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“We’ve now invested in a platform that our people can actually use.”
Clunky and dated platforms can prompt a cycle of financial inefficiency for MATs. Instead, Empower needed a solution it could genuinely trust to improve its budgeting planning – so it turned to Anago.
Wrong platform. Inefficient budgeting
Empower Multi-Academy Trust is a network of eight church and community academies in Shropshire. Across its entire network, the Trust was facing fragmented budgeting processes which varied from school to school.
The budgeting platform Empower had in place was clunky, dated and required a lot of additional consolidation, which added to the workload of the team. The lengthy month-end reports that the platform produced also needed a great deal of added explanation to make sense.
Often, the finance team found they were reverting to trusted – but even more labour-intensive – spreadsheets, over the budgeting software. Ultimately, a lack of consistency left Empower with a platform it didn’t trust.
A solution that works for everyone
The inadequate incumbent software was creating budgeting inefficiencies for the Trust. It restricted the finance team’s ability to centrally manage scenario planning, and forced the team to manually move data from its finance solution into spreadsheets, limiting visibility of consolidated financial data.
Empower needed a singular solution that was a help, not a hinderance. Something that would be easy to use, with an onboarding process that would make everyone in the team feel comfortable using it – even those that were resistant to change.
Why Anago?
Empower was drawn to Anago thanks to its long-standing reputation in the Netherlands. Anago’s deep-rooted experience in the education sector – including more than 400 MAT partnerships in the Netherlands – demonstrated that it could be trusted to provide the support and the platform that Empower needed.
An important factor in Empower’s decision to partner with Anago was Anago’s retention of its pilot customers in the Netherlands.
“We liked the fact that Anago still maintained its pilot customers – because if you’ve managed to keep your clients for the past 25 years, then you’re doing something right.” – Ria Westwood, Director of Finance at Empower Multi-Academy Trust
After a demonstration with Anago’s technical specialists, the Empower team were impressed with the platform. It was easy to use, and the dashboard feature – which offers a comprehensive overview of a MATs financial big picture – was something that that had been noticeably absent in its previous platforms.
A best-in-class process
As the first UK Trust to partner with Anago, Empower was struck by the adaptability of the platform. Anago’s onboarding process is inherently collaborative, so Empower could work with a support team to shape the platform into something that would work for them.
As part of the onboarding process, Anago assigned Empower with its own dedicated account manager, along with a responsive support team that specialised in academy trust budgeting. To keep the project transparent and on track, Anago and Empower engaged in weekly progress meetings via Microsoft Teams, where secure files could also be shared.
“I’ve been working in education for twenty years, and during that time I’ve implemented platforms developed by a number of Anago’s direct UK competitors. This has by far been the easiest process.” – Ria Westwood, Director of Finance at Empower Multi-Academy Trust
During the development phase, Anago provided Empower with test data for the system. This way, the Empower team could start exploring the platform in-situ, helping them get acquainted and ensuring they were given the opportunity to feed back on the platform’s development.
Taking the legwork out of Empower’s budgeting
With a budgeting platform now built for its entire network, the Empower team has seen significant time savings in its budget preparation and forecasting processes. Without the need for time-intensive manual input, financial reporting accuracy has also improved throughout the network, with a centralised dashboard enabling real-time insights across all schools. Now, actions that previously took hours can now be completed at the click of a button.
Set up for the future
Empower has already created its three-year budget plan through Anago for the first time, and the team found the process efficient and straightforward.
The world of academy budgeting is never static, and through Anago’s platform Empower can be far more adaptable. Now, the team can easily plan out different staffing scenarios, and improve the speed and effectiveness of the Trust’s decision-making.
Empower now has a dynamic tool that works for everyone in its network, giving it far more comprehensive financial control. The Trust’s finance team and each of the schools’ leaders are equipped with the tools to collaborate more effectively, and are empowered to make faster and more effective budgeting decisions.
“Anago is really working well for us, and I firmly believe that we made the right decision.” – Ria Westwood, Director of Finance at Empower Multi-Academy Trust
Curious what Anago can do for you?
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