Nord Anglia Education

A single version of the truth

Nord Anglia Education are an international schools’ group, offering world class education to over 68,000 students aged 2 to 18. They offer both boarding and day schooling in over 30 countries.

In 2019 Nord relocated their Headquarters to the UK from Hong Kong. Having acquired lots of individual schools and smaller groups in recent years, Nord had over 60 different finance systems and no consistent reporting standards in place. When Richard Davies joined the group as CTO, he quickly concluded that Nord Anglia needed to re-platform the business. The first logical step was to consolidate their finance systems. Nord wanted to get to a global chart of accounts, have a single version of the truth, and improve visibility and communication.

Across 76 schools in 31 countries

Richard and the team at Nord Anglia selected Dynamics 365 Business Central, and then talked to Microsoft to better understand the Partner landscape before engaging with TNP. Richard said, "the fact that TNP had the highest level of Partner status was important to us, as was TNP’s track record of transformation and change management. You have a methodology in the way that you approach things, as opposed to another consultancy who might just body shop individuals into a customer".

"You didn’t turn up with what you did last time, but actually took time to understand our requirements and tailor the solution to support our processes"

This is one of TNP’s largest projects to date. Alison Porter, Lead Consultant, says, "it has been really satisfying to work with the schools on aligning business processes to use best practice across the entire group. Nord Anglia are able to see real business benefits in terms of efficiencies, quality of data, and consistent and accurate group reporting".

Richard also noted the work of Consultant Andre Verster, saying, "he treats us like we are part of the same company. If there is a problem, he rolls up his sleeves, he sorts it out, and he makes suggestions – he’s proactive".

Andre says, "it’s been fantastic to see such dedication to a project from both sides. We are lots of different people all working under pressure to get testing and meetings done on time. It’s a fantastic opportunity to work on such a project".

Looking forward

Soon all Nord Anglia schools will be using Dynamics 365 Business Central. Whilst the initial project focuses on the finance function and the general ledger, Nord are keen to expand their use of the system and improve their master data management.

Richard says, "as time goes on, I’m hoping to continue to see that value added service that we’ve come to expect from TNP. That’s what looks good to me".

Dynamics 365 Business Central can help you consolidate your processes. Read more about it here.