Multi-Academy Trusts Archives - de Novo Solutions

Author: Richard Twelvetrees, Experience & Value Enablement Director, de Novo Solutions

Multi-Academy Trusts (MAT) today are heavily focused on achieving effective sustainable growth. Committing precious funding, resource, energy, and time toward exploring how best to ‘grow’ and strengthen the organisation’s various experiences to benefit Pupils, Staff, or other educational stakeholders alike.

Optimising Central Services: The Hub and Spoke Model

Digital technology is a critical conversation to hold when enabling MAT effective growth. However, technology is not a magic bullet.

To achieve meaningful growth, MATs must ensure efficient traction to journey successfully toward triumph. A MATs transformational process needs to confidently embrace a review of the existing operating model, challenging the evolution of central services (back-office) advancement to deliver meaningful change, increase value, and improve quality.

Balancing Finance and People Management for Efficient Growth

Revisiting the best approach for the MAT ‘Hub and Spoke’ service delivery mechanism will mean re-evaluating which services are performed centrally to save time, money, effort, and resource and which services remain at a federated school academy level. Balancing MAT Finance and People Management services execution is pivotal to deliver efficient growth, provide the best experiences moving forward and resulting in the most efficient leveraging of technology innovations.

Supporting MAT Growth with Modern Cloud-Based Technologies

At de Novo Solutions, we assist our MAT clients in fulfilling their ambitions for effective growth by providing expert advice on modern cloud-based digital technology transformation supporting the critical delivery of MAT-wide people and finance management services modernization. Our six-step growth planner will help MATA readers plan and execute effective conversations when exploring growth.

Developing a Unified Vision Across Academies

Ensure all academies within the MAT participate in the formulation and understanding of a unified vision that spans the complete organization. The vision is essential to guide all growth-related decisions. The vision should establish value markers (see the efficiency and utilization targets below), and through regular communication, the MAT’s vision is shared with stakeholders, including staff, pupils, and parents to foster vision adoption along with progression monitoring markers

Operational Efficiency

KPI: Cost per Student

Below Average Savings: 3-5% (low of £142,200)
Average Savings: 5-10%
Above Average Savings: 10-15% (high of £711,000)

Example: A MAT spends £5,000 per student annually. Below average savings would result in savings of £150-£250 per student Average savings would result in savings of £250-£500 per student Above average savings would result in savings of £500-£750 per student.

Multiplier is 948. 948 is average number of pupils per secondary school (Department for Education (DfE) for the academic year 2022/2023

Resource Utilisation

KPI: Utilisation Rate of Shared Resources

Below Average Savings: 5-10% (low of £SOK)
Average Savings: 10-15%
Above Average Savings: 15-20% (high of £200K+)

Example: A MAT annual budget for shared resources is £1m. Below average savings would result in savings of £50K-£100K. Average savings would result in savings of £100K-£150K. Above average savings would result in savings of £1S0K-£200K+.

Tailoring Growth Strategies to Address Specific Need

Identify specific needs and gaps across the MAT organisation to tailor and right-size the growth strategy. Establishing priorities and goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) will lead to effective strategic goal progress monitoring. Growth plans must connect technology, process, and people alongside service delivery to deliver a flexible and resilient strategic framework that can accommodate expansion and innovation without compromising the quality of educational service experiences.

Enhancing Engagement and Learning Outcomes through Technology

Deploying robust People and Finance Management services will improve efficiency and transparency. Cloud-based technologies such as Oracle Cloud or ServiceNow are powerful and play a vital role in supporting growth and improvement of MAT operations. Process simplification, adopting leading delivered best practices, and harnessing Odyssea (de Novo Solutions MAT Industry ready solution) will help expedite delivery, reduce cost, and improve the efficiency of People and Finance Management services.

Collaborating for Realistic Growth Scenario Planning

Exploring and evaluating new technology will enhance engagement and improve learning outcomes for all. The delivery of quality, consistent experiences across academies and central services is important for successful People and Finance Management services. Growth plans that are enriched with structured, engaging, and personalised experiences will ensure the diverse and evolving needs of stakeholders are addressed, promoting MAT inclusivity and equal opportunities at every stage.

