Councils Move to Shared Services with COA Solutions Financial Management System

2009-12-01 10:12:13 - Three Rivers District Council and Watford Borough Council are implementing a financial management system (FMS) from COA Solutions (www.coasolutions.com).

This system, which will operate within a shared services environment, will include electronic procurement, budgeting and forecasting functionality as well as document management and imaging solutions (using Version One’s technology). With the FMS system, the councils will enjoy cost and efficiency savings, increase financial transparency and improve budgeting. The planned go-live is April 2010.

Three Rivers District Council and Watford Borough

Council sought a single, functionally-rich and user-friendly financial management system which could support both councils in place of their current, outdated accounting systems. The FMS system needed to be able to operate effectively within a shared services environment to maximise cost and efficiency savings.

Alan Power, Head of Finance for Shared Services for Three Rivers District Council and Watford Borough Council, explains, “After reviewing the market, COA Solutions’ finance system stood out due its advanced functionality and ease of use. COA Solutions also has extensive experience working with local authorities.”

The new COA Solutions FMS will enable staff at both councils to access key information from the same system. The security restrictions will prevent staff from viewing information which they are unauthorised to access whilst providing management with the ability to view and compare data across councils, improving financial transparency.

With the FMS system in place, all 120,000 purchase invoices received by the councils every year will be processed at a centralised payments function. The invoices will be scanned and the data on the invoices will be automatically captured and verified before being uploaded to the finance system. All imaged invoices will be electronically stored and those requiring authorisation will be automatically routed to the appropriate members of staff for their approval, eliminating the time-consuming and costly circulation of paper invoices.

Power says, “COA Solutions’ system will enable us to streamline our purchase-to-pay processes, significantly improving efficiency. By centrally managing all purchases, we will be able to quickly and easily determine where an invoice is in the approval chain whilst eliminating lost and mislaid invoices. The imaging functionality will also allow us to retrieve all invoices directly from the finance system putting an end to the time-consuming and error prone filing and retrieval of paper documents.”

Using the integrated budgeting and forecasting solution – Collaborative Planning – up to 400 council staff will be able to easily create and update budgets and forecasts and report on these budgets in real-time, eradicating the tedious production of spreadsheets and duplicate handling of data.

Power adds, “Collaborative Planning will save considerable amounts of time and provide us with a single view of our finances. With the system’s reporting capabilities, managers will have an accurate and up-to-date picture of existing and forecasted spend, enabling greater control over budgets.”
-ENDS-



About Three Rivers District Council www.threerivers.gov.uk
Located in South West Hertfordshire, Three Rivers District Council was founded in 1974 to provide local services and promote the quality of life of everyone who works or lives in the authority. The district is named after the Gade, Colne and Chess, the three ancient rivers that criss cross the area. Three Rivers District Council has won numerous awards for its work and has been recognised as a Good Council by the Audit Commission and as an excellent employer by Investors in People. Three Rivers District Council is constantly working to improve and retain Charter Mark for excellence in customer service across all of its services.

About Watford Borough Council www.watford.gov.uk
Watford Borough Council provides a whole range of services across the borough. From bin collections and street lights to schools and maintaining roads the range of council services is vast. The Council is committed to delivering for its townspeople a better Watford, through a clear, shared vision with its One Watford partners, as well building an efficient, effective and modern council.

About COA Solutions www.coasolutions.com
COA Solutions is the UK's leading supplier of integrated business management and information systems to public, private and not-for-profit organisations in the service sector. COA Solutions prides itself on getting close to its customers by understanding their businesses and responding to their business needs.

COA Solutions' award-winning Smart Business Suite combines core financial management, procurement, human resource and payroll systems, integrated with a range of collaborative, document management and business intelligence solutions. COA Solutions also provides managed service and bureau service options. Its systems and services extend the value and effectiveness of the finance, HR and payroll departments across the organisation and enable managers in the business to monitor, analyse and continually improve corporate performance.
COA Solutions has more than 500 experienced and professional staff supporting and servicing over 4,000 clients across the UK service sector including Companies House, Newcastle City Council, WHSmith, Royal Bank of Scotland, Aer Lingus, National Express Group, DFS, RSPB and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust.

Contacts:
Liz Ebbrell, COA Solutions
Liz.ebbrell@coasolutions.com
+44(0)1625 856505 or 07917 634 705

Ben Carey, COA Solutions
Ben.carey@coasolutions.com
+44 (0)1625 856505