Mairi Bell
Mairi Bell
Director of Financial Operations - NHS Foundation Trust
Why NEP Cloud?
Our Organisation had an aging and outdated finance and separate Procurement solution that caused challenges in the meeting reporting timetable and in managing AP and Procurement Transactions. We had to undertake a lot of manual intervention to consolidate across the disparate solutions, which was not efficient nor effective. I was asked to source alternatives to ensure the Trust had the best solution to support our NHS Business. NEP Cloud is a trusted brand in the NHS and Oracle Software was a familiar choice. This combined with the offering of advanced functionality seemed to fit the objectives of our Organisation.
How did NEP Cloud help?
NEP Cloud deployment is the most progressed application of the solution across Trusts in our area, and by partnering with NEP we were able to implement quickly, taking advantage of advanced functionality and reduced risk and cost.
NEP Cloud is a templated solution and by taking this option it is standard deployment, we avoid overhead in terms of maintenance and support issues that come with bespoke solutions, we reduce the reliance on individual experts, and have a robust business continuity.
The move to having an NHS Organisation in NEP who takes that responsibility for maintenance and developments combined with expert resources that know the product was very comforting, and we are now part of a wider Network of Consortium members encouraging improved processes and technologies.
Update on the improvements – have there been any tangible benefits?
There are many benefits we are seeing already, but the key elements we have seen so far include:
- We have seen a more robust solution that regulators trust for improved financial process compliance.
- We have a fully single integrated solution in NEP Cloud that is providing End to End visibility of information across the whole of financial processing, and have reduced manual reconciliations and consolidation efforts we had to endure previously.
- Enabled remote working and business as usual during the pandemic
- Lowered significantly the business risk related to reliance on expert resources and opened up more opportunities for shared collaboration and learning acceleration across the Organisation.
Individual Statements
- ‘We are at the beginning of our journey, but for the first time, NEP Cloud has enabled increased visibility of where else we can make further efficiencies, it supports flexible and mobile working enabling more efficiencies in travel and time.’
- ‘NEP Cloud offers an excellent team of NHS experts who are responsive and supportive to the way that we want to work as a Trust, and the solution is the most advanced of its kind in the NHS giving us the opportunities to maximise the best use of technology to the NHS’.