Leading College selects Proactis purchase-to-pay from LAKE

[College] is the latest college to implement the Proactis purchase-to-pay software from LAKE. Proactis was chosen for its flexibility and proven integration with Infor SunSystems.

[College] is the largest college in [region] and, following a hugely successful series of Government inspections, is recognised as being one of the very best in the UK.

The college operates across close to 200 learning centres and employs approximately 1,000 members of staff.

The procurement process involved moving a lot of paper back and forth between sites. This fact, combined with an impending merger with another college proved to be an irresistible force for change.

[Name], Assistant Director of Finance for the college explains:

"We have a large number of sites with increasing volumes of requisitions moving between them. One copy is kept by the person raising the requisition; another is retained by Finance and entered into SunSystems. And when the invoice arrives from the supplier it also has to be sent round internally for authorisation...

.. The logical step was to move to electronic purchasing. The fact that we are expanding our geographic spread by merging with another college increases the urgency of this change."

The selection of Proactis from LAKE was driven, in part, because it delivers proven integration with SunSystems and in part because it provides the flexibility to adapt workflow to their needs.

[Name] explains:

"We needed something to work with SunSystems. There are a number of procurement systems out there but we didn't want one that would result in us having to maintain two sets of supplier details, two sets of nominals and cost centre codes and so on...

.. We also have a system of devolved budgets. Some of the Directors devolve responsibility down to Heads of Programme areas, while others keep it to themselves. The beauty of Proactis is that you can have different procedures operating in different areas within the one system. This was also very important to us and is why we chose Proactis."

In addition to enabling process efficiency gains, Proactis will reduce the volume of paper that has to be stored.

"Proactis will speed up the processing of transactions. Purchases will only need to go round the approval loop once. Currently the requisition has to be approved and then the invoice approved separately. Proactis will halve that workload...

.. Proactis will also improve visibility of purchasing across the college. Managers will be able to see their orders. Everyone will be able to see exactly where things are...

.. In addition to sending orders out electronically we are looking to scan invoices and receive invoices electronically. This will dramatically reduce the storage problem. We will be encouraging suppliers to move over to do this."