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The challengesThe Finance and Operations departmentat Tenovus is in charge of finance, IT, HRand Recruitment, and Volunteers; and asa growing charity, Tenovus was usingdifferent systems to record income andmanage all these functions separately.“We were using Sage Line 50 beforeAccess and there was no integrationbetween systems.

We have over 65 shops with differentcost centres and as a charity with limitedresources we wanted to streamlineprocesses and produce efficient andaccurate reporting based on the largeamount of data we hold” says Liz Wilson,Director of Finance & Operations atTenovus, “it was taking us four weeks todo a P&L for the end of the month and itwas a nightmare to find invoices andauthorise payments so we needed to go‘paperless’ and integrate our systems tobecome more effective and efficient inour processes” she adds.

The journeyHaving identified those issues, Tenovuslooked for solutions in the market thatwould tackle their challenges and offerthis seamless integration betweensystems to help them streamline theirprocesses and manage their growth.

“We already had in our mind what wewanted and integration was on top ofour list when we were looking, so wedid go back to Sage and other suppliersbut Access came on top of that list andit was really hard to beat based onwhat they were offering us” explainsLiz. “The other options were either verybasic or far too complicated and Accesswon us over with their honesty aboutoptions and modular offerings” sheconcludes.

The solutionTenovus has been a long term user ofAccess Dimensions and identified withSelectHR and SelectPay to help them

Liz WilsonDirector of Finance & Operations

Tenovus is a leading Welsh cancer charity with headquarters inCardiff and over 65 shops across Wales and South West England.The charity offers support, advice and treatment for cancerpatients, information on cancer prevention and funding forresearch (currently supporting 19 PhD students in Wales) toimprove the outcomes for people with cancer.

TenovusYour cancer charity

Industry Not for profit/Charities

Geographic Cardiff, Wales

Employees 175

Turnover £8.5m

Solution Access Dimensions SelectHRSelectPay

manage the whole employee lifecycle,from online recruitment and theapplications’ stage, to smooth boardingonto the organisation and managingthe full payroll process that alsoseamlessly updated the charity’sfinancial records for accurate reporting.

“There were some bespoke reportingrequirements and modificationsneeded to meet our charity’s specificneeds but our Access consultant wentabove and beyond the line of duty tohelp us with this and he even put inhours over weekends to make this assmooth as possible for us” Lizcomments.

In addition, a specific range of modulessuch as Recruitment, Training,Transaction Broker, Access OfficeIntegration and DocumentManagement were included in theproposed solution to help Tenovus gopaperless and achieve the requiredseamless integration between systems.

ImplementationTenovus had a dedicated projectmanager and consultant to help themscope and identify a timescale tocomplete the project. “Our consultantaccomplished the amazingachievement of switching systemsovernight so there was no downtimeor interruption and our solution wasdelivered on time and within budget”admits Liz, “Access went the extra mile

to satisfy us and the implementationprocess was very smooth” she adds.

The resultsAccess delivered the proposed solutionsand Tenovus could see tangible resultsfrom the very early days “our charity hasgrown enormously in the last 7 yearssince I joined and based on mycalculations we are now saving at least£50,000 a year by integrating AccessDimensions, SelectHR, SelectPay andour donor database” Liz declares.

“In terms of the integration, being ableto have that ’paperless’ office and beingable to have smart systems that talk toeach other saves so much intervention. Ithink Access solutions make our lives somuch easier now” Liz states “if I wantedto query an invoice I had to go to adifferent floor to find the invoice folderwhereas now it is just two clicks awayin front of me” she says.

“All the information I need, from VATand NI to previous years’ accounts, it isavailable for me to view, report on andeven email it to someone at any pointin time. And in terms of my favouritepart of the system, I would have to sayit’s the Transaction Broker. We put allour income in our donor database andthe Transaction Broker is our linkbetween the systems so we can seeinstantly how our charity is doing interms of income and expenditure. Thefundraisers can see the income being

updated automatically in front of themand report on donations and wewouldn’t be able to do this without theintegration Access offered us” Lizconcludes.

Post implementationFor Tenovus, the customer journeycontinues with support and accountmanagement “we are very pleasedwith the support provided by Accesswhen we need it, it is really nice tohave someone on the other line whenyou need help. And our AccountManager is always honest with us sowe are very happy with Access andhave recommended their solutions toat least three other charities” says Liz.

SummaryAccess solutions enable Tenovus tostreamline their processes andbecome more efficient so they canfocus solely on the charity’s mission.“Access solutions are central to ouroperations and everything that we doat Tenovus” says Liz, “from webapplication forms to then addingrecords of successful candidates intoour HR system, then running thepayroll process and updating ourfinancials at the same time, Accessdoes most things for us; and we makethe most of our donations and fundsby having complete visibility of ourincome across departments”.

“Access does most things for us; and we make themost of our donations and funds by having completevisibility of our income across departments”

Liz WilsonDirector of Finance & Operations

T: 0845 345 3300 E: tellmemore@theaccessgroup.com W:www.theaccessgroup.com

About AccessAccess is an established software solutions provider to the NFP sector. We help organisations improve performance, increasecost efficiency, and make the most of their funds by delivering integrated organisation-wide solutions spanning finance, HRand payroll, professional services automation, including project costing, and document management. Customers rely onAccess to unlock the potential of their people as well as their charity through better organisational insight. ©Access 2013. E&OE.