Scaling Up: Achieving Cost Savings and Compliance in Implementing a Financial Management System for a Growing Multi Academy Trust

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In today’s fast-paced educational environment, schools and Multi Academy Trust (MAT) are facing increasing pressure to streamline their operations and find cost-effective solutions to manage their finances and find savings. 

With the need to implement a new financial management system ahead of the 2022/23 academic year, the MAT required a provider that could offer a scalable solution with advanced reporting capabilities.  To achieve this, the MAT turned to Value Match for strategic procurement and commercial support.  Value Match provided a comprehensive solution that not only met the MAT’s requirements but also delivered cost savings and compliance with procurement legislation.

Challenge

A MAT commissioned Value Match to provide strategic procurement and commercial support as the MAT required to work at pace to be able to compliantly implement a new financial management system for the MAT ahead of the 2022/23 academic year.

The MAT needed a provider that was able to provide a higher level of reporting capability that is scalable for the growing MAT to create a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the finance team.

The MATs objectives were to

  • Allow the Finance team to pull bespoke reports of their financial data
  • Ensure Value for Money can be achieved for a scalable solution to support a growing MAT.
  • To implement a system that has the capability to manage their internal finances and also have the functionality to allow schools payments to be made by parents and cares.
  • Create cost certainty across the contract period.
  • Achieve procurement compliance to obtain a financial management system suitable for a growing MAT.

The MAT needed to compliantly and rapidly appoint a service provider to implement the new financial management system at the MAT, ready for the new academic year whilst also being able to demonstrate best value for money in the market.

Solution

Value Match provided strategic support during this procurement which included:

  1. Value Match identified and reviewed the possible routes to market, providing an options appraisal detailing the most appropriate and cost-effective route to market for the MAT
  2. Utilising a framework to run a compliant tender process to provide a quick and route to market to meet the MAT’s deadlines.
  3. Provided advice and guidance on contractual documentation to ensure they reflected the MAT’s needs and did not impose any unnecessary risk
  4. Engaged with the MAT Director of Finance, to gain a detailed understanding of the requirement for the new system
  5. Developed a high quality, fit for purpose specification which clearly articulated the requirements.
  6. Compiling the appropriate documentation and managing the end-to-end process to ensure compliance with procurement legislation.
  7. Support the MAT during the technical, commercial evaluation process
  8. Providing project management and weekly briefings to the school to ensure they were continually updated on the process through to effective delivery
  9. Managing the contract award process including drafting contract documentation
  10. Providing ongoing contract management support where required by the MAT to ensure service delivery is in line with the contract.

Outcome

As a result of this procurement, the MAT were able to

  1. Complete a compliant, cost-effective procurement process resulting in the most cost-effective provider to be awarded.
  2. Contracted with a service provider that offers a scalable solution, allowing for bespoke reporting capability specific for this MAT.
  3. Appoint a service provider who can engage rapidly with the MAT for mobilisation, with the system implementation ready for the new academic year.
  4. Over the 4-year contract period the MAT was able to achieve a 6% saving against market average costs for a comparable system for similar sized MATs, and an 18% saving on their annual fees against the market average for a financial management system.

The project was completed simultaneously as part of a multiple projects undertaken across the school term ensuring the school were able to fully mobilise in advance of the contract start date.

For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul

T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk