Ashik Patel

National Foundation for Education Research

Hello, community. I am excited to have joined as a council member and I look forward to supporting the community in any way I can.

I am currently the Finance Systems Manager at the National Foundation of Educational Research. NFER is an educational research organisation which gathers evidence and research to inform educational policy and school services. We are currently on ERP 7.8 and make use of all the core modules with our user base more focused on PCB. I am currently working on integrations with our feeder systems by utilising the use of API’s but also streamlining the current processes that are being undertaken by Finance, HR, and the wider organisation.

I started my Finance Systems journey while on the Unit4 implementation project at the National Trust, where I later became the Finance Systems Development Lead. The project was very challenging but something I really enjoyed, and it provided me with some of the skills and knowledge that I continue to utilise every day. In my various roles I always look to develop Unit4 or any other software to help improve users use of a system but also look for ways to give time back. It’s always amazing to see how the littles things can help users in their everyday job. I am also particularly interested in finding different approaches in Unit4 that move away from our thinking to fix issues or solve problems by using AG16’s and hopefully I can share this thinking with everyone.

A few things people might not know about me, I enjoy listening to music and oddly I love disco and nu-disco to start my day off. I’ve been to quite a few festivals, and I’ve been to Glastonbury Festival 5 times and I’m itching to go again. I do like to be active, and I particularly enjoy walking the southwest coastal path. I do attend a local outdoor bootcamp fitness group which gets me out of house as I am a remote worker. Lastly, although by day I am a Finance Systems Manager, by night I am graphic designer, not quite a superhero but something that is very different! I create logos, brand identity, websites, and social media graphics and content to big and small companies.

I look forward to meeting you all at future events so do come and say hi if you see me.

Joined the User Group Council 2023

a.patel@nfer.ac.uk

Testimonials

“The User Group is an excellent way of not only keeping abreast of Unit4 product updates but is a valuable opportunity to network and is a particularly good way of meeting our counterparts from other HE and Not for profit organisations and sharing our experiences.”

Andrea Whiting

Kingston University, Unified Systems Manager

"This event exceeded all my expectations. It was such a pleasure attending the User Group and the event exceeded all my expectations. It was well organised and informative. I gained valuable knowledge on how to streamline a lot of HR processes. Thank you for putting this together and I look forward to more successful User Group events.”

Jennifer Briggs

Phoenix Futures, HR Officer