Redbridge College moves finance into the cloud

Are more barriers to cloud confidence for customers coming down?

Romford-based Redbridge College is migrating its entire finance and accounts systems to the cloud, signing a hosting deal with Advanced Computer Software (ACS).

Ashley Garner, assistant principal of teaching, learning, and assessment at Redbridge College, which focuses on further education, said it had already been using ACS's OpenAccounts finance system and believed it had helped its efficiency.

"We internally audited our physical IT infrastructure with a view to moving more applications to the cloud," Garner said. "As a public sector organisation we are under pressure to reduce our expenditure while improving our services. We believe that cloud computing will help us on both counts."

He indicated that he saw cloud migration for business-critical applications as important for disaster recovery and business continuity. Also, savings were expected, he added.

"The migration will also reduce time and expenses and enable the IT team to focus more on supporting and training students and staff," Garner said.

The finance system to be migrated over the next two months incorporates a workflow engine and document management technology. OpenAccounts incorporates budget monitoring, online ordering, invoice approval and requests, expense payments, and general ledger functions.

Redbridge College has two campuses in north-east London at Ilford and Romford, serving 3,000 students.