Success story: University of Brighton
The Accommodation & Hospitality Services at the University of Brighton operate 16 restaurants and cafés and 3 halls of residence sites over 5 campuses.
University of Brighton take the stress out of purchasing with TUCO Online
TUCO Online, powered by Access Procure Wizard, is giving users a revolutionary eProcurement system that provides a dynamic online purchasing portal delivering improved efficiency, complete visibility,
reduced costs and compliance across your entire organisation with one simple login. TUCO Online is available to all TUCO members and is currently being used by 20 members including the University of Brighton, Aberystwyth University, Churchill College and University of Wolverhampton.
The University of Brighton have been using TUCO Online for two years and have found it an invaluable tool in managing their hospitality operations. It has helped the university’s purchasing teams save time and money by streamlining their procurement processes, reducing costs, improving controls and automating invoicing. It has also provided a full kitchen management system, including advanced stock control, waste, allergen and nutritional management.
Key benefits
- Quick implementation, and smooth adoption thanks to intuitive, easy-to-use system.
- Purchasing processes are quicker, taking the stress out of ordering.
- Data flows from ordering system directly into finance system without the need for manual intervention
- University is able to buy smarter by analysing real-time data, improving bottom line.
- Chefs maintain creativity whilst ensuring the University is choosing sustainable options.
- Empowered managers to have more control of what lines they are offering customers at different outlets.
Instant access to data
Mike Hornsby, Systems Manager Accommodation & Hospitality at the University of Brighton, tells us how TUCO Online was the fastest and easiest implementation of a system he has ever been involved in and how the online ordering platform has been well received across the board.
We can drill down and capture data about our purchasing from every order we place on each university site. Previously we would have had to analyse invoices to obtain this data. Now we can spend that time looking at how and where we are buying things.
Takes the stress out of ordering
Louise Smallbone, Duty Hospitality Manager at the University of Brighton, tells us how TUCO Online have made her job easier and empowered her staff around her when it comes to purchasing. They can now order what they need at their own convenience, and can even ensure they are getting the best price, helping to save money.
It’s helped us a lot by also seeing where items are cheaper, saving money in an environment where we’re all trying to be as careful as we can with our finances. It’s also managed to empower a lot of our supervisors to do ordering for us, which means they then have more control over what lines they provide for their customers.
Quick and straightforward integration
With the support and expertise of Access, University of Brighton found introducing TUCO online into their operations swift and simple.
We were really pleased with the implementation of TUCO online, it was the fastest implementation I’ve ever been involved in. From start to finish we were looking at just over 2 months to get the purchase to pay system in place and our finance interface came shortly after that.
- Mike Hornsby, Systems Manager
Access experts and support staff were on hand to help the University get the system in place and the staff utilising the system easily and efficiently.
The TUCO online support is brilliant, they’re all really supportive and lovely, they’re quick to respond as well, which I think is really important.
- Louise Smallbone
The University did a staggered implementation, getting the operational side up and running, then focusing on integrating that with its finance system. This meant they were able to quickly realise the full operational benefit of the solution as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring that all stages of the implementation and integration went smoothly.
We undertook the integration into our finance system shortly after the main implementation of the purchase to pay module. The process was very smooth and easy. We’ve ended up with an interface that works perfectly with data flowing from TUCO online into our finance system overnight.
- Mike Hornsby
An easy and intuitive system, to help you get on
By implementing the system, the University had the opportunity to significantly improve many of their working processes. Whilst offering obvious advantages, a change like this can, of course, can be daunting to staff who have to change their working practices.
We’ve had to ask our staff to fundamentally change the way they work but the system allows you to adapt to it fairly easily, intuitively and quickly. It’s been received really well across the board, by our managers and our chefs.
- Mike Hornsby
TUCO online’s intuitive and easy-to-use interface has meant that despite initial reservations, staff at the university have found it easy to adopt the new solution, and to quickly reap its benefits.
I found TUCO online quite natural to use, the rest of the team have also found it really easy to pick up.
- Louise Smallbone
Before TUCO online Ordering supplies for a busy university campus could be an arduous and frustrating task. Calling supplier after supplier takes time that could be better spent doing other things. Staff across the University have found that as well as being easy to pick up the straightforward system has really helped them to streamline these processes, saving them valuable time.
Our users that are purchasing through TUCO online have found it really easy to change the way that they place orders. They’ve also reported that it’s actually a quicker process now that they’re using it online rather than on the phone.
- Mike Hornsby
This improved efficiency is having a hugely positive impact on staff across the board.
TUCO online has helped me perform in my job by taking the stress out of ordering, it’s so much easier I can do it at my own convenience.
- Louise Smallbone
Tangible benefits
Before introducing TUCO online, many of the University’s ordering and invoice handling processes were manual.
We operate in the region of about 16 restaurants and cafés and 3 halls of residence sites. Before we had TUCO online we would place our orders over the phone, and we would handle paper invoices or invoices by email.
- Mike Hornsby
Not only was this unnecessarily time-consuming, but also increased the chance of errors associated with manual data entry, and obscured visibility of data across the University’s multiple sites.
Our managers no longer have to do manual entry of invoice data, our suppliers enter that for us and if all is well it will flow through to our finance system with no manual intervention.
- Mike Hornsby
Having streamlined or automated several of these processes, the University is now finding that they are seeing a number of tangible benefits, far and beyond the obvious time-saving and elimination of manual intervention.
The best thing about TUCO online is its reporting capabilities. We’re able to draw out the data we need, when we need it, instantly. We are then able to analyse our business, and work out what we’re spending and when and how we could possibly spend better… we’ve never been able to easily compare pricing across products before – that’s now at our fingertips and is invaluable.
- Mike Hornsby
The team are using this data to not only positively impact their bottom line by buying smarter, but to also proactively identify areas where they are able to better serve their customers’ needs.
It’s helped us a lot by also seeing where items are cheaper, saving money in an environment where we’re all trying to be as careful as we can with our finances. It’s also managed to empower a lot of our supervisors to do ordering for us, which means they then have more control over what lines they provide for their customers.
- Louise Smallbone