Emergency Services

Built for the challenges ahead

No CFO is unaware of the challenges arising from prolonged funding pressures, societal change and closer public scrutiny. Together, these factors create a demanding environment in which financial management and planning require reliable, forward-thinking partners.

Integra Finance has helped CFOs drive efficiency, accountability and compliance for five decades. While each of the blue-light emergency services faces its own unique challenges, some issues are universal, including:

• funding pressures and budget shortfalls

• growing demand and rising costs

• the need to improve efficiency while maintaining front-line delivery

• increased scrutiny around accountability, compliance and value for money

Closing budget shortfalls

Each of the emergency services is being asked to do more with less.

For the police and fire services, this takes the form of historic and projected funding shortfalls. While ambulance services have seen more generous funding arrangements, a complicated web of pressures from social care, A&E capacity and rising costs means the overall challenge is not dissimilar: do more with less.

Integra's integrated suite includes:

• Core finance

• P2P

• Stock and asset management

• Management reporting

• Budgeting and forecasting

• Cash and expense management

This is supported by configurable workflow automation, AI-driven business processes, natural language access and baked-in best-practice business processes. Secure and built with integration in mind, Integra is specifically designed to reduce costs, deliver efficiencies and enable real-time access to management information.

Integra also looks to the future, with the introduction of secure, safe AI and support for e-invoicing. Integra’s secure cloud software supports in-house finance and procurement teams, as well as shared service and outsourced partners. It is relied upon by police, fire and ambulance services alike.

For CFOs, this translates into a clear and timely understanding of all aspects of budget management and the delivery of value for money. Efficiency gains can deliver cash savings or create capacity for finance and procurement teams to do more with less.

Supporting compliance and inspection readiness

HMICFRS inspections for police and fire services explicitly assess whether organisations have clear performance frameworks, capable governance and a culture of accountability. In the same way, the CQC and Annual Governance Report for ambulance trusts assess financial sustainability.

Integra delivers a single version of the truth, driving increased accountability through advanced business analytics that better inform decision-making and future planning.

This positions Integra not just as a finance tool, but as a compliance and governance enabler, helping services demonstrate to auditors and inspectors that financial controls are sound and data is reliable.

Delivering provable value for money

AI-enabled Procure-to-Pay (P2P) helps Integra customers deliver value for money.

Integra P2P provides a comprehensive purchasing and invoice management function for the diverse needs of requisitioners, buyers and finance users, removing paper-based processes and supporting mobile working.

It offers complete purchasing control that includes catalogue and contract management, requisition and ordering, and spend analysis by category.

Carefully designed innovations such as Amazon Punchout and AI-enabled bank reconciliation deliver real productivity gains. AI driven invoice processing offers high levels of safe, touchless automation, supporting timely payment cycles with reduced processing costs. Future proofing through support for e-invoicing is also available.

All of this strengthens procurement control, leading to fewer maverick purchases and significantly reducing opportunities for fraud. Supplier management also becomes more effective, helping organisations secure better terms and reduce noise.

Secure modernisation without upfront infrastructure investment

Services facing funding shortfalls are likely to be reluctant to commit to large upfront capital expenditure on IT infrastructure, even if investment in Integra offers substantial long-term savings. As a modern, cloud-hosted solution, Integra enables you to deliver on your objectives without upfront capital spend.

We deliver high availability, scalability and high levels of security. As an ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 accredited supplier, our team works to preserve your compliance and reputation. Our cloud-first approach means services can access enterprise-grade financial management without enterprise-grade capital investment.

Managing organisational complexity

Experience tells us that emergency services do not always operate as a single entity. Integra is built to support organisational change, including shared services, partnerships, arms-length organisations and joint ventures.

Powerful multi-entity financial management allows finance teams to manage multiple organisations, cost centres and reporting structures within a single platform. This enables consolidated financial visibility across organisations while maintaining the control and autonomy required by individual entities.

As the landscape shifts, Integra provides a strong financial platform for bodies undergoing restructuring, consolidation or collaboration with neighbouring organisations.

A trusted route to modernisation

Many councils are currently facing pressure to replace legacy finance systems, and we know you do not want ruinously expensive project overruns from unreliable partners.

Integra offers a practical, low-risk route to modernisation from a team completely dedicated to the UK and Ireland public sector. Our team takes care to ensure continuity of service, with close attention paid to every aspect of your project, from unambiguous contracts and project governance through to data migration and training.

With Integra, we combine decades of public sector experience with modern, safe, cloud-based, AI-supported technologies, backed by an ongoing commitment to product investment. Our team works closely with our customer community to share experiences, inform one another and plan for the future together.

The result is modern technology, thoughtfully applied.