Constellation Trust found "exceptional" value in Dimensions for Academies (and Hoge 100)

"Back in 2017 there wasn't an effective finance system strategy in place. We hadn't identified what might need to change in advance of expansion. And as further schools joined, our system quicky became unfit for purpose. One or two schools, yes, but not a ten-strong MAT. Our disjointed system became archaic. We were running four separate databases and several bank accounts. You had to consolidate everything in Excel. It simply wasn't a good way to run a £40 million turnover MAT," said Robert.

"With an enterprise system, we were a tiny cog in a massive wheel. If we reported an issue, it would be a week before we had any response. And if our niggle wasn't considered important to others, nothing further happened. There was no desire to work closely with us.

Coupled with this, it was an expensive option. And that's difficult to justify when it's also not fitting your needs. A product is only 'top level' when you use it exactly as intended." Robert was convinced. He must find a financial management system that would meet the trust's current and future needs.

"People will tell you how it is on The FD Forum. They don't have an agenda. And when it came to Hoge 100 and Dimensions for Academies, I couldn't find any negative comments about them. That's rare.

From the forum, I learnt Hoge 100 were a smaller company who had already developed Chart of Accounts automation with the DfE. I also learnt about their positive customer service. That was important to me.

During their initial presentation, Hoge 100 said they didn't want to expand massively, preferring to maintain their level of quality instead. That shone through straight away. Other providers have been taken over by bigger players or expanded too quickly. In my opinion, both outcomes have a detrimental impact on quality. I wanted to find a partner who would give me what I expected.

I wanted them to be at the other end of the phone, understanding what I was talking about. I wasn't interested in working with the biggest provider," explained Robert.

"I have to say, Liz [at Hoge 100] provided unbelievable support. I couldn't have asked for more. She led on everything, and Hoge did much of the work for us. We just had to fill in the gaps.

Having completed many conversions from our current provider, Hoge immediately understood the technical requirements. They also worked closely with our IT managed service provider, RM Education, to remotely access required files.

Liz built a historical database to hold our previous years' transactions. This is a massive cost-saving, and I don't think any other provider offers it. We now avoid spending thousands on an archive licence. I feel massively reassured I'll have the information I need in the future.

Liz also compiled our opening balances from previous years using data extracted from the old system. When I did my end-of-year consolidations, the balance sheet was 100% correct. The entire process went much more smoothly than I'd expected."

"It's made a massive difference to us all. We now have one database. We've also moved to one bank account, one electronic supplier form, and central reporting. To me, it feels much more in control, which is important when you have ten sites.

I'm now saving weeks producing the management accounts. Live data from the core accounts feeds into my budget system so I'm doing far less manual work. I'm also more confident about my figures as there's less risk involved.

We've even had positive feedback from our auditors. They don't have to wait for me now and can remotely log into one system to get data for the entire trust. Plus, they can review it many ways - by school, period, year, whatever.

Finance Portal is more than a purchase order portal, too. You can easily search for further information at a nominal level and have greater visibility. There's also a whole suite of reports to pull off. All our sites use Finance Portal to raise their own orders and invoices now - it's making a bigger difference than I first imagined."

"One next step is to submit our annual Chart of Accounts return automatically. We didn't do it in our first year because I wanted to have time to look at it properly. So, this year, we'll use the automatic process built by Hoge and save the auditor's fee. It should become just a few clicks.

We also recently highlighted further potential development areas. They've now been done - which I find astounding. If Hoge feel an enhancement adds value to everyone they just do it. Of course, they developed their own software and I find them incredibly agile in their approach,"he said.

"Just post 'What is your view of Hoge 100?' on The FD Forum. I'd be highly surprised if you got anything but positive responses. And that speaks for itself as it's from people like me who are currently using the system daily."