Borders College is a leading further education institution, based in the Scottish Borders, with its main campus located in Galashiels. We have had the pleasure of working closely with Borders College over the last few years and they are managed within our specialist Infor division.

We agreed a significant project with Borders College in early 2020 to modernise their key finance applications, led by an upgrade to SunSystems 6.4.

Our delivery of this project was impacted in March 2020 as the repercussions of the pandemic took hold with staff at both Borders College and Kick transitioning to home working.

Upgrading to SunSystems 6.4

In upgrading to SunSystems 6.4, we opened a series of benefits to the finance team at Borders College:

• Strengthened security with automated single sign on process
• Improved, reporting capability with access to Infor Q&A (Vision), allowing the finance team to manage their reporting from a single web-based application
• 64-bit support, outstripping the previous 3GB memory
• Process efficiencies, particularly around the procurement related PO and invoicing process

Alongside delivering Borders Colleges’ upgrade to 6.4, we also deployed Infor’s Making Tax Digital module.  With quarterly VAT returns now mandated by government, the MTD module enables Borders to submit quarterly VAT returns directly from Infor SunSystems, with automation driving productivity gains in the shape of reduced preparation, report running and record keeping time.

Everything under one roof with Operating Service (OS)

Upgrading to SunSystems 6.4 allowed Borders College to access key elements of Infor Operating Service, Infor’s intelligent cloud ready operating platform to connect multiple business applications. Borders are able to utilise a fully integrated document management suite, improved collaboration across their team with in-app messaging, access to their SunSystems finance data anytime, anywhere and improved digital workflows and authorisations.

Maintaining project momentum during the pandemic

The project began as a traditional onsite upgrade, however, due to COVID-19, moved to a full remote delivery, able to accommodate staff working from.

All project meetings, design workshops, system configuration, user training and user testing support were all delivered via Microsoft Teams video calls.  A combination of tremendous flexibility and resilience from the college’s finance and IT teams, supported by the patience and understanding from the Kick project team, resulted in a successful upgrade project.

Importantly, our work with Borders College has become the template for the remote delivery, when required, of all our finance technology projects and user training.

Thinking about your own upgrade project to SunSystems 6.4?  Check out our dedicated SunSystems section.