They Said

Working with us to implement our P2P, Pearce Ross Limited provided much needed structure to our project. Key to this was understanding our aims and ensuring departments and users adopted the system, as this was a significant change to working practices. Working collaboratively with our Finance Team around communication, providing training material and acting as a point of contact for issues the system was launched successfully.

Background

A housing association operating across several business units was experiencing inefficiencies within its procurement and accounts payable processes. Manual purchase requisitions, inconsistent approval workflows, and limited visibility of supplier spend were causing delays, compliance risks, and increased operational costs. The organisation commissioned a project to implement a new Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) system to streamline procurement activities and improve financial controls.

Project Methodology

Following project initialisation and scoping, as the new Project Managers, we were responsible for delivering the project from testing through to post-implementation support. The first phase involved re-engaging key stakeholders from Finance, IT, and Operations to gather/ reconfirm business requirements and define project objectives. Additional workshops and process-mapping sessions were conducted to help optimise system functionality, future-state processes, and system integration requirements/ possibilities.

We developed a detailed project plan which was adopted by the project delivery team.

The chosen P2P solution was configured to support standardised procurement workflows, automated approval routing, supplier management, invoice processing and integration into the finance system.

Throughout the implementation, we helped coordinate project teams, the software supplier, and technical resources to ensure activities remained on schedule. Regular project meetings, status reporting, and risk reviews provided transparency and enabled timely decision-making. Key risks included user inertia, data quality, and integration limitations with the organisation’s ERP and finance systems. Mitigation plans were therefore, established and monitored.

Delivery and Change Management

We helped ensure focus on change management and user adoption and with the project delivery team, we helped develop a robust business-wide communication approach that included stakeholder briefings, training sessions, user guides, and demonstrations of the new system.

Comprehensive User Acceptance Testing was scheduled and undertaken, ensuring business users validated functionality against requirements and provided feedback prior to live implementation.

Data migration activities included cleansing supplier records, migrating and reconciling live purchase data and budgets and validating historical purchasing records. Following testing and sign-off, the solution was deployed using a phased rollout approach, minimising disruption to business-as-usual activities.

Outcomes

Phase I of the project was delivered on time and within budget.

The new P2P system provided end-to-end visibility of procurement activity, reduced manual processing, and strengthened compliance with purchasing policies. Approval cycle times were reduced, invoice processing efficiency improved significantly, and procurement teams gained access to more accurate spend analytics. The reliance on The Finance Team for end-to-end processing of orders through to final invoicing was significantly reduced.

Phase II of the project was designed to be rolled out on a departmental basis.

Following business-wide deployment of the system, post-implementation reviews have demonstrated high user adoption and positive user and stakeholder feedback. The project has helped establish a scalable procurement platform capable of supporting future business growth while delivering operational and financial benefits.