Coal Authority mines the cloud for spend visibility

Wax Digital’s web3 Source to Pay platform used to manage £30 million annual spend

THE Coal Authority, the body which manages the legacy of past coal mining in Britain, is moving supplier sourcing, management and purchasing to the cloud with Wax Digital’s web3 Source to Pay.

Focusing on improving spend visibility and supplier compliance across its £30 million annual expenditure, the Coal Authority will use web3 Source to Pay to drive a standardized and connected approach to its sourcing and procurement practices.

web3 will digitize the entire Source to Pay process, from sourcing suppliers through to raising purchase orders and e-invoices, to issuing payment. It is geared to improving and enhancing the process and making it more efficient by removing the use of paper and manual approvals.

Coal Authority staff will use web3 to buy goods and services, including contractors to deal with coal mining related hazards, contracts for the construction of mine water treatment schemes and their ongoing operations, as well as purchasing everyday office items, such as IT and stationery.

The organization often needs to purchase goods and services quickly so it can provide solutions to manage public safety and environmental issues associated with historical coal mining activities. web3 Source to Pay will facilitate rapid purchasing and approvals through compliant suppliers in these time-pressured situations.

Paul Frammingham, chief finance and information officer for the Coal Authority, said: ‘We wanted to make it as easy as possible for our colleagues to buy from approved suppliers at the right price. So we turned to the digital market place to source cost-effective services and found that the intuitiveness of Wax Digital’s web3 technology met our requirements.’

The Coal Authority will also use web3 Source to Pay to automate its supplier sourcing and management processes, which are vital to ensuring that it has a supply base that is compliant with public sector and environmental regulation.

The ability to easily integrate with the Coal Authority’s SunSystems finance platform and other data sources using Wax Digital’s web3 Connect integration platform was also critical to the system’s selection.

web3 Connect’s custom application connectors also make it easy to integrate the Source to Pay platform to support procurement and wider business processes.

Anne Coleman, head of procurement for the Coal Authority, commented: ‘We also selected web3 due to its integration and ability to achieve a continuous automated Source to Pay cycle. Integration is vital to the success of our cloud approach, allowing us to easily connect procurement into wider processes.’

Paul Ellis, managing director of Wax Digital, said: ‘By using web3 Source to Pay the organization will have the assurance of a clear understanding of its spending and the ability to react quickly when its procurement needs change.’