On Thursday, February 29, ROC Midden Nederland shared their experiences about this project in our knowledge session. This blog takes you into Source-to-Pay in education and shares the best practices that ROC Midden Nederland applied.
Would you rather watch the knowledge session again? That's possible here.
Trends and challenges in Source-to-Pay in the Education Sector
A little bit of context before we dive into the ROC Midden Nederland project. What exactly is happening in the Source-to-Pay field? And what do you notice about this as an educational institution?
Shifts in the Source-to-Pay Market
In the Source-to-Pay market, we notice that there have been many acquisitions among software suppliers. Take Proquro, for example. This application plays a major role in the education sector and was acquired by Exact a few years ago. This takeover not only has an impact on the application, but also on the accent of the application.
In addition, we are seeing a shift from Purchase-to-Pay to Source-to-Pay. Source-to-contract software continues to develop in the market. This is certainly relevant for educational institutions where the distance with and between lectures and/or services is often (physically) large. This is because an S2P scope can ensure standardization and efficiency across these colleges and services. So it can be valuable for your organization to also include this aspect in your scope.
Good purchasing is becoming increasingly important
The number of students entering MBO has been declining recently. This makes good and transparent purchasing more important than ever. Optimizing the Source-to-Pay process offers new opportunities here. With market developments, there are opportunities for many educational institutions to achieve significant improvements in their S2P/P2P processes. By optimizing your processes, you get more control over lawful purchasing. More insight leads to better control.
That's why a system that seamlessly meets the needs and wishes of your organization is important. But what do you choose as an educational institution? Are you going for an all-in-one ERP system? Or should you opt for a separate P2P or S2P application? In general, you can assume that the more buyers you have and the larger your organization, the stronger the need for a separate S2P/P2P application. Is your organization smaller? Then an all-in-one ERP system may be sufficient.
High ambitions and a challenging plan at ROC Midden Nederland
ROC Midden Nederland had an ambitious plan to optimize their P2P process: in November 2022, ROC Midden Nederland started the project. The go-live was supposed to be completed in January 2024. Thanks to the expertise and advice of S2P & More and the structure of the internal project manager, we succeeded. With a tight schedule, only 3 months of implementation time and switching to the new system in one go, ROC Midden Nederland is now live. In the meantime, many of their goals have already been achieved. This is how they approached the project.
Good preparation is half the work
Many different stakeholders were involved in the project. The Purchasing and Finance departments each had their own needs and wishes that they would like to see reflected in the application. That is why we were involved from the start to properly guide ROC Midden Nederland in the process.
The ROC Midden Nederland project team met weekly. They discussed the priority by topic. This was time-consuming, but paid off later in the project. The needs and wishes were clear. This resulted in:
- Tightly formulated questions and requirements.
- Clear key issues and use cases.
- Direct contact with the right parties.
“In the market consultation, ROC Midden Nederland tested what options suppliers offer for topics where we are slightly different from other organizations. For example, the new Finance application must have options for at least 7 entry dimensions and properly support ProRata VAT. For us, it was important to have tested these topics as early as possible.”
— Elisabeth Varkevisser, Financial Specialist
What ROC Midden Nederland gives as a tip: “When you sit down with parties, take the time to do this. Use these moments to discuss how the software works with the supplier. Be critical and keep asking questions. This way, you can easily find out whether the application is suitable for your organization and can meet the needs and wishes.”
Due to the thorough preparations, the tender went smoothly for ROC Midden Nederland. Ultimately, Visma SpendCloud emerged as the winner of the tender.
Big-bang implementation
As an alternative to a transition phase, ROC Midden Nederland decided on a big-bang implementation. This means that when you go live, you switch from your old application to the new one in one go live, with all modules and organizational units. This way, everyone works directly in one system. Marjon Rietveld explains: “I wouldn't have done this differently.”
Ideally, ROC Midden Nederland would have had more time to furnish it. The three-month timeslot that ROC Midden Nederland reserved for it was very ambitious. Indeed, certain processes were only developed after going live, while you would prefer to do this before going live. With more time, you can test better in a test environment and write out even more exceptions and scenarios. But: the goal was to do the 2023 year's work in the new application. And this has saved a lot of time!
Their tip: Test the system with colleagues outside the project group as well. This gives a fresh look at how the system is set up and shows what your colleagues are up against.
The success for a smooth project: create support
At the start of a P2P project, everyone starts fanatically, but that momentum evaporates. The project takes a long time and requires a lot of time and energy from you and your colleagues, and the motivation decreases. This also happened at ROC Midden Nederland. They were therefore pleased with the help of our S2P & More consultant Esmee as external project leader.
“Esmee actively involved us in the project. This enthused and motivated everyone. That's how we kept our agreements and the project ran smoothly.”
— Elisabeth Varkevisser, Financial Specialist
ROC Midden Nederland experienced working in small project groups as positive. Everyone knew exactly where they stood. Moreover, it is nice to have people from the start who take and get the time to enthusiastically engage in this project.
Host webinars and Q&A sessions
In addition, it is important that you get the rest of the organization involved in the changes. Of course, a new system also includes a new process. It is therefore important that you do not incorporate the old process into the new system.
That is why ROC Midden Nederland organized webinars and Q&A sessions. This not only created support within the organization, but had the added advantage that you immediately notice it if elements were not properly set up after going live. It was also nice that the questions were clustered during the Q&A sessions. We were then able to answer these in one go. This saved ROC Midden Nederland a lot of time. Work instructions are important, but many people don't read them. Keep this in mind.
“Everyone deals with change differently. Take people by the hand. Continuing, explaining, explaining and explaining again help with this. This takes time, but it also pays off!”
— Marjon Rietveld, purchasing advisor
And now: time savings and a more efficient process
The new system has now been live for a while. And ROC Midden Nederland has been able to get used to the new interior. It provides a more efficient process and users are satisfied with this process.
The Finance department previously spent weeks fixing the booking rules. Now with a well-designed system, it is a lot more transparent. It's a relief that closing the year was so easy and smooth.
For Procurement, it is a big advantage that the orderer is now better sent to the right supplier (“guided buying”). This makes it easier for the orderer to place an order with contracted suppliers.
When you read, do you now think: I want that too! But, like ROC Midden Nederland, can you use an expert to keep the project on track? Feel free to contact Ewald.