National Trust achieves £30 million savings as part of its procurement strategy transformation
National Trust transformed procurement with Proactis, saving £30 million, halving its supplier base, and drastically reducing onboarding time.
Sector
Not-for-Profit / Heritage Conservation
Staff
14,000+
Volunteers
65,000+
System Integration
Unit4 ERP
Customer Since
2014
How Proactis Helped
“It's always been a strong partnership between Proactis and National Trust. When implementing such a powerful solution, one of our biggest fears was just being completely overrun. But Proactis took some of that heavy lifting away from us. With the excellent levels of training available and the constant access to advice and support, it really is a marriage of professionalism.”
Procurement Director, National Trust
Delivered an estimated £30 million savings programme through improved procurement strategy and spend control
Reduced the active supplier database from 24,000 to 12,000, removing inactive and duplicate suppliers
Cut supplier onboarding time from an average of two weeks to as little as six minutes
Enabled suppliers to own and maintain their own records, satisfying GDPR requirements without additional internal administration
Directed staff purchasing towards approved suppliers by category, increasing on-contract spend across the organisation
Integrated seamlessly with Unit4 Business World, providing a connected Source-to-Pay workflow across the procurement function
Extended the Proactis partnership to include Sourcing and Contract Management following the success of Supplier Management
Improved supplier engagement and confidence through a professionally designed, Trust-branded onboarding portal
Overview
National Trust is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with 5.6 million members, 14,000 staff, and 65,000 volunteers. Facing the challenge of managing £360 million of third-party spend across a vast and diverse estate, the Trust implemented Proactis Supplier Management integrated with its Unit4 ERP system as a core pillar of its wider procurement transformation. The result: a £30 million savings programme, a supplier database reduced from 24,000 to 12,000, and supplier onboarding time cut from weeks to as little as six minutes.
Challenge
National Trust is a charity and membership organisation dedicated to the conservation of heritage across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. With 5.6 million members, 14,000 staff, and 65,000 volunteers, the Trust manages over 300 mansions, 59 villages, 61 pubs, and almost 800 miles of coastline - creating a uniquely complex procurement landscape spanning everything from specialist conservation contractors to helicopter hire and bat surveyors.
The Trust had accumulated a database of 24,000 suppliers, many of which were no longer in active use, and staff frequently did not know which suppliers were approved for a given purpose. The process for setting up new suppliers or updating existing records was paper-based and complex, often taking several weeks. With £360 million of annual third-party spend to manage, the Procurement team needed greater control, better supplier visibility, and a streamlined onboarding process.
A decision was made to formulate a procurement strategy as part of a wider digital transformation project - with improving policies, processes, systems, and staff capability as its central pillars. Implementing a new supplier management system alongside a new Unit4 ERP was identified as a priority.
Solution
National Trust worked closely with Proactis to implement a Supplier Management solution integrated with its Unit4 Business World ERP. The platform enables suppliers to manage their own records, keeping information accurate and up to date directly in the system - removing the need for the Trust to administer supplier data manually.
All National Trust suppliers are registered on Proactis with workflows linking directly to Unit4, enabling the Procurement team to direct purchasing towards specific, approved suppliers by category. When staff need to procure for a specific project, they are automatically routed to the most relevant authorised supplier - supporting on-contract spend and reducing maverick purchasing.
A dedicated supplier onboarding team was established, with support from Proactis, to manage the transition of the supplier base to the new platform. The Trust worked through 100 random suppliers first, gathering feedback that shaped the onboarding experience - including the use of a National Trust-branded supplier website to build confidence and engagement across a highly diverse supply base.
“Proactis has given us much more control over our organisation-wide spend. I would estimate that the whole procurement strategy has delivered a £30 million savings programme.”
Procurement Director, National Trust
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