Leading Academy Federation chooses LAKE education solution based on Infor SunSystems and Proactis

Haberdashers' Aske's Federation has chosen LAKE to implement a new finance system based on SunSystems and Proactis software. LAKE was selected for the reporting flexibility offered by SunSystems and the intuitive nature of Proactis purchase-to-pay software.

The Federation is one of the UK's largest multi academy trusts comprised of three all-through academies totalling 4,000 students and 550 staff.

Maxine Draper, Head of Finance, explains their reasons for replacing the finance system:

"We find our current system limited in terms of the reporting that it can do. Senior stakeholders are looking for information that can be analysed in lots of different ways. It does not provide that level of flexibility...

.. Another area is purchasing. We are looking for a purchase-to-pay system to provide more robust control over purchases and a better idea of our commitments come month end...

.. And finally, we wanted a system that will log a better audit trail and introduce controls, particularly on our purchase ledger."

The selection process included a preliminary review of alternatives followed by a Request for Proposal sent to four market leading suppliers. Maxine Draper explains the reasons for choosing LAKE:

"Reporting was a key reason for choosing SunSystems. You can slice and dice the information as you see fit. And you don't have to maintain long account codes to achieve the reporting you want. You need a new cost centre? You just set up a new cost centre. You don't have to set up 50 new Nominal codes...

.. Proactis was by far the most intuitive of the purchase-to-pay systems we saw. This is really important because we are going to be rolling it out to about 200 budget holders and they are not finance professionals. The system needs to be intuitive. It needs to be something they can get on and use with the minimal of training."