Integrated finance and procurement system

Trusts in the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System (ICS) partnered with our team to launch a bold digital transformation strategy to deliver an integrated finance and procurement system across all five member trusts.

The pioneering collaboration not only included finance & accounting and procurement; it also introduced our Enhanced Purchase-to-Pay (EP2P) solution, which integrates catalogues, inventory and materials management to achieve previously unimaginable efficiencies.

  • First ICS-wide corporate services transformation
  • An ICS-wide consistent and comprehensive catalogue, improving compliance and financial control
  • Intuitive, easy-to-use system reduces errors and time spent on administration
norfolk and norwich University Hospitals NHS FT building
norfolk-and-norwich NHS Trust logo

“We’ve been able to co-create a solution that delivers results for everyone concerned.”

Simon Moore, Associate Director of Procurement
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS FT

The Challenge

Trusts in the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System (ICS) have long believed that more can be achieved together than alone.

Yet their geographical locations and the lack of integrated technology and processes made that difficult.

Faced with a variety of incompatible legacy technology platforms – some of which were about to move out of support – and mounting financial pressures, trust leaders took the bold decision to move to a single, unified finance and procurement system across all five member trusts.

The undertaking was not a small one. The trusts are spread across a wide area, creating challenges for training, support and standardisation of solutions. The number of legacy systems meant that an extensive change management exercise would be necessary, in order to align processes before the new systems could be introduced. And financial constraints meant that the new solution needed to be immediately affordable, produce ongoing savings, and improve efficiency in the supply chain through automation.

Nurses Arranging Stock In Storage Room after buying products through the new procurement system
Norwich community hospital reception
The Solution

With the support of NHS England, the trusts partnered with our team for the provision of an integrated single finance and procurement service, including a ground-breaking EP2P service.

A highly skilled, motivated and focused transformation team, comprised of representatives from Norfolk & Waveney trusts and NHS SBS worked to:

  • Develop and roll out consistent processes across all organisations.
  • Develop a user-focused end-to-end requisitioning and receipting service.
  • Create and maintain shared catalogues across all organisations, providing users with an intuitive consumer-style experience.
  • Create a system that enables users to supply additional details and requirements to assure purchasing compliance when ordering.
  • Automate the creation and dispatch of electronic Purchase Orders (POs) to suppliers.
  • Deliver a comprehensive training programme for more than 3,000 users.
norfolk-and-norwich NHS Trust logo

“We designed a system for a system. It’s been a hugely positive experience.”

Steve Worley, Head of Procurement
Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust

The Result

The EP2P solution first went live in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS FT in July 2024 and was then swiftly rolled out across all five trusts.

  • 94.4% of all purchase order lines are now generated and dispatched automatically.
  • The time taken to convert requisitions to purchase orders reduced from two days to ten minutes per requisition.
  • Reduced levels of non-PO spend, with the number of valid electronic purchase orders dispatched to suppliers increasing by over 200%.
  • The development of an ICS-wide Product Information Management System (PIM)
  • The creation of an ICS-wide catalogue containing over one million frequently ordered items, reducing requisitioning time by an estimated 90%
  • More than 3,000 users trained, with training taking place out-of-hours where necessary to accommodate shift patterns.
  • Ability to see and manage stock levels across the ICS, enabling better stock rotation.

The Norfolk and Waveney trusts are:

  • James Paget University Hospitals NHS FT
  • Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust
  • Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS FT
  • Norfolk and Suffolk NHS FT
  • The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS FT

To find out how we can support you, get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of this page.

Enchanged P2P Brochure image showing a woman and medical supplies
Enhanced Purchase-to-Pay (EP2P)

An end-to-end P2P solution designed to transform NHS procurement and patient care.

EP2P enables NHS Procurement and Finance to deliver operational and strategic objectives with an integrated and cost-effective P2P solution that enhances end user and supplier experience.

It delivers a transactional procurement service together with catalogue content management, underpinned by enabling technology that significantly improves users’ experience, enhancing compliance:

  • User friendly P2P functionality and efficient workflows, thanks to state-of-the-art technology and automation.
  • Improved financial controls through a single master catalogue and real time visibility of all purchasing activity.
  • Enables ICS wide collaboration and savings delivery through improved data quality and visibility.
  • Embeds internal policies and external regulations, mitigating against fraud, manual error, and non-compliance.
  • Increased efficiencies from higher invoice match rates, fewer interventions, and faster payments.

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