Celebrating a 25 Year anniversary working with London South Bank University

In the modern business world, it’s incredibly rare for two businesses to have a working relationship last so long that it can celebrate a Silver Jubilee.

However, London Southbank University (LSBU) and Arribatec will be popping champagne corks as they approach the milestone – 25 years since working on a procurement implementation back in 1998.

Arribatec and London South Bank University celebrate a Silver Anniversary.

Mark Bloomer, Managing Director of Arribatec in the UK, has been working with London South Bank University since the very beginning. “I worked on completing the initial implementation from late 1998,” he said, “and we’ve been working consistently and collaboratively ever since.”

When Mark was first working with LSBU Arribatec was still 18 years away from being founded and Integra was still a fledging consultancy with a growing reputation within the UK ERP sector. However, with the help of the successes and London South Bank, it wasn’t long before Integra Associated LTD was one of the UK’s largest Unit4 ERP firms.

Ravi Mistry, Group Finance System Manager for London South Bank University, shared his thoughts on the work and impact that the Arribatec Group has had on the daily processes within his organisation.

“Working with Arribatec, and first with Integra, has been perfect for our needs. The processes and reports that Mark and the team built for us back in 1998 have become a foundation of everything we’re able to do now.”

Arribatec has been involved in numerous projects since the early days, including revolutionising how they managed procurement processes, the integration with a new QLS student records system, staff training, system upgrades, and deployment of web-based reporting across the University.

Mark continued, “I also helped them to recruit a new systems manager, Ravi, which I think went quite well as he’s still there coming up to 25 years later!”

Full implementation of ERP system

In 2019 Arribatec supported full implementation of an entirely new organisation on London Southbank’s Unit4 ERP system after Lambeth College merged with the institution. This fully web-based system was revolutionary when completed in 2019, as it showed the sector that Unit4 ERP could be implemented as a purely cloud-based solution – something that has grown into an industry standard today.

However, the relationship between Arribatec and LSBU goes beyond what most would consider the standard customer/business interaction.

“Working with Arribatec,” Ravi explained, “has more of an element of care and understanding, with their experience in dealing with other higher education organisations.

Goes above and beyond

“They regularly go above and beyond for us, because they know exactly how important and delicate these upgrades can be. Recently we needed to be upgraded by a certain time for our ICT team’s needs.

It was probably the most intensive migration we’ve ever done, with data having to be moved onto new servers, with a new operating system, a new Oracle database, and a new Unit4 ERP version. It was the most potentially risky migration I’ve ever overseen.”

Despite the risks and worries, the Arribatec team’s vast experience and open communication meant that Ravi never panicked.

“We needed the confidence of Arribatec to see the project done. It was not standard by any means, and they achieved exactly what we wanted with a level of service that we wouldn’t have elsewhere.”