An Bord Pleanala

Company Background

An Bord Pleanala, Ireland’s planning appeals board, was established in 1977 and is responsible for the determination of planning appeals. As a government body, An Bord Pleanala’s mission is to play their part as an independent body, ensuring that physical development and major infrastructure projects in Ireland respect the principles of sustainable development and are planned in an efficient, fair and open manner. An Bord Pleanala has three main characteristics; the board is independent, the system is designed to be fair and impartial and most importantly, open. This open nature is far-reaching and means that the entire file on an appeal received by the Board may be inspected by any member of the public for at least five years after the appeal is determined. This access facility is very popular.

The Challenge

An Bord Pleanala was previously operating a manual purchase ordering system which proved to be very time consuming. The board decided that in the selection of a new fully functional accounts solution, an advanced purchasing system would provide the greatest benefits and was therefore a must. As staffing levels and expenditure by the Board are subject to Ministerial control, An Bord Pleanala investigated the solutions that were available in great detail.

The Access Solution

Ellen Morrin, Finance Manager, explains why Access Accounts was chosen. “Access Accounts worked very efficiently and closely with our Consultants in order to establish the best solution possible. In addition to this, the software proved to be robust, reliable and very well recommended by all existing clients.” An Bord Pleanala followed an implementation plan set out by Access Accounts in order to install the software in the fastest and most efficient way possible. She continues, “The Project Management reporting was set out very accurately with the work requirements of each person clarified. The data migration from the previous system was incredibly fast, ahead of schedule, and exceeded all our expectations.”

The Benefits

On implementing Access Dimensions, An Bord Pleanala gained a fully operational and highly efficient purchasing control function. Ellen Morrin comments, “We now have a uniform approach to our purchasing system which has been deployed to six departments. Our purchasing control function has been accepted by all users, enabling greater efficiency in tracking our budgets and dramatically improving our management reporting abilities.” She continues, “Our confidence in the reliability of our data output has increased substantially which is invaluable. Access continues to work very well with our financial personnel and, as a result, the support we get from the team is first class.”

“The support and training during the implementation period that we received was also of a very high quality. The approach that Access Accounts took to staff training was excellent and in such a manner that all skill levels were catered for.” Access solutions are based around Microsoft’s SQL Server, which brings An Bord Pleanala greater processing speed, virtually unlimited data storage capacity and enhanced security. She comments, “The speed improvements that Access Accounts brings when searching through data is significant, and because it’s SQL-based, we know the security is excellent.” The advanced levels of integration with the Microsoft Office suite allows greater use of the data and has been very well received by all users at all levels.

She concludes, “Implementing Access Accounts has provided the board with a very flexible solution to our financial software requirements at a reasonable cost.”