Oxfam

The Challenge

For more than 80 years, Oxfam has been fighting to end global poverty and inequality. A mission-driven nonprofit, Oxfam offers lifesaving support in times of crisis, and advocates for economic justice, gender equality, and climate action. In short, Oxfam’s business is providing help. And when it needed help overhauling its operational systems, it turned to Argano.

For years, Oxfam had leaned on an on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. As with many on-premises solutions, the aging infrastructure created challenges such as lack of access, scalability, and flexibility. Additionally, for Oxfam, it suffered from insufficient connectivity to Oxfam’s logistics and CRM systems, and limited insight on critical matters such as donations, expenses, and activities in the field, for example, tracking aid to recipients.

When its ERP provider announced it was sunsetting the solution, Oxfam looked for help solving these challenges and getting ahead of future ones — the company turned to Argano.

The Solution

For many nonprofits, the cost of an enterprise-level ERP system can be prohibitive, and Oxfam needed a solution that was both affordable and capable. With Argano’s guidance, Oxfam selected Unit4 ERP, the ERP system of choice for many nonprofit organizations.

Additionally, Oxfam leaned on Argano to be its end-to-end provider as its previous systems were reliant on multiple partners, often creating disconnects and miscommunications.

Argano implemented the new, cloud-based ERP solution through a templated (expedited) methodology. This was both a templated approach at a technology level made specifically for nonprofits/NGOs. Additionally, they also used Argano’s nonprofit template approach made possible by our knowledge of the industry and the industry best practices and processes. This helped Oxfam save time and money, while still allowing for extensions to meet the organization’s specific requirements.

The result was an ERP solution that was seamlessly connected with both Oxfam’s logistics software (used for tracking inventory numbers and case workers) and its CRM system (used for tracking sales and case management).

All connected, all in the cloud, Oxfam’s cloud ERP solution delivers more visibility into financials, budgeting, employee engagement, and most every moving piece within the Oxfam’s global organization.

The Results

The biggest win was an integrated, cloud-based system that automated critical processes, and freed their teams to focus on value-added tasks, such as fundraising and program execution, rather than administration.

The system provides a unified view of operations, and connects data from across the organization, allowing stakeholders to have a more immediate and actionable understanding of the entire Oxfam ecosystem. “It’s now much easier to see and access data in real time,” said Farah Abbas, Director of IT.

From a human resources perspective, managers now also enjoy increased visibility into and reporting on staff needs and tasks. Oxfam employees can easily self-service, submitting expense reports, time sheets, and aid requests from anywhere with web access. This was not just an efficiency win, but an engagement win as well. “Users are more engaged, active, and able to leverage the system,” said Abbas.

A big win also arrived via time savings. Typical deployment times for the type of ERP solution Oxfam now utilizes takes between 12 to 24 months. Argano delivered in only six months, enabling significant savings for the client in both time and expense.

Improved insight, more engaged employees, and a faster, more trackable path to delivering aid across the world. A job well done for a company doing good. Misson accomplished!