London School of Economics and Political Science

LSE implemented the OneEducation SaaS solution in August 2019 to consolidate and streamline management of its financials, procurement and budgeting.

“Moving to an enterprise SaaS solution has allowed us to operate more efficiently and achieve consistent business processes and workflows across functions,” Adams said.

“We’ve modernised manual procurement processes by introducing online catalogues; punch-outs to key suppliers; made online expense management available so staff can use it on-the-go; and enabled all staff to work remotely.”

According to Adams, the university has organisation-wide visibility through a flexible chart of accounts, project ledger, and self-service reporting tools.

“Now we have one finance and reporting solution that is integrated, which means the data is available in real-time and it's indisputable.”

LSE also leveraged OneEducation to offer digital self-service, making it easier for students to pay their fees.

“Previously, we were managing all of our students’ residential and tuition-related fees, accounts and the associated interactions separately,” said Adams.

“Students now have a combined, single fee account which they can access via one screen. As a result, we’ve had a large uptake of students using the portal compared to our previous solution.”

All employees have benefitted from mobile access to the system, particularly research staff who travel extensively. The solution’s anywhere, any time, any device functionality also came to the fore when LSE campuses closed in early 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

LSE’s Director of Finance, Mike Ferguson, said moving to a SaaS platform prior to the impact of COVID-19 allowed the university to be more adaptable and resilient.

“We’ve been on a digital transformation journey for some time. But over these last few weeks the ability to get work done anywhere, any time---which only SaaS can deliver---has changed from being something that was just part of an overall strategy to a mission critical requirement and without it we simply could not have continued financial operations without significant risk,” Ferguson said.

London School of Economics and Political Science updated legacy systems that had been in place for 20 years when they adopted TechnologyOne’s OneEducation SaaS solution.

“There were lots of stakeholders and requirements, so change management was an important variable for us,” LSE’s Keith Adams said.

“Moving from a system we’d had for so long is a bit of a culture shock, but the change was well received by our staff and students because they like the modern look and feel of the new solution.”

Adams said that despite the significant size and scale of the project—the biggest he’d undertaken during his tenure at LSE—TechnologyOne’s guidance ensured a great result.

“TechnologyOne brought a well-defined project management approach, and excellent consultants who got on well with our in-house team, which ensured there was continuity throughout the project.”

The university rolled out core features initially and kept a TechnologyOne consultant on-board to further develop the solution.

“As we continue to make more functionality available within the system we expect this will keep making life better for our staff, improving the value of team members' jobs so they can focus on higher-value activities,” Adams said.

Drawing on the know-how of one vendor at every stage of their digital transformation was reassuring for LSE.

“TechnologyOne’s ‘Power of One’ model was also important to us. They weren’t just selling the software to us, they were going to implement it, and help us optimise and grow the product’s functionality into the future,” Adams said.

“The quality of the support is good: we’ve had the same TechnologyOne consultants since the beginning and they really understand our business.

“These projects are complex and the full benefits may be realised until a few years in, so it’s important to be committed to the long term and choose your partner carefully.”

TechnologyOne is a leading SaaS ERP vendor with global reach and education expertise built on more than 30 years’ experience delivering proven higher education solutions in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.