The university is in the final stages of a detailed procurement process to select a new HR, Finance and Procurement system(s) and a suitable partner to support the implementation of it.  

The way in which we all engage with HR, Finance and Procurement services such as booking annual leave, booking training courses, claiming expenses, making purchases, undertaking recruitment, payroll and reporting capability are all being reviewed in the Digital Core project. A best practice way of working is expected to be introduced to enable improvements to the way in which we engage with these services, through a new underlying HR, Finance and Procurement IT system(s). 

In the last project update, we highlighted the detailed procurement process undertaken to select a new HR, Finance and Procurement system(s) and a suitable implementation partner for it. 24 organisations responded to our public Contract Notice and this was shortlisted down to four potential partners during the course of 2021. The project team have been working collaboratively, and many staff from across the university shared their expertise and have taken part in the process so far.  

Continuing with the collaborative approach, during September 137 colleagues from various departments and faculties attended system product demonstrations given by the four potential partners. The demonstrations provided colleagues with an insight into how the proposed systems work and how they could potentially be put into practice at the university.  

Ginny Whittle, Faculty of Engineering Business Operations Manager, took part in and evaluated the product demonstrations: “The evaluation process was well communicated and easy to follow. I thought that the system demonstrations were run fairly as all companies had equal time to present and the project team ensured that the demonstrations did not overrun.  

“We reviewed the demonstration for each potential partner and asked any questions that we had. The feedback form we completed asked all the right questions, including what we liked, what we didn’t like, the words we would use to summarise the products and to identify any opportunities, challenges and showstoppers that we saw. I enjoyed taking part in the demonstrations.”      

The four potential partners have submitted their final tenders and a team of 70 colleagues are currently reviewing these. The partners will be scored and moderated, and a resulting evaluation report will soon be submitted to the university Council for review.  

We look forward to announcing details of the resulting implementation partner and new system(s) when the procurement process is completed and we have approval to proceed to the implementation phase. This is likely to be towards the end of 2021.  

For further information view the Digital Core SharePoint site or please email digitalcore@nottingham.ac.uk if you have any questions or would like to get involved with this project.