Adult education college, City Lit recognised for commitment to tech innovation & growth

The Access Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of business software, has today announced the winners of its inaugural Access Freedom to do More Customer Awards.

The winners, announced at the annual Access World conference, include adult education provider City Lit, home and domiciliary care providers Guardian Angel Carers and recruitment firm the McGinley Group. The award winners represent the best of technology innovation and growth amongst UK mid-market businesses.

“We’re delighted to be rewarding these three organisations for their commitment to innovation. It’s great to see brands like City Lit, Guardian Angel Carers and the McGinley Group using Access Group’s solutions to streamline their business processes, freeing up time to spend on innovation and providing an exemplary experience to their customers,” said CMO, Chris Marjara.

Access World is one of the biggest software industry conferences of 2018, and is a chance for customers and industry professionals to network and gain insight into how technology can enable business efficiencies and growth.

Struggling with manual financial tasks in Excel, adult education college City Lit realised that its way of working was a significant drain on the finance team’s time and resources, and meant they were unable to service its customers in a timely fashion. City Lit decided to work with Access Group to streamline its payroll, finance and accounting functions.

Prior to working with Access Group, City Lit was trading at a loss, but since implementation the organisation has seen profitability for the last four years due to better information and data records. They are now able to raise POs in a matter of minutes, with electronic sign offs activated, and have more control over the entire accounting process benefitting both faculty and students.

Paul Evans, Chief Financial Officer at City Lit: 

“This is the third time that I’ve chosen Access Group as a supplier, having implemented their solutions at both The Children’s Commissioner for England and UK Anti-Doping. The fact that I’ve come back, time and time again, really indicates my satisfaction with Access Group, and the positive impact it can have on freeing up staff time.”

“Now the finance team is much more focused around partnering and helping drive efficiencies and improvements in the business, helping to support the budget holders and the business managers in terms of getting the best out of the finances.

“We have also integrated both the finance & HR system with our course planning (EBS), which has significantly reduced manual data entry and improved the timeliness of financial information ten-fold,”