Information for BuyersTechnical issues
In most instances, to allow e-procurement to take place @UK will be linking to an existing financial systems from a provider such as Cedar, Civica, SAP or Oracle.This will either involve transferring a requisition “basket” of goods and services, potentially across several suppliers, into an existing approvals process or pre-approving the order within @UK and informing the finance system of a new commitment. It also includes receiving electronic invoices from all active suppliers and either ׁ Way” matching these invoices within @UK to original orders and confirmed deliveries, or feeding invoice information into the authority financial system for a similar process to occur.
All of these pathways are well proven and relatively straightforward to implement, especially if standard XML schemas for the transmission and receipt of orders and invoices can be used (@UK was on the committee which developed the UK Gov XML schemas and is a member of BASDA) . There are, however a whole range of possible strategies which can be followed.
A recommended first step is to carry out a no-obligation discussion or site visit to identify exactly what client legacy systems exist and especially what customization has been carried out since these systems were installed. This can be ordered here.
Technical Issues for Schools
Although colleges and Universities will probably involve a standard integration process to a legacy finance system, schools present a different challenge, as each school will probably be using its own stand-alone financial management system. @UK is a partner with Capita Education Services whose SIMS-FMS financial system is used in a majority of UK schools (although a similar approach could be taken with any other school system). The “@Schools” system is uniquely able to support links right down to the level of individual school from all agreed suppliers. Requistions can be created by all staff which have been given access to the system and their own personal login by the school administrator. Those requisitions are then transferred to that school’s FMS system using a free, downloadable @UK utility called 'Site Link™'. Note: Previous transmission systems using school e-mail systems are no longer recommended since there are a number of stability/security issues) .
