How do you scale a system of high-performing schools in a way that fosters operational and process excellence?
You form a Business Services Transformation (BST) program.
Dixons Academies Trust — a school trust of 17 high-performing schools across England — did just that, with an eye for doing things differently to reach their growth goals.
“Dixons is the first of its kind to implement a BST program, which focuses on rethinking our operating model and how we deliver services centrally to our academies,” says Louisa Sharp, Head of Service Relationships at Dixons Academies Trust.
Through this program, Dixons Academies realized that their old ways of operating — including using Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets to organize processes — weren’t helping them scale. And since they set their sights on adding seven to eight more academies in the future, finding new ways of managing their processes became a top priority.
Dixons sought a workflow solution that would improve visibility into who owns projects, streamline operations across all academies, and break down departmental silos. With Nintex Process Manager, they achieved all three of these goals.
A need for visibility, automation, and a single source of truth
Creating a unified experience and consistent quality across 17 academies is no easy feat.
The trust realized that some of their current ways of working prevented them from achieving process excellence. The main issue was that teams worked in silos by location and function. Each had its own way of working, which created a disconnection between teams.
“There were a lot of frustrations coming from our academies that we weren’t joined up in our approach — in how things were being delivered,” says Sharp. “Things were taking too long. There was no accountability, there was no ownership.”
In addition to the issue of silos, Dixons also realized they had an abundance of manual processes with unnecessary or redundant steps. This meant time was wasted on duplicate work and repetitive tasks.
The organization needed a way to revisit, map, and audit their processes to make them clearer and less time-consuming. “Ultimately, it’s about creating more time for staff to focus on other things,” says Sharp.
Finally, Dixons realized they relied too heavily on Word and Excel to track their processes — a system that wasn’t scalable.
“We relied on procedures documented in Microsoft Word, often as bullet points. The challenge with that was version control,” says Sharp. “Using Teams as our communication channel meant multiple versions were floating around, and you could never be sure which one was the correct version.”
In addition to lacking version control, it was also difficult to get visibility into their processes and understand who owned each one. Dixons realized they needed a single source of truth to eliminate confusion and streamline operations.
Finding a more powerful alternative to spreadsheets and documents
Proservartner, a Global Business Services specialist consulting firm and premier Nintex partner, was engaged by Dixons to collaborate with their Senior Leadership Team in developing the strategy, creating the roadmap, and project managing the delivery of the Business Services Transformation program. Recognising the need to foster a process management culture and introduce automation early in the program, Proservartner recommended Nintex’s Process Manager and Automation Cloud as the optimal solution to support this transformation.
“We arranged a demo and loved it,” says Sharp. “Tom, the school trust leader for business services, was really enthusiastic about how we could use Nintex to positively support the changes with our BST program.”
Dixons had completed a helpful process mapping exercise with a previous consultant in Excel, but the demo showed them that Nintex could provide a central repository and better usability.
“I can’t even think about going back to Excel. Nintex does what it says. It’s so easy to use and all our information is in one place. I’d not heard of Nintex before our partner introduced us, but I would happily recommend them to anyone who asked.”
–Louisa Sharp, Head of Service Relationships at Dixons Academies Trust
From the beginning, Nintex wanted to help the Dixons team feel comfortable with the Process Manager platform. They gave a few team members early access, so they could start to play around with the tool. Then, they scheduled training sessions covering how to use it, how to build a system of governance, and how to assign roles like process owners and process champions.
Dixons quickly felt confident that Nintex would be easy for them to implement and use, allowing them to map and manage their processes as they scaled.
Experiencing the benefits of process clarity
Shortly after implementation, Dixons Academies saw their first wins, gaining a better understanding of current business ops so they could make improvements.
Process mapping and centralization
Dixons didn’t waste any time. Within the first few months, the organization had mapped over 250 processes.
“Being able to map every step of a process is invaluable,” Sharp says. “It provides clarity on what activities take place, who is responsible for them, and ensures full visibility across the organization.”
The trust gained additional visibility from having their process maps in an easily accessible, centralized repository.
“With process maps, everything is in one place,” says Sharp. “You can attach documents, link to websites, and easily understand who does what. This visibility is crucial for a large organization, especially for accountability and ownership.”
Process visibility and optimization
Having all processes and workflows mapped and accessible has made them easier to optimize.
“Nintex also supports continuous improvement, which is something I lead with my team,” says Sharp. “If a process isn’t working, we can revisit the map, tweak steps, completely redesign it — whatever is needed — and it’s all version-controlled and up to date.”
With clearly mapped and optimized processes in place, Dixons’ teachers never have to guess about how to handle situations that arise. Instead, they can focus on caring for their students and improving educational outcomes.
“Our educators can now prioritize teaching and learning,” says Sharp. “They don’t have to worry about the operational side of things. They don’t have to worry about the till breaking down during lunchtime or if there’s a flood outside.”
Time savings through automation
The organization has begun to explore replacing manual interventions with automatic ones. When they mapped and reviewed their payroll process, for example, they realized how much manual, repetitive work was involved.
By introducing basic automations through some of their other software platforms, Sharp estimates the payroll team has saved a half day a month across two people.
The time and cost savings Dixons Academies Trust has saved so far makes them even more excited for future wins.
Process improvements — and what’s next with Nintex
Dixons Academies Trust recognized that to grow, they needed a better way to connect their operations across all schools. With Nintex Process Manager, they now enjoy numerous benefits like process visibility, automation, version control, and clear ownership.
Looking ahead, Dixons has added Nintex Automation Cloud to their tech stack to make further improvements to their ops. They plan to roll this additional platform out soon, so they can automate more sophisticated workflows and get more done in less time.
