Embridge Consulting winning over public sector organisations with new approach

ERP specialist Embridge Consulting says it is reaping the benefits of a new implementation methodology for the public sector.

CEO Emma O’Brien said the company has signed up a host of public sector organisations since introducing a new approach to SaaS-based ERP that turns traditional implementation methodology “on its head.”

She explained: “We support public sector companies of all sizes, whether they are a small district, a non-departmental public body or a large county council, all with the same approach. That is, we’re going to recommend what good looks like, and the customer will tell us why they can’t adopt it and adapt. And by doing that, we’re effectively fast-tracking the whole implementation process to ensure that not only can our customers achieve quicker time to value, it’s cheaper because they’re using far less resource to achieve it.

“But most of all, you’re ensuring that the end goal is that they end up with a good product, [and] with a good set of business processes. Because if you ask the customer to define what it looks like, it’s going to look very different because they don’t know what that looks like.”

The approach, she said, has been implemented across a number of councils, including Cherwell District Council, North Lincolnshire Council, North East Lincolnshire Council, Guildford Borough Council, Basingstoke Borough Council, North West Leicestershire District Council and Surrey County Council. The company also counts the Charity Commission, Social Work England as customers.

The firm additionally has projects underway with the Northern Ireland Assembly (NIA) and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).

“In 2019, we secured nine net new logos all using this industry model approach and they will went live successfully. Five went live in April 2020, so in in the middle of the pandemic. Then we’ve just continued to use that that approach and it’s been received really successfully. Social Work England for example, went live within five months.

“When we get a customer that is on board and we can get them being a change-ready customer with the right structure, the right escalation and the right governance, we can achieve this really very quickly. So from a public sector perspective, it’s completely changing the game.”

Importantly, O’Brien said the methodology is not just about the technology. It addresses “best practice, process and obviously, people – making sure you people are ready to change. With the right customers, it works really well.”

Complexity driving shift to cloud

Elsewhere, Chris Richards, regional president UK&I at ERP software vendor Unit4, said there has been a shift within the public sector to take advantage of SaaS and the cloud.

“Any net new customers are always looking for SaaS, they’re not looking for on-premise,” she told TDP.

Richards said existing customers are driven to the cloud adoption by the ned to update their legacy IT.

“It’s all around simplification, it’s around driving efficiencies,” she said. “We find a lot of on-prem customers, it’s usually quite complex. They’ve implemented a bespoke system which has been very specific to what they want. The upgrades are difficult because every time they upgrade, they’ve changed so much. So they’re trying to get on that journey, to genuinely save costs and drive simplicity across their organisation because they’re more complex than they need to be.”