Case Study: British Pipeline Agency see the results of more informed decision-making and greater productivity

The challenge

Improve management oversight and control

British Pipeline Agency (BPA) needed to overhaul its external purchasing business process as the previous system was making effective management oversight difficult. It wanted to put an IT system in place which ensured employees were compelled to comply with set procedures when making purchases and ensured only reputable approved suppliers were employed on site – a key consideration considering the hazardous nature of the industry.

Julian Coyne, Financial Controller at BPA, said:

“The business process we had in place for purchasing was very clunky. It was extremely difficult to audit and approval was not being done at the right level – it was a mess.”

Streamline workflow

The business also needed to streamline its internal workflow for recording timesheets, expenses and absences as the previous manual system of form filling was cumbersome and extremely time-consuming. Julian said, “The system for timesheets was not efficient. It was taking far too long for forms to come through to the finance team. We were working from hard copies which needed to be sent off to management for a signature first. When they did come through they sometimes contained the odd error, such as the inclusion of an incorrect project number, which needed resolving.

“It would then take someone the best part of a week to collate all this information and input it into the financial management system.”

The solution

Automatic oversight and notifications

By introducing FocalPoint, BPA enabled the automatic oversight of purchasing as the system ensures appropriate procedures are carried out before purchases can be made.

BPA employees are now required to input an agreed number of quotes and the finance team is immediately informed if the cheapest quotes are not pursued.

The system ensures the accounts department is also notified if purchases are being made from a new supplier. These contractors are then vetted and a completed health and safety questionnaire is required by the system before any purchase can proceed.

Streamlined online workflow system

Access Financials also eliminated the need for manual form filling by employees who can now submit their timesheets, expenses and absence forms online. This information is made visible to the management and finance teams, without any extra administration needed to re-input this data into the financial management system.

The platform is also able to flag up any issues with timesheets and expenses to the employees immediately, such as an incorrect project number or any expense claims submitted above the agreed limits.

The Results

Greater management control

As a result of introducing Access Financials, BPA’s senior management now has much greater visibility and oversight of company purchases. The system ensures that all employee purchasing decisions are accountable and only reputable suppliers are contracted by the business.

“From a senior management perspective there would be no going back as we are much more comfortable now we have Access Financials Operations in place. It has really improved how we work,” said Julian.

“Authorisation can now take place on a PC or laptop and we know we’ll get a notification if the required number of quotes has not been met. It also alerts us if staff have not gone with the lowest quote. If this is the case, they now have to fill in a box explaining why they have taken this course of action.”

“If the quotes are not from an active supplier it will notify the accounts department who will ask the supplier to fill out a health and safety form. Considering we are talking about oil and gas terminals this is a really important requirement which we have been able to include.”

More informed decision-making

BPA are also developing Access Financials Operations further so employees can make better-educated purchasing decisions. Details on each supplier’s previous work will be made available through the finance system.

Julian said, “We are looking to develop Access Financials Operations to give staff feedback on how the contractor performed on previous jobs. Contractor evaluation forms will be made available to our staff to review so purchasing decisions will be much more informed.”

Greater productivity

The online functionality has increased efficiency throughout the business by reducing the time it takes to fill in forms and send them around the business. Online entry has given employees and management more time to concentrate on priority jobs and eliminated the need for additional data entry by the finance team.

Julian said, “There are really two main benefits with Access Financials Operations - control and efficiency. It has improved our business processes and allowed us to operate much faster. By streamlining things we can now react much quicker to what’s important and the knock-on effect is greater productivity.” He added, “Through Access Financials Operations we have also replaced low-quality inputting time with higher-quality analysis and interpretation time.”