North Wales Fire & Rescue Service is upgrading its finance systems to a new state-of-the-art Software as a Service solution from leading enterprise software provider TechnologyOne.
The fire and rescue service, which protects hundreds of thousands of residents and tourists across 2,400 square miles of picturesque North Wales, is switching to the new software to help improve real-time financial decision making and business reporting.
By upgrading to TechnologyOne’s SaaS enterprise software, employees at the fire and rescue service will be able to access and use new general ledger, accounts, budgeting, forecasting and asset management systems at any time, using any device, wherever they are, through an intuitive online portal.
Helen Howard, Head of Finance at North Wales Fire & Rescue Service, said: “The new systems, and the improved financial and management information coming from them, will be a huge benefit for the Fire & Rescue Service. Right now, it can be quite laborious, pulling data across from different systems and spreadsheets.”
“Having better information systems will support budget holder decision making. It will help us ensure better financial planning as well,” Helen added. “We hope to have more engagement from staff and quicker decision making, because they will be able to access all the information they need, in one place, a lot more easily. Currently employees have to go in to one system to do one thing and in to another for something else, which slows things down.”
TechnologyOne’s Software as a Service solution will bring further benefits, as employees at the Fire & Rescue Service are geographically dispersed across North Wales in different offices and stations. The switch to TechnologyOne’s web-based financial portal supports the organisation’s agile working.
“We have a lot of staff out and about and there’s no reason why they should need to be plugging in their laptops,” said Helen. “By using the TechnologyOne system they’ll be able to access what they need through their mobile phones, all in one place, making things easier and quicker for us all.”
While the impact of Covid-19 on office working was not the primary driver for buying TechnologyOne’s SaaS solution, North Wales Fire & Rescue Service said that the ability to access vital business information via a secure web-based portal from any device, anywhere, at any time did factor highly in the purchasing decision.
“Covid-19 has highlighted the opportunity and benefits of providing access for staff wherever they are located,” said Helen. “The pandemic and its impact, have definitely helped confirm the business case for moving to software as a service and a web-based portal.”
TechnologyOne’s SaaS platform is powered by Amazon Web Services.
North Wales Fire & Rescue Service is the second such service to sign-up to TechnologyOne in the UK. As part of its digital transformation strategy, which includes future-proofing resilience by moving systems to cloud-based computing, The Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, has already deployed TechnologyOne’s SaaS solutions.
TechnologyOne UK Operating Officer Anwen Robinson said she was delighted to be joining forces with North Wales Fire & Rescue Service and helping them digitally transform their organisation.
“Given North Wales Fire & Rescue Service’s geographically dispersed workforce, our SaaS solution will help transform how employees can access financial and management information systems, allowing them remote access from any device, anywhere, at any time,” said Robinson. “We hope that the improved decision making and time savings our software brings will deliver further knock-on benefits to the communities of North Wales.”
