Performance Improvement in the Public Sector
University finance is incredibly complex, and finance technology implementations in higher education are notoriously difficult, often failing to deliver. KPMG delivered the sector’s first-ever incident-free finance transformation, providing St Andrews University with invaluable foresight in a challenging climate.
Many UK universities are facing significant financial challenges, with some running deficits and even at risk of bankruptcy or closure. Yet, most lack real-time visibility into their financial status. Their economic models and finance systems have not evolved to meet the demands of today’s commercial environment.
In times of financial pressure, transparency is critical, but many universities are operating without clear insight into their financial health.
It was in this daunting context that the University of St Andrews embarked on a finance transformation. Its finance system couldn’t meet the university’s complex needs and was nearing the end of its life.
Finance technology implementations in higher education are fiendishly difficult – not least because university finance is as complex as it gets. They are routinely seen as failing to deliver, prompting damning media headlines.
Not this one.
KPMG delivered higher education’s first-ever incident-free finance transformation. No glitches, no defects, no disruption. “It couldn’t have gone better,” in the words of Financial Operations Manager Allyson MacCrossan.
For a university finance transformation to go so smoothly is unheard of. Factor in St Andrews’ unique complexities and its success is unprecedented.
St Andrews is a world-leading, research-intensive university, which makes its financial model incredibly complicated. Hundreds of research projects are constantly underway, each with its own funding sources.
Despite this, we went beyond replacing the system: we redesigned the entire finance operating model – including research and student finance, and procurement.
As a result, the finance team now has access to real-time data and complete confidence in the resulting insights – giving them proper visibility of funding and spend for the first time. This led to a 130% increase in data completeness across research projects and a 100% reduction in audit findings, from three findings and £3.3m in gross variances (£2.4m income and expenditure impact) in 22/23, to zero findings in 23/24. Additionally, efficiencies were gained by aligning the COA hierarchy with the HR organisational structure.
As Finance Director Andy Goor says: “We can now concentrate on where we’re going, not what we’ve just done.” As St Andrews navigates the sector’s financial crisis, that ability to look forward will be invaluable.
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