ROC Midden Nederland handles its year-end closing in 2 days with 2 FTEs

ROC Midden Nederland is an educational organization that focuses primarily on secondary vocational education (MBO). In addition, ROC MN also provides general secondary education for adults (VAVO) and adult education in the Utrecht region. With 1,800 employees, processes can become quite complex. For example, they work with 2 to 3 separate ledgers, 7 different posting dimensions, and various cash flows. It’s no surprise that ROC MN was looking for software to optimize its Purchase to Pay process.

What was it like at ROC MN before Elari?

Senior Financial Officer Ria and Financial Expert Elisabeth, together with three other colleagues, serve as the link between financial administration and business control. The five of them handle various audits, the annual financial statements, and the monthly closings. In total, ROC MN has eighteen employees in the finance department. Without digitization and automation, managing the entire Purchase to Pay process with just eighteen people is simply not feasible for such a large organization. Unfortunately, the existing solution ROC MN was using for Purchase to Pay also proved inadequate.

“The year-end closing was especially challenging,” Ria explains. “Invoices were posted three times (the temporary entry, the reversing entry, and the official entry). Elisabeth and I were the only ones who understood how that worked. That’s obviously not ideal.”

“Especially when period 12 closed, Ria and I had to figure out which invoice was in which posting phase,” adds Elisabeth. “Suppose the offsetting entry ends up in the wrong year. Then you have to correct it. So in January, we had a lot of work sorting things out and making corrections. Back then, that sometimes took as long as two to three weeks.”

“With Elari Purchase to Pay, our process is faster: 2 days instead of 2 weeks!”

Elisabeth, Financial Expert at ROC Midden Nederland

“Fortunately, with Elari, we no longer have to deal with that. We’re done within a maximum of two days with just 2 FTEs. And that’s with 30,000 invoices a year!” Elisabeth continues: “In the past, we’d receive invoices and suddenly had to create new vendors. Project and activity codes weren’t supported in the system we used back then. Accruals weren’t processed. Now, all of that works perfectly in Elari. Importing ‘invoices in transit’ is also a huge relief. The commitments administration in our previous software was impossible to work with. Now we have much better insight.”

Why did ROC MN choose Elari?

The selection process involved a comprehensive tender. “In collaboration with a partner, we drafted questions and requested use cases to make a decision that was as objective as possible using a points-based system,” explains Elisabeth. “Elari offered the best balance between functionality, user-friendliness, and price. We also felt it was important that our tight deadlines were achievable. Here, too, Elari stood out for us with its additional services. In the end, the difference was quite significant, and the choice was clear.”

“Our working group for this project was broadly composed,” adds Ria. “So not only was Finance represented, but also Procurement, Systems Administration, and the Board. All the right people were on board. Procurement and Finance work closely together, so it’s important to reach a decision together. By setting up this project with broad participation, everyone could contribute to the decision-making process, and we chose a solution that works for everyone.”

How did the implementation of Elari Purchase to Pay go?

“Elari Consultant Jeffrey guided us perfectly throughout the implementation,” says Ria. “I found the experience very pleasant, and we’re still in very good contact. It’s great that they really think along with us. Instead of simply adopting our work processes as-is, Jeffrey offered alternatives that turned out to be a much better fit for what we wanted.”

“We had a really tight schedule for the entire tender,” notes Elisabeth. “Jeffrey was well aware of this, so he was always there for us. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test as much as we wanted, which is a learning point for us, but fortunately, we were able to fine-tune things during the go-live phase. Jeffrey has been a fantastic support in that regard as well. Of course, an implementation at a large, complex organization like ours can’t go completely smoothly. But we can always turn to Jeffrey for constructive feedback and to test things together. It was helpful that we carried out the implementation during summer break, since that’s a quiet period in education.”

“More than half a year after going live, we were still meeting regularly with the project group to continue optimizing the system. For example, we hadn’t included the commitments administration in the initial implementation. Invoice processing, however, was rock-solid within five months.”

How is Elari being used now?

“Especially for an organization like ROC MN, a major change always takes some getting used to,” says Elisabeth. “Of course, employees wonder why something new was necessary. That’s exactly why it’s so important to give everyone time. During the implementation, we also organized workshops and weekly sessions to answer questions. That way, we were able to get people on board. It helps that Elari is so easy to use. That speeds up adoption.”

ROC MN also used the implementation as an opportunity to optimize its procurement policy. This means that employees aren’t just working with new software. They also have to learn a new way of working. “Whereas there used to be quite a bit of room for personal input and creative ordering, we’ve now set clearer boundaries,” adds Ria. Elisabeth explains: “We used to enter a massive number of new vendors every month. Of course, it’s important to take the pressure off the core educational process so that teaching can continue as usual. That’s obviously our top priority. Still, we wanted to create a better balance. That’s why we took this opportunity to start working with purchase orders and preferred suppliers. Of course, a change like this brings some resistance. We deliberately sought out that friction.”

Elisabeth: “Thanks to the improvements in our procurement process, especially working with purchase orders, everything now runs a lot faster.” Ria adds: “The OCI integrations are also very convenient.” “Employees also often think that the flower shop around the corner is the cheapest option, but that’s not always the case. Certainly not when you work with preferred suppliers and pre-established agreements,” explains Elisabeth.

“The realization that the old way wasn’t always the best way is slowly sinking in now that we’re working with Elari,” Elisabeth notes proudly. “In a year’s time, employees will naturally notice that invoices are being paid much faster. With all these benefits, you really do get people on board. In any case, we’re very happy with the framework we’ve created. We now have control upfront instead of waiting until the invoice arrives.”

The biggest benefit: simple and fast invoice processing

“For Finance, the biggest benefit of Elari is that it enables fast invoice processing in a simple and user-friendly way,” says Elisabeth. Ria adds: “It’s also definitely nice that implementing Elari has given us a fresh perspective, a new way of looking at existing processes. Sometimes you get so stuck in what you’re used to. Because of the transition, we had to take a much closer look at whether processes still made sense and were appropriate. You also discover which workflows are interlinked and have to consider whether you still want them that way.”

Ria: “We simply have a cumbersome administrative system with our 30,000 annual invoices, 2 to 3 separate ledgers, 7 different posting dimensions, and various cash flows. On top of that, we have project codes and dependencies based on cost centers. With all of this, it’s hard to maintain an overview. Since switching to Elari, things have improved significantly. Elari Consultant Jeffrey has been incredibly helpful to us in this regard.”

“For Finance, the biggest advantage of Elari is that it enables fast invoice processing in a simple and user-friendly way.”

Elisabeth, Financial Expert at ROC Midden Nederland

‘Never stop improving’, at ROC MN as well

“It remains a continuous improvement process,” says Elisabeth. “In the future, for example, we also want to work with templates and 3-way matching. Of course, the implementation will be complete at some point, but as an organization, you keep changing. So the processes have to adapt. It’s great that Elari Consultants are there to help us think through these changes.”

Do you also want to keep improving your Purchase to Pay process?

Elari Consultants understand better than anyone that educational organizations must take into account various changing laws and regulations. Ria emphasizes: “For us, of course, it works very differently than for a commercial entity, which can handle this much more flexibly. We have to cross-reference regulations at every step to verify whether something is permitted.” We, of course, take this into account when implementing Elari.

We’d be happy to provide you with tailored advice on how to best align your processes with the laws and regulations relevant to your organization. Request an online demo and let’s talk. We’ll demonstrate the power of Elari live. We look forward to hearing from you.