North-West Council Cuts 80% off the Cost of Building Self-Service End-to-End Integrated Procure-to-Pay Solution

The north-west based council provides local government services, such as education, housing, fire, police, and leisure to 186,000 people in an area covering 30 square miles.

Challenges
Leverage annual £240 million spend on goods and services to negotiate best prices and trading terms and collaborate with neighboring councils to benefit from volume discounts

Comply with efficiency targets set by the Implementing Electronic Government, National Procurement Strategy, and Gershon initiatives by raising productivity and cutting costs

Roll out electronic procurement to 400- strong requisitioner base without incurring cost of replacing legacy financial system

Solution
Commissioned Oracle Certified Advantage Partner Patech Solutions to build end-to-end integrated procure-to-pay system without incurring cost of replacing legacy financial applications

Leveraged Patech’s expertise and Oracle’s open, standards-based architecture to build the solution by interfacing Oracle iProcurement and Oracle General Ledger with legacy financials

Benefited from Patech’s design and implementation blueprint to capture all requirements, run conference room pilots and user acceptance tests, and go live within tight timeframe

Created automatic data feed from Oracle General Ledger into legacy general ledger and accounts payable processes
Built the new self-service purchasing solution at only 20% of the cost of the four non-Oracle based alternatives considered

Used new online solution to process 30% of annual spend

Created “shadow” Oracle General Ledger and fed data into legacy general ledger and legacy accounts payable processes

Receipted 1,400 invoices electronically each month and matched them to purchase orders without manual intervention

Cut unauthorised spend and use of unapproved suppliers

Reduced central purchasing administration headcount by 10%

Worked with Patech to create online management information tool for decision makers based on Oracle Discoverer

Commissioned Patech to implement Oracle Asset Management to enforce regular maintenance and maximise useful life of fleet of 450 refuse lorries and grounds maintenance vehicles

Working with Patech to implement Oracle Inventory to automate stock management and optimise the ability of the Oracle applications to drive efficiencies across the council