Salvation Army - Edmonton Centre of Hope Gains Control of Spend With Planergy

Spend management can be tricky with all its variables, especially when you’re an entity that’s part of a larger organization, like the Salvation Army Edmonton Centre of Hope.

Seeking to improve and better manage their overall procurement and fiscal processes, the Edmonton team decided to work with Planergy and implement Spend Management software.

Alwyn Miller, Facilities Manager, explained “My director wanted our center to have better control over purchasing, and also be able to generate reports based on department and/or category”.

Prior to Planergy, the staff were using an Access database and Excel spreadsheets, which offered no quick or easy way to compile insights to truly understand spend trends and inventory needs. They also struggled with lack of accountability and visibility – who was making purchases and how often were those purchases made.

This led to other concerns – are the purchasers over/under budget; was the best vendor used; was there a purchase a need vs. existing inventory; were there opportunities to save; etc.

The entire PO process was full of time-consuming manual tasks, including occasionally commuting for approval to be finalized.

Alwyn shared, “Once a PO was printed, it had to be signed off by one or more directors. In order to get approvals and signatures, someone has to either physically take the PO to one or multiple buildings, fax it, or email it, with the hope that it would be signed and returned in a timely manner”.

Dean Erikson, Director of Business, added, “We were trying to centralize our purchasing, put in place budgeting parameters, and track relevant vendor information. The Planergy team helped us achieve those goals and a lot more”.