About Canal & River Trust
The Canal & River Trust is the UK’s largest waterway charity, caring for over 2,000 miles of canals and rivers across England and Wales. Their mission is to keep waterways alive, enrich communities, and preserve vital heritage and biodiversity for generations to come.
Industry
Charity / Non-Profit
Headquarters
UK
Powered by
Dayforce
Business Challenge
The Trust’s People Directorate was spread across four separate systems for payroll, recruitment, core HR, and training – none of which were integrated. Their ERP system was more than 20 years old, heavily reliant on manual processes, spreadsheets, and complex workflows. This fragmented landscape made it difficult to access reliable data, monitor compliance and streamline processes, while also increasing maintenance and support costs.
The goal was clear – replace multiple legacy systems with one out-of-the-box platform that could reduce costs, improve reporting, and provide scalable capability to support the Trust’s future.
Our Approach
The Trust began by working with an external consultant to map their current state against future needs, using a rigorous selection matrix supported by Gartner research. After narrowing down from ten possible providers to three, Dayforce was selected for its strong integration capability, proven reporting functionality, and suitability for a charity.
Lavasource was chosen to guide the Trust through every step of the journey, not just as an implementation partner, but as a trusted advisor. Our approach included:
- Dedicated module specialists for each area, ensuring deep expertise and knowledge transfer.
- A three-phased roadmap designed collaboratively with the Trust to pace adoption and manage change.
- Seamless support across time zones, with offshore teams aligned to UK working hours.
- Hands-on planning and organisation, ensuring milestones were achieved on time.
Together, we built a strong, collaborative partnership that has kept the programme on track and maximised value from each phase.
100%
On time go-live.
4 systems
Unified into 1 single platform.
Data reporting
Enabled through Dayforce analytics.
Results
The Trust is already realising benefits, having completed Phase 1 on time and progressing smoothly through Phase 2. With Lavasource’s support, they are embedding Dayforce as their single people platform, reducing manual effort, and strengthening governance.
Key improvements so far include:
- Consolidating four legacy systems into one integrated platform.
- Eliminating dependency on spreadsheets for core people processes.
- On-time delivery of Phase 1, with Phases 2 and 3 on track.
- Stronger reporting capabilities, aligned to the Trust’s wider data strategy.
- Greater internal knowledge and confidence through close collaboration with Lavasource specialists.
Lavasource felt like an extension of our team. Their module specialists brought real expertise at each key stage and made adoption easier. Together, we’ve kept the project on plan and built a strong working partnership.
Canal & River Trust Project Team
