Connecting schools, academy trusts and contractors through one intelligent property management platform.
Managing school estates involves far more than maintaining buildings. From statutory compliance and contractor appointments to financial administration, technical surveys and capital projects, every school has a complex set of responsibilities that require accurate information, clear communication and reliable oversight.
Bollabo developed CPM, a bespoke cloud-based property management platform for Cunliffes, bringing these processes together into a single integrated system.
Designed around the specific requirements of education estates management, CPM supports the complete lifecycle of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), contractor purchasing, compliance certification, invoicing, helpdesk support and capital projects.
With dedicated portals for schools and multi-academy trusts, the platform also provides clients with direct access to their agreements, documents, financial information and ongoing activity.
The Challenge
Managing property compliance and estates services across multiple schools creates significant administrative complexity.
Each school requires an individual programme of statutory inspections, maintenance services and technical assessments, often involving numerous specialist contractors.
Agreements need to be prepared, priced and approved. Purchase orders must be issued, certificates collected, invoices generated and compliance records maintained.
At the same time, schools need visibility of their services, while multi-academy trusts require oversight across their entire estate.
Managing these processes through disconnected spreadsheets, emails, documents and individual systems makes it harder to maintain accurate records, identify outstanding work and provide timely information.
Cunliffes needed a centralised platform that could manage the entire process while reducing repetitive administration and giving its clients greater visibility.
Our Solution
A Complete Property Management Platform
We designed and developed CPM as a bespoke web application built around Cunliffes' operational workflows.
The platform connects internal administration, schools, multi-academy trusts and contractors, ensuring that information flows between each stage of the property management process.
Rather than relying on separate systems for agreements, purchasing, compliance and finance, CPM manages these functions within one integrated environment.
Automated Service Level Agreements
At the centre of CPM is a comprehensive SLA management system.
Cunliffes can build annual agreements using a structured catalogue of statutory and best-practice services, including gas servicing, electrical testing, fire safety, asbestos management and water hygiene.
Each service can be assigned to a contractor with individual pricing, while the system calculates management fees, VAT and agreement totals automatically.
Schools receive a secure link to review and accept their agreements online, with multi-academy trusts able to approve on behalf of their member schools.
Every acceptance is recorded, creating a clear audit trail.
Agreements become active automatically on their scheduled start date, while annual renewals can be prepared by duplicating an existing agreement.
Contractor Purchasing & Compliance Tracking
Once an agreement becomes active, CPM automatically generates purchase orders for the relevant contractors.
Orders are grouped by supplier, produced as PDF documents and distributed through scheduled automated processes.
Compliance certificates can then be uploaded against the individual purchase order items they relate to, creating a direct connection between the work commissioned and the evidence received.
A dedicated Missing Certificates report highlights outstanding documentation, including overdue periods, contractors and affected schools.
This provides Cunliffes with a practical way to identify and follow up on missing compliance evidence.
Dedicated School & Academy Trust Portals
CPM provides schools with their own secure portal, giving them access to information about their property management services.
A personalised dashboard shows the status of their SLA cover, outstanding support tickets and information requiring attention.
Schools can review agreements, access invoices and certificates, raise helpdesk requests, view technical surveys and retrieve shared documents.
Multi-academy trusts have an additional level of functionality, providing a consolidated view across their member schools.
Trust users can review financial information, monitor helpdesk activity, access documents and approve agreements or capital project stages without needing to access each school's account individually.
Integrated Invoicing & Financial Management
Financial administration is integrated directly into the SLA workflow.
CPM automatically generates invoices from accepted agreement items, support charges and management fees, with sequential numbering and standard payment terms.
Cunliffes can also create and amend invoices manually, distribute them individually or in bulk, record payments and maintain an activity history.
Schools and trusts can access their financial documents through their respective portals, reducing the need for separate requests and correspondence.
Helpdesk & Document Management
The platform includes an integrated helpdesk allowing schools and trusts to raise support requests.
Cunliffes staff can manage tickets, assign contractor contacts, send correspondence and maintain a history of actions and notes.
Technical surveys, compliance documentation and shared files are stored against the relevant school, keeping important property information organised and accessible.
Documents are held in secure cloud storage, with time-limited download links controlling access.
Capital Project Management
Beyond routine estates compliance, CPM also supports the management of capital projects.
Projects progress through defined stages covering pre-tender planning, tender outcomes, additional funding and project close-down.
Each stage can include financial information, professional fees, tender details, drawings, supporting documents and invoices.
Multi-academy trust users can review and approve stages, decline proposals or request further information, with decisions recorded and communicated automatically.
Security, Automation & Reliability
As a business-critical platform handling sensitive organisational and financial information, security and reliability were fundamental to the development.
CPM incorporates multi-factor authentication, login protection, secure password recovery, encrypted cloud backups and controlled document access.
Automated background processes manage scheduled SLA activation, contractor purchase orders and invoice generation.
Transactional email integration provides delivery tracking and an auditable communication history, helping Cunliffes maintain visibility of correspondence sent through the platform.
The Result
CPM has transformed a complex collection of property management processes into one connected digital workflow.
Cunliffes can manage the complete annual service cycle, from preparing and approving agreements through to contractor purchasing, compliance evidence and invoicing, without repeatedly transferring information between separate systems.
Automated processes reduce routine administrative work, while centralised reporting makes it easier to identify missing certificates, monitor service delivery and maintain accurate records.
Schools benefit from direct access to their agreements, certificates, invoices and support requests, while multi-academy trusts gain consolidated oversight of their estates.
The result is a purpose-built platform that supports Cunliffes' day-to-day operations while providing the flexibility to evolve alongside the business.
From agreement to evidence, every stage of school estates management connected in one platform.