Work in partnership with other local MAT organisations to learn about their own digital transformation journey experiences will assist with realistic growth scenario planning. Providing regular communication across the community on academy and MAT growth ambition will continuously improve and strengthen flexible development strategies and help people understand the traction achieved and the distance on the journey that remains.

Embracing Digital Transformation for MATs

Conducting regular reviews on the plan for effective growth will assist in identifying areas for improvement, areas to be replicated and cascaded and those to be ended. Data and analytics will inform decision-making processes and measure the impact of growth. Feedback will assist with service improvement; help deliver course correction to ensure the navigation remains on path and arrives on time and on budget securing the right organisational outcomes for all.

To learn more about de Novo Solutions or our leading services that include: Odyssea™ for Multi-Academy Trusts -for’ fixed price, fixed scope, and fixed timescale digital transformations (People / HR Management, Payroll, Talent Management, Finance Management, Procurement, Financial Planning and Reporting) powered by Oracle Cloud and ServiceNow technologies support service. Or to explore Value as a Service™ (VaaS™) our managed support service that enables our MAT clients to maximise their Oracle Cloud and ServiceNow technology investments using four dimensions to monitor value and benefit spanning – optimisation, efficiency, adoption and innovation. Please visit: Odyssea™ for Multi-Academy Trusts or follow de Novo on Linkedin and Twitter.

Ready to embark on your journey to sustainable MAT growth?

Unlock MAT Excellence with Odyssea™

Experience Value as a Service™ (VaaS™)

Why are mergers happening more often?

Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) increasingly view mergers as avenues to develop growth and excellence. Achieving a smooth transition and unification is essential for centralised back-office services, and automated digital-first transformation is the future. Embracing technology enables a trust to navigate the complexities of mergers more effectively, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and advancing the journey to becoming a High-Quality Trust.

Powering mergers with digital automation

Trusts encounter multiple complex challenges during mergers, including disparate, duplicated systems, communication alignment, and slow disconnected data silos. A digital transformation provides tools and frameworks to overcome these hurdles. Adopting cloud technology means processes and systems are automated, streamlining stakeholder involvement and expediting the value of data across the trust. The growth of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) enhances operational efficiency, exception analysis with data-driven decision-making as emerging technologies are embraced.

Mergers aim to:

Improve educational standards

Deliver economies of scale

Develop innovation and evolution

Foster collaboration and unity

Balance flexibility and autonomy

Accelerate growth ambitions

Optimising back-office efficiency and innovation

Well-run centralised back-office support services are vital to any trust’s reputation and performance. Post-merger by consolidating and reducing low-value administrative functions with automation on a unified platform, streamlined processes will result, eliminate duplication, and freeing time to focus on high-value strategic activities. Cloud agility and responsiveness will enable a trust to adapt more quickly and cascade a culture of continuous improvement across operations.

Measuring success and improvement

Trustees that support a MAT bring valuable external perspectives and objectivity. Assisting with prioritising new methods and innovations, balancing contexts, and value are important considerations. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provide useful benchmarks for discussion, highlighting the importance of due diligence and feedback on realignment decisions to drive value and growth savings.

How does your trust measure up?

Success rate: 70-90%

70-90% of mergers fail to meet their intended objectives, highlighting why due diligence and strategic re-alignment planning is essential

Synergy realisation: 20-30%

20-30% of mergers achieve the anticipated synergies, underscoring that post-merger integration and commitment is essential to drive value and growth savings

Employee retention: 30%

30% of employees voluntarily resign within 365 days following a merger, highlighting importance of change management, communication, and cultural integration to retain talent

In summary

Remaining flexible and open is important in post-merger life. It is the people and culture that help make a trust. People and people management are just as essential as the balance sheet when aspiring to unlock the full post-merger potential. It will take planning, focus, give and take, and understanding to recognise the benefits and value outcomes associated with a merger in order to provide better educational outcomes for all.

As trusts embark on their merger journeys, we at de Novo Solutions stand ready to partner with organisations on their digital transformation journey, driving innovation, efficiency, and success every step of the way.

