Teachers Union NASUWT Governs Costs with PROACTIS Spend Control
UK's largest teachers union implements PROACTIS eProcurement
solution to manage funds and control spend.
Profile
NASUWT is the largest teachers' union in the UK, governed by its
members. The union provides first-class legal and professional
services through a high quality network of school-based
representatives, local and national officers, staff and specialist
legal advisors. These services include advice, support and
representation, including legal action when appropriate.
The NASUWT is a campaigning union led by practising teachers.
The UK is covered by 34 NASUWT
Executive Districts. The National Executive Members and Local
Association Officers within those districts, elected by members,
provide advice, support and representation for members. This
structure is supplemented by a network of nine regional centres in
England and a national centre in Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland. Specialist staff at the NASUWT National Headquarters in
Birmingham provide support across the UK. The Union provides an
extensive programme of training and access to professional
development opportunities.
Challenge
Like any trade union, NASUWT must exercise great care in
managing the funds it has available to support its members. An
effective spend control policy is therefore critical to NASUWT, to
deliver visibility on areas such as agency staff costs, stationery
costs, the buying of refreshments, exhibition space or the booking
of adverts. Coupled with this, NASUWT offers a wide range of
services to its members, including publication subscriptions,
training, advice and IT services - spending on which needs to be
monitored closely. The association has also negotiated price lists
with suppliers, which needed to be made available to all regional
offices, to ensure hard fought for agreements are consistently
used.
Previously, the association used manual systems to conduct its
purchasing, overseen by just one person. This meant that orders
often took considerable time before they were authorised and audit
procedures required greater visibility. Importantly, the person in
charge of procurement was unable to focus on the more strategic
aspects of the role, such as supplier engagement and collaboration
with other bodies.
Why PROACTIS?
Faced with these challenges, and persistent pressure on costs,
Jane Smith, National Official
(Finance) at NASUWT was tasked with choosing the most suitable
eProcurement solution for the Union.
"We needed to be able to reduce admin, manage budgets more
effectively and do things in the right order, for example authorise
at the purchase order stage and not the invoice stage. With our
ultimate aim of no longer keeping hard copies, being able to scan
and hold invoices electronically was critical. Electronic documents
also provide a more detailed overview of our spend and the ability
to easily track and resolve queries relating to them,"
explains Smith.
NASUWT's staff are geographically dispersed, with 12 centres and
further offices across the UK. As such it was important that the
organisation chose a system that would avoid the installation
headaches often associated with software implementations, and would
allow the regional and head offices the appropriate freedom and
control to ensure local suppliers were paid on time, every time.
Importantly, the system needed to be easy to use, to ensure
regional staff could be up and running in a short period of
time.
NASUWT discussed its specific requirements with Alphagen, the
business software solutions provider and PROACTIS partner, and
assessed the feasibility of a specifically customised solution for
its procurement needs. Alphagen reviewed a number of different
systems and recommended PROACTIS, which offered the benefits of a
standard off-the-shelf solution, whilst still being highly
configurable.
Results
While authorisation procedures had previously been a problem,
purchases are now authorised at the right stage by the right
people. As staff are led through the buying process by the system,
the Purchasing team has an easier job in terms of ensuring spend is
authorised and allocated to the appropriate suppliers. Equally, as
invoices reach the head office faster, suppliers are receiving
payment more quickly - the process is smoother and much more
efficient.
NASUWT's responsibility to its members in terms of efficiency
has benefited greatly from the PROACTIS system. "As a union we
are always looking at more efficient and effective ways of working,
specifically the swift payment for our suppliers, and the PROACTIS
solution has enabled us to address this," says Smith.
The organisation has also seen the purchase ledger close in half
the time it had previously taken - from ten days to five. Equally,
PROACTIS' ability to integrate into any financial system has meant
that it can draw on available data on the Union's financial system,
such as supplier details, accounting codes and other financial
information.
Smith adds: "While all staff had to place orders via the
Procurement Officer in the past, they are now able to purchase
directly, which frees up their time. The Procurement Officer is now
able to deal with more specialist and strategic projects that might
include looking at our supplier base and further eCommerce
capabilities that will help us provide the best possible service to
our members."
