Case Study: University of Birmingham achieves strategic spend control with Proactis

PROACTIS Helps The University Of Birmingham Make Spend Control Strategic

The University of Birmingham, a leading UK research university with around 26,000 students and over £350m annual income, faced fragmented, paper‑heavy purchasing processes (around two million pieces of administration paper a year), poor budget visibility and frequent overspend by academic departments. To take control of expenditure, make purchasing transparent at the point of decision, and consolidate spend with preferred suppliers, the University selected Proactis’s procurement solution (including stock control and employee expenses modules).

Proactis deployed its procurement platform to several hundred users (with a planned user community of 3,000), enabling the Procurement team to manage preferred supplier agreements, automate invoice reconciliation against orders and deliveries, simplify virement and internal trading, and streamline expense and stock processes. As a result, Proactis delivered layered control over most non‑payroll spend, improved budget visibility and accountability for academics without adding complexity, and significantly reduced administration and invoice‑processing effort.

University of Birmingham

Tim Fuery

Assistant Director of Finance