Better empowering and enabling today's Chief Financial Operating Officer (CFOO)

Navigating today’s complex Multi Academy Trust (MAT) Back-Office operation is a key challenge for a Chief Financial Operating Officer (CFOO). With rocks and reefs waiting to catch out the business service support team that manage the Trust’s Finance, Procurement, Human Resources, Payroll and Reporting activities.

The continuing emergence of Trust CFOO underlines the important connection between finance and operations. A properly equipped and empowered CFOO will better support the C-Level with one eye on the Trust’s balance sheet and the other on Back-Office operational performance.

Trust challenges continually evolve in shape and placement meaning that an effective radar warning system is needed to navigate a safe passage to High Quality Trust.

Our MAT clients are circumnavigating challenges such as:

A Trust often experiences ‘choppier waters’ with Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activities – growth pains to be overcome to prevent unnecessary risk and poor performance. Multiple legacy overlapping business applications left as shipwrecked data silos or islands strewn across the Trust will cause danger if left unsecured, unmarked, and unmanaged.

Our Trust clients typically want to address major M&A headaches – looking for lifeboats to overcome:

Post M&A consolidation is the essential ‘SOS lifejacket’. Centralising processes, rationalising terms, suppliers, and systems, while developing new scalable and consistent ways of working.

Our digital experts are MAT Pilots and alongside the CFOO strengthen the Trust ‘bridge’ to be better equipped for all weather conditions.

A better-informed Trust C-Level Team will anticipate and predict conditions as opposed to just responding to them, determining the best course ahead to achieve the Trust’s future vision.

Harnessing modular and integrated Oracle and ServiceNow Cloud technologies – for the Back-Office will mean Trust automation and efficiency savings. Improving Trust transparency, control, and continuous innovation will deliver better educational outcomes benefiting the Trust, community, and pupils alike impacting:

Finance

Revolutionising Trust finance execution with streamlined solutions for budgeting, reporting, and forecasting reducing administration for improved strategic MAT decisioning

Procurement

Collaborative procurement initiatives to leverage economies of scale within MAT by pooling resources and negotiating bulk contracts achieving significant cost savings across the Trust

Human Resources

Improving people and talent management strategies to ensure all Trust employees are attracted, developed and retained contributing to deliver inspiring education for pupils

Payroll

Supporting sophisticated payroll eligibility rules and payroll processing frequencies with detailed cost control management and Trust compensation reporting and modelling analysis tools

Reporting

Game-changing analytics with deep insights into financial performance, operational effectiveness using predictions to anticipate future trends, areas for improvement, and mitigate risk

So, if you are charged with transforming your Trust’s Back-Office future and this article has stimulated your ambitions for financial and people management activities – please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Let us navigate your success as experts in MAT focused Oracle Cloud and ServiceNow digital Back-Office transformations.

Making a Digital Difference with Odyssea™ for MATs

Typically, 75% of a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) budget today is spent on people costs. It begs the question: Is your MAT modernising its approach to people management, investing in its most valuable (and expensive) asset? Are your skilled people benefiting from a progressive digital revolution or evolution journey, or is your trust experiencing inertia—confused, stuck, or unsure how to begin.

No matter your MAT situation, de Novo is here to help. This article showcases the capabilities of Odyssea™ for MATs and emphasises the crucial role of people management in achieving overall MAT goals.

Learn how de Novo’s expertise, recently recognised with a ‘HR Tech Innovation’ award commendation, can support you on your journey to a digitally optimised future.

With the emphasis today placed upon quality pupil education and engaging pupil experiences, Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) across the nation are under pressure like never before. Expected to simultaneously ‘juggle’ other operational MAT priorities alongside the needs of their pupils with an aim to deliver a well-respected, compliant, successful, safe, and performant MAT that the community is proud of.

To achieve those aims the role of people management should not be forgotten, understated, or delayed in lieu of other items on the MAT agenda as it is the people working within a MAT that impact pupils and contribute to the goals of the organisation.

The seemingly never-ending list of operational priorities and activities that MAT leadership teams are expected to focus on can often cause an inadvertent negative impact on other equally important aspects, such as people management.

The Pressures Facing MATs Today

Combatting increased threat of cybercrime
Focusing on operational efficiencies and transparency
Adhering to legislative compliance and GDPR constraints
Pressures on funding, budgets, and MAT self-generating income
Managing risk and the pressure to embrace cloud digital technologies

These classical MAT priorities will not be going away anytime soon, and no doubt the average MAT Leaders’ to-do list runs the risk of expanding still further and with a potential change in UK Government who knows what the future will bring.

To help dispel a few urban myths that may exist it is important to confirm that a large slice of MAT priorities and focus areas can be better addressed through the effective deployment and use of cloud enabled digital technology to complete much of the heavy lifting.

Without balancing the time and effort spent on the ‘digital agenda’ versus other operational matters a MAT might well run the risk of missing out on the advantages that a modern cloud enabled people solution brings to the operation but more importantly to the people.

The heavy lifting typically associated with preparing and executing a digital transformation can be reduced by de Novo’s Odyssea™ for MATs, a purpose-built strategic HR / Payroll people management solution powered by Oracle Cloud.

With such a high proportion (75%) of MAT operational budgets spent on people related costs it is essential that such a precious and valuable investment (MAT people) is properly managed alongside well thought out people experiences.

Odyssea™ for MATs brings industry ready profiles, functionality and default settings that are specifically purpose designed to enable a MAT to make a fast start to their people transformation. de Novo’s experience in the industry has been gained through other MAT people and finance focused transformation projects. That knowledge means that de Novo is essentially simplifying and breaking the barriers of inertia that might on occasion paralyse people management progress within a MAT.

Navigate your Cloud Journey with Confidence

To support MATs in their transition, de Novo brings a new flexible, supportive approach to the table – known as a Cloud Readiness Assessment (CRA). Without a well-defined roadmap, navigating the cloud journey can lead to challenges, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities.

This is where our Cloud Readiness Assessment (CRA) becomes invaluable. CRA is performed in partnership with a MAT and reviews the existing working approaches related to people management, with that research in mind de Novo can advise on recommended way forward – be that revolution or evolution. de Novo’s team of experts can guide a MAT on project delivery approaches, future target operating models, functional capability discussions, cloud solution demonstrations alongside building the funding business case and value proposition.

A plan toward a cloud enabled digital future is essential for a forward thinking, MAT leadership team.

People management and strategic HR is an imperative benefiting those working in a MAT enterprise whether they are Employees, Teaching Professionals, Operational Managers, Governors, or Volunteers. People working in a MAT environment have an impact daily on pupils – the next generation that will guide the way – and it is vital that these people feel valued, connected, and aligned with the MAT vision.

Supported at every stage of their employment journey with connected HR solutions that are modern and engaging ensures a person record is entered once and leveraged across the employment lifecycle.

People Management Lifecycle

Introducing Odyssea™ for MATs

Odyssea™ for MATs is a fast start, modular solution for people management – a solution that comes predesigned to support the needs of the education industry to ease the burden and expedite the digital transformation journey.

Partnering with several MAT clients has enabled de Novo to co-design Odyssea™ for MAT to be a solution that enables a digital people transformation strategy supporting either a one-step revolution or a more pragmatic and phased evolution journey.

Key People Management Capabilities

Delivering a Single Central Record (SCR) for people management
Supporting efficient School Workforce Census management activities
Pre-defined education industry absence management, payroll elements and pension schemes
Position management for funding and budgeted headcount management activities
Self-service HR with secure access to view and update information on any device with a browser
Complete talent management to include mandatory and renewal training activity tracking
Performance management monitoring and observation assessment tracking capabilities
Unified cross-MAT organisation succession planning and talent pool management strategies
Life event and career ‘Journey’ pathway checklists delivering cross-MAT process continuity
End-to-end reporting and management information reporting with interactive dashboards

Navigating the Digital Transformation Journey

Advancing and modernising MAT people strategy or people management services will without doubt save time, money, improve efficiency, communication and collaboration across the organisation.

Whether the digital transformation is done in a single leap (revolution) or a series of purposeful steps (evolution) it is essential that progress occurs. Inertia is not acceptable.

Progress can begin with a CRA, a conversation that is supportive and not judgemental – it is about supporting a MAT on their own unique digital journey so that the organisation can better focus on delivering better educational outcomes for all.

It takes time to develop a mature, high performing people management strategy and that elevated view and ambition should not be set as a success measure from day one.

The digital people management journey takes time and requires the regular input of multiple parties to help ensure adoption, innovation, efficiency do not ‘scare or destabilise’ the MAT’s primary activities – namely, pupil education.

Value as a Service™ (VaaS™): Supporting MATs Beyond Implementation

de Novo provides additional aftercare and managed support services for MATs beyond the implementation process and the point of go-live with Value as a Service™ (VaaS™). VaaS™ helps MATs to continue maximising their Oracle Cloud solution capability beyond go-live de Novo’s innovative approach to delivery excellence continues forward into expert aftercare designed to ensure MATs feel supported at every step.

Unlocking Efficiency and Substantial Cost Savings for Multi-Academy Trusts

An optimised people management strategy will impact that 75% spend ensuring you are getting the most from that investment. Helping a MAT to save on:

Expensive hiring though better succession and lateral talent planning
Reducing ‘agency’ and ‘supply’ costs through alumni deployment
Reducing on and off boarding cost and time with automation
Time and effort to control people and position management budgeting
Lost momentum in encouraging MAT culture and value messages
Tracking timely people certification renewals

A modern people management strategy is the future, but it is not always easy to achieve or even prioritise. With de Novo, MATs can navigate the path toward a digitally transformed and optimised future for people management. Our proficiency and expertise in HR/People Management systems have earned us industry recognition, notably with de Novo Solutions receiving Commendation in the ‘HR Tech Innovation’ award category at the prestigious ERP Today Awards.

So, why not have a discussion with de Novos’ MAT experts and hear more about Odyssea™ for MATs, our past projects and learn how the CRA first step can ensure evolution becomes revolution and inertia is bypassed successfully.

Ready to embark on your journey to leading-edge People Management?

Unlock MAT Excellence with Odyssea™

Experience Value as a Service™ (VaaS™)

Optimising Central Services: The Hub and Spoke Model

Balancing Finance and People Management for Efficient Growth

Supporting MAT Growth with Modern Cloud-Based Technologies

Developing a Unified Vision Across Academies

Operational Efficiency

Resource Utilisation

Tailoring Growth Strategies to Address Specific Need

Enhancing Engagement and Learning Outcomes through Technology

Collaborating for Realistic Growth Scenario Planning

Embracing Digital Transformation for MATs

Ready to embark on your journey to sustainable MAT growth?

Why are mergers happening more often?

Powering mergers with digital automation

Mergers aim to:

Optimising back-office efficiency and innovation

Measuring success and improvement

How does your trust measure up?

Success rate: 70-90%

Synergy realisation: 20-30%

Employee retention: 30%

In summary

Better empowering and enabling today's Chief Financial Operating Officer (CFOO)

Our MAT clients are circumnavigating challenges such as:

Finance

Procurement

Human Resources

Payroll

Reporting

Making a Digital Difference with Odyssea™ for MATs

The Pressures Facing MATs Today

Navigate your Cloud Journey with Confidence

To support MATs in their transition, de Novo brings a new flexible, supportive approach to the table – known as a Cloud Readiness Assessment (CRA). Without a well-defined roadmap, navigating the cloud journey can lead to challenges, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities.

A plan toward a cloud enabled digital future is essential for a forward thinking, MAT leadership team.

People Management Lifecycle

Introducing Odyssea™ for MATs

Key People Management Capabilities

Navigating the Digital Transformation Journey

Value as a Service™ (VaaS™): Supporting MATs Beyond Implementation

Unlocking Efficiency and Substantial Cost Savings for Multi-Academy Trusts

Ready to embark on your journey to leading-edge People Management?

Ready to Get Started?

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