Calderdale College

The challenge

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Step up from an overly complex system nearing the end of its life

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The finance team at Calderdale College was frustrated by an old-fashioned and complex finance system. “We were on Business World, from Unit4, and it was far too complex for an organisation of our size,” says Andy Fazey, College Finance Manager.

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Andrew Harris, Head of Finance, adds: “It’s probably a very good product if you’re multi-country, multi-location and have dedicated people who can just work on the system, but we don’t have those resources.”

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Everyday processes were long-winded and frustrating with the on-premises software. “To set up an account, you have to go into about five different screens. None of it was intuitive or made any sense whatsoever,” says Andy Fazey. Andrew Harris recalls that users couldn’t see the information they needed. “People couldn’t see where their purchase orders were sitting in the system,” he says. “There were people asking us all the time: ‘When am I going to get this?’”

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Sales invoicing was email-based and at risk of error. “If someone wanted an invoice raised, they’d email somebody in our office who would send it out,” says Andrew Harris. “That was fraught with danger because you’re assuming that the figure somebody bangs down in a quick email is correct. Are we invoicing for £1,500 or £15,000?”

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The issue came to a head when Unit4 ended support for the on-premises version of the software. Andy Fazey says: “We had an email from our account manager saying they would stop supporting the on-premises version and we would have to move to the cloud. They refused to engage in the process at all. They essentially said: ‘This is what it’s going to cost you, we’re not going to tender for a contract or anything like that – you either take it or you don’t’. So I said, ‘Thank you very much – we don’t’.”

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The solution

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Processes are simpler and information is correct in real time

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The priority for a new system was that it should be simple to use and not take up a lot of time and money in implementation.

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The college’s tender process involved vendors demonstrating their software to the finance team of around 12 people, then presenting via Teams to around 60 non-finance staff. “The vast majority of the team thought iplicit was head and shoulders above the rest,” says Andrew Harris.

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“All the others out there have platforms that have been around since Noah used them to record the number of animals going on – and they just tweak it, which isn't ideal. We wanted something that would be user friendly and would do what we wanted it to do.

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“The other, really important element of a tender process with public money is the price. On both price and the features we were looking for, iplicit was in the lead.”

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iplicit's approach to data migration set it apart from other vendors. “Other vendors said they’d give us some templates to fill in,” says Andrew Harris. “But iplicit said: ‘Give us what you want uploading. We’ll do it and make sure it works.’ That made us think ‘These people are different’.”

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Implementation, with the help of an external consultant, went as the college wanted. “We got exactly what we wanted out of the implementation and we had all the help we needed to get us to that point,” says Andy Fazey. Andrew Harris adds: “Some people asked whether we’d run the new system in tandem with the old one – but we said no. We were getting a new system because we wanted things to get better. If there had been a need to run both systems in tandem, I’d have been worried.”

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The first big difference people noticed with the new system was that, as cloud-native software, it runs a lot faster. “In the old system, if you wanted to change something, you’d have to wait up to half an hour for the data to refresh,” says Andy Fazey. That’s now instant.

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Purchase order workflows are now straightforward and visible. “That makes our life easier because we’re not constantly being asked where things are in the system,” says Andy Fazey. “They can find out for themselves and we can do the stuff that does make a difference, like negotiating prices.”

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Sales invoice authorisation is similarly simple and less prone to error, with each invoice reviewed and approved by the relevant budget holder. iplicit has been integrated with the student records system EBS to extract invoicing data.

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Bank reconciliation, which was previously done manually, is now automated, saving substantial time. Complex calculations like accruals are also handled automatically.

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When support is needed from iplicit, it’s at hand. “There's nothing that's gone unanswered, nothing that's been left and forgotten about. We’ve been quite happy,” says Andy Fazey.

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The outcome

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System has changed the finance culture and inspired confidence in data

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iplicit has become widely accepted by finance and non-finance staff alike. “Acceptance from non-core users was a biggie,” says Andy Fazey. “And within the team, I think they find it easier to use. That makes sense because they’ve assisted in the discussions around what we wanted it to do and how we wanted it to work.”

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The system’s ease of use has helped break down barriers between colleagues. “The system is a great deal easier to operate – and because of that, people are more willing to share what they know. We used to be worried about what would happen if one member of the team goes sick because they’re very much all over their job– but now people seem to share the knowledge they have,” says Andrew Harris.

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For finance, the new system has brought better confidence in the data. “Because things are quicker and easier, we can spend more time checking what has come out is correct,” says Andy Fazey.

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“The budget holders like the management accounts that we prepare for them and we’ve created our P&L and various analyses the way we like them. The ability to write our own reports, rather than having to use the ones provided, has been very useful.”

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This greater efficiency means the organisation can be confident it’s using public money to support students in the best way possible. “We might work in finance," says Andrew Harris, "but if we're not paying the bills the kids aren't going to get educated and they’re not going to have the kind of life experiences they'd like."