Member Article

North Lanarkshire Leisure prepares for continued growth with complete finance management suite from Advanced Business Solutions

North Lanarkshire Leisure prepares for continued growth with complete finance management suite from Advanced Business Solutions

The integrated portfolio will provide greater internal business control as the charity separates its systems from the council’s

15 January 2014 – North Lanarkshire Leisure Ltd, a charity which delivers sports and leisure services on behalf of Lanarkshire Council in Scotland, has selected Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) to provide a comprehensive range of best-of-breed finance and resource management solutions. These include OpenAccounts, OpenHR, OpenPeople, RealFlair, OpenPlanning plus integrated stock control, document management and business intelligence/reporting applications. Advanced was one of five suppliers considered for the project.

North Lanarkshire Leisure is one of the biggest charity leisure trusts in the UK, employing around 1,000 staff and managing annual revenues of £24 million. It operates from 18 major sites as well as numerous smaller sites, school facilities, football pitches and golf courses.

Following a recent review of its payroll and financial management software, alongside an audit its entire IT infrastructure, the charity decided to migrate to new systems better suited to its requirements.

Blane Dodds, Chief Executive North Lanarkshire Leisure, says, “The review identified the fact that our processes, systems, procedures and resources were not tailored to our needs and business objectives. We wanted to introduce a suite of business tools that would allow our employees and customers to interface much more directly with the business.”

The suite of applications will be rolled out on a phased basis starting with HR, then finance and payroll, with all systems going live by March 2014.

“Implementing an integrated suite of business systems will transform the business internally- in terms of employees’ work and the efficiencies and values they can add, but also in the way our customers and suppliers can interface with the business,” Dodds explains. “We expect key benefits to be time savings, cost savings and a significant improvement in the level of service we can give to our staff, customers and suppliers, for example through self-service access.”

The seamless integration between the various solutions was a key factor in the decision to choose the Advanced product suite. “The level of integration between the OpenAccounts financial system and the HR and payroll systems, the reporting side of it and the dashboards, will allow us to have real-time information financial information on expense and income, which is a big plus for us,” Dodds says. “There is additional value in terms of management reporting and performance management that the systems offer and is quite impressive.”

OpenPlanning will allow the charity to manage cashflow more closely. “In terms of running various business scenarios and financial projections, those are key aspects to our business,” he adds. “It will allow us to manage projects from a financial basis much more closely too, which is good because we run a lot of capital programmes where we need good project management and financial information.”

Advanced’s eBis workflow engine, meanwhile, will help internal efficiency around financial processes, integrating the finance function with the operational side of the business. The stock control module will be important too, as the charity brings its own vending machine business in house.

HR capabilities will prove critical as the charity continues to grow rapidly.

“We started off with 360 employees and now have around 1,000 working across multiple business units. We needed a way of managing employee information and reporting on various key performance indicators.” Says Dodds Dashboards will push good-quality management information out to key stakeholders across all aspects of resource management. “A picture paints a thousand words, which is important when you have busy managers,” Dodds says. Finally, V1 document capture and management capabilities will provide a vital electronic repository for all of North Lanarkshire Leisure’s financial documents and invoices.

During the rollout, Advanced will be working closely with the charity.

“We were looking for a true partner in a supplier, and it came across very clearly when Advanced presented to us that that is the way they work as an organisation,”

“Our staff have already had a number of training sessions with various consultants and they have gone very well. The feedback so far has been very positive.” Dodds concludes.

-ENDS-

Notes to Editor

About Advanced Business Solutions www.advancedcomputersoftware.com/abs

Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) provides leading integrated business applications and services that enable public, private and third sector organisations to retain control, improve visibility and gain efficiencies whilst continually improving corporate performance. Advanced prides itself on getting close to its customers by understanding their businesses and responding to their evolving needs.

Advanced’s software systems comprise core accounting/financial management, procurement, supply chain management, human resource and payroll systems, integrated with a range of collaborative, document management and business intelligence solutions to extend the value and effectiveness of the finance, human resource and payroll departments. Management information systems for school and academies are also provided through Advanced’s subsidiary, Advanced Learning. All solutions can be delivered as a managed or bureau service.

Customers are from both the public and private sectors and include Companies House, Newcastle City Council, NHSScotland, Norfolk Constabulary, Edge Hill University, WH Smith, Royal Bank of Scotland, Aer Lingus, National Express Group, DFS and RSPB.

Advanced Business Solutions is a division of Advanced Computer Software Group plc, a leading supplier of software and IT services to the health, care and business services sectors.

Angela Mycock, Advanced Computer Software Group pr@advancedcomputersoftware.com +44(0)1625 856 513 07917 634 705

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Advanced .