Partner Article

Redbridge College selects Advanced Computer Software Group’s cloud-based accounting software to reduce costs and streamline processes

Redbridge College (Redbridge) has appointed leading software and IT services supplier, Advanced Computer Software Group plc (Advanced) to host its entire financial accounting system in the cloud. The College plans to migrate its finance system, which includes workflow engine, eBIS and document management technology, to the cloud by May 2014.

Redbridge College’s finance team uses OpenAccounts for budget monitoring, online ordering, invoice approval and requests, expense payments, and general ledger. eBIS is used to facilitate the flow of information around the College and the document management technology (from V1) is used to store and circulate electronic documents, helping to save paper and increase efficiencies.

Advanced’s systems will be maintained and monitored by a dedicated team who will also be providing on-going support and training. The applications and data will be securely hosted within Advanced’s UK-based datacentre, and allow the College to move away from managing its existing server infrastructure.

Ashley Garner, Assistant Principal for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, Redbridge College explains: “Advanced’s OpenAccounts finance system has already significantly improved our efficiency and financial decision making. However, migrating these business-critical applications to the cloud is a key aspect of our on-going strategy to safeguard data and ensure continuity in the event of disaster or power outage. The migration will also reduce time and expenses and enable the IT team to focus more on supporting and training students and staff.”

Ashley added: “We recently carried out an internal audit of our physical IT infrastructure with a view to moving more applications to the cloud. As a public sector organisation, we are under pressure to reduce our expenditure whilst improving our services. We believe that cloud computing will help us on both levels.

“By appointing Advanced to manage and host the software they provide, we are ensuring it is expertly maintained to the highest possible level. A single support desk makes life easy for our employees who will now have a single port of call in terms of logging issues and support requests. The fact that the software applications and data can both be accessed remotely in the event of issues or power disruption provides us with complete peace of mind.”

Simon Fowler, Managing Director, Advanced Business Solutions says: “By migrating to the cloud, Redbridge College will reduce the work and expense involved in maintaining their own infrastructure, enabling their IT team to concentrate on strategic development and supporting staff and students.”

“We will be working with the College’s IT team to ensure that the systems are regularly updated and maintained to the highest standard.”

Redbridge College is a further education College based over two sites in north-east London. The College, which serves 3000 students, has campuses in Ilford and Romford and offers a range of courses including BTECs, Diplomas, ESOL programmes and Access courses.

Advanced was recently awarded a place on G-Cloud 4, the Government’s latest cloud procurement framework. G-Cloud 4 is the fourth version of the UK Government framework, and is designed to promote the adoption of cloud computing in the public sector.

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