was a key part of our implementation strategy, but it was also a major step forward from anything that we had previously carried out, therefore we wanted to make sure that both the budget holder and ourselves were totally confident of the outcome.

In order to do this we selected, two senior managers as our first ‘guinea pigs' and set them up with bluQube's ‘Portal' facility that enables key summarised financial information to be made available directly to each manager's desktop using a single ‘popup' screen. If a query arises the user can then ‘drill' down to the source document and resolve the issue themselves without recourse to the financial department".

According to Andrew, around 90% of budget holders queries can be resolved using the Portal facility saving over a day per week of valuable accounting resource. The University College plans to roll out its devolvement policy to around 50 of its end-users.

The results

The University College is now exploring the full potential of bluQube, Stephen comments on the progress so far, "Replacing our old outdated financial system with bluQube has led to a major transformation in the way in which the University College conducts its accounting practices. Virtually everything we do now has changed. As we expected there has been a significant learning curve, but the benefits are there for all to see.

Our Head of Departments and Head of Schools can now access real time financial information such as, ‘what they have committed to', and ‘what they have paid for'. This has saved the department literally hours and hours in trying to resolve simple queries. We are now well on-track to achieving our goal of truly paperless accounting and we have only just scratched the surface of the information we can obtain from the reporting package."

"Replacing our old outdated financial system with bluQube has led to a major transformation in the way in which the University College conducts its accounting practices."

Final Say

Stephen Kirby says, "Everyone at the University College has been very impressed with the solution and the support that we receive from the Symmetry team. Whenever we call we always receive a very quick response. Like most academic institutions we don't have a large IT department or experts in specialised software such as Oracle, but we know we can rely totally on this external support."

He concludes, "The Symmetry team have made us feel very much like part of their family and it validates our decision to ‘go direct' to a software manufacturer rather than an intermediary. I have even suggested some enhancements to the system and these have been included in the product's future development plans. After years with a system that limited our ambitions and growth, we now feel we have a solution that can meet all our future aspirations."

The key benefits that have been realised include:

• An integrated flexible accounts structure.

• Enhanced reports and financial information.

• The ability to devolve more financial responsibility to departmental budget holders.

• A ‘paperless' audit trail that includes both purchase and sales invoices that can be easily accessed for review.

• Automated labour-intensive functions such as cheque runs.

• A platform from which the University College can grow and develop its financial activities without restrictions and can accommodate future applications such as e-Procurement.