English Council sees payback of new digital finance software

Warwick District Council Uses Software as a Service to futureproof workforce for agile working

2 September 2020 – More than 400 council employees at Warwick District Council are set to benefit from new financial management systems, which will improve decision making and help the local authority become even more agile to business change and community needs.

Warwick District Council has signed a £489,000 deal with enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) provider Technology One, which will help digitally transform the council’s IT systems.

The local authority, which provides council services to residents and businesses in the towns of Warwick, Royal Leamington Spa, Kenilworth, and surrounding rural areas, will replace its financial and income management systems with a single, simplified financial management IT architecture, using TechnologyOne’s OneCouncil solution.

Warwick District Council expects to improve the accuracy and speed of financial reporting by switching to the new system which integrates financial, income and asset management. It will also improve access to better information at the council, meaning greater collaboration, analysis and decision-making.

Around 400 council employees that work in finance, make budget decisions, raise purchase orders, customer invoices and requisitions will be able to access the new system through an easy-to-use, secure portal wherever they are, using any device.

By automating and streamlining processes, and introducing more online self-service tools, the council also expects to significantly reduce the need for extra resource at financial year-end.

“Switching from ageing IT systems to TechnologyOne’s enterprise SaaS solution is a key part of the Council’s vision to transform working practices and business processes, through better technology and digital services,” says Mike Snow, Head of Finance at Warwick District Council.

“Making our financial and income management systems easy to access and available all in one place will bring great benefits. Different budget holders across the council will have much faster access to financial information, as well as much better reporting and analytics tools. This will help us all respond and adapt quickly to changes in the council and better meet community needs,” he added.

“While it wasn’t the reason we chose TechnologyOne’s SaaS solution, the Covid-19 pandemic has only shown more clearly the benefits of making our business tools accessible to employees, wherever they are via the internet,” said Mike Snow.

Keith Eales, Financial Systems Project Manager, at Warwick District Council says further benefits will also result from replacing legacy Totalmobile on-premise software with TechnologyOne’s SaaS solution.

“Our current systems are not user-friendly, cannot be personalised for specific user requirements or adapted to meet the changing requirements of the Council or local communities,” said Eales. “A shift to TechnologyOne’s SaaS service provides our employees with access to a far more intuitive, adaptable and easy to use financial management portal.”

“By automating more processes and data collection, our financial teams will be free to spend more time focusing on helping people in the business and focusing on community needs,” he said.

As TechnologyOne’s OneCouncil solution is true SaaS, business applications and software will be hosted remotely, removing the complexity of Warwick District Council having to run and update the infrastructure onsite, Keith Eales added.

“We’ve also recently switched our email and Microsoft Office 365 systems to ‘cloud services’, which in current circumstances is a huge benefit for our employees, as they can access all the important business tools they need, wherever they are,” he added.

The council is the latest in the English Midlands to switch to TechnologyOne. Last year, two nearby local authorities, Redditch Borough & Bromsgrove District Councils announced they would replace their financial, supply chain management, human resource and payroll systems with TechnologyOne’s fully integrated enterprise SaaS solution.

TechnologyOne CEO Ed Chung said he is delighted to be partnering with Warwick District Council to help them to digitally transform their IT systems.

“Warwick District Council is the latest in a growing number of UK councils digitally transforming their IT systems and removing the burden associated with managing on-premise.”

“By switching to a SaaS solution, the council can automate lots of tedious processes, freeing up employees to focus on better financial reporting and decision making. It also means they can focus on delivering better services for the communities they serve,” he added.