London Fire Brigade has moved its finance and procurement operations on to a new public cloud platform in a step it says will sharpen control over spending, simplify purchasing and give operational staff faster access to equipment.
The overhaul, delivered with SAP and the consultancy excelerated, is designed to support a service that employs more than 6,000 people, operates from over 100 stations across the capital and handles a procurement function worth more than £90 million...
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a year. According to the Brigade, the new system is intended to give it a more modern and scalable way of managing income and expenditure while reducing the administrative burden across the organisation.
At the centre of the change is SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, alongside Ariba Supply Life Cycle and Performance, Analytics Cloud and excelerated’s Intelligent Invoice Express. The five-year managed service combines implementation with longer-term operational support, with excelerated continuing to provide services after go-live.
The organisations said the deployment follows a “fit-to-standard” approach, meaning the Brigade will work with established cloud processes rather than heavily tailoring the software. In practice, that should support greater automation, fewer customisations and a platform that is easier to maintain as service demands change. It also means firefighters should have more autonomy over the purchase of kit and equipment, while finance staff can process, verify and validate invoices through a single application.
Catharine Gregory, assistant director of finance at London Fire Brigade, said the project concluded “years of planning” to find the right partner and that the organisation wanted one with proven public sector experience. Speaking in the announcement, she said the partnership would quickly free up time for firefighters to focus on communities, while allowing finance teams to contribute more directly to the Brigade’s future.
David Rowell, assistant director of procurement and commercial, described the collaboration across the project as a critical factor in its delivery and said the new purchasing experience should better equip colleagues to meet their requirements.
From SAP’s side, Craig Mill, head of public sector at SAP UKI, said the cloud migration would modernise back-office functions and make the Brigade more efficient and adaptable over time. Craig Brawn, head of ERP at excelerated, said the system would bring the speed, security and reliability of modern ERP processes, while also giving the Brigade access to twice-yearly upgrades and new functionality as it is released, including developments in artificial intelligence and data analytics.
The move also reflects the growing pressure on public bodies to standardise procurement and finance systems in order to improve oversight, particularly where large and complex spending programmes are involved. London Fire Brigade’s own procurement policy says its purchasing activity is governed by internal standing orders and wider public sector legislation, with an emphasis on competition, value for money and the use of framework agreements where appropriate. Against that backdrop, a cloud-based system built around standard processes may help the Brigade tighten controls while making routine buying easier for staff on the ground.
The Brigade said the platform is meant to support not just current operations but future resilience as well, giving it a digital base that can evolve alongside changing demands on one of the capital’s most visible emergency services.
Source: Noah Wire Services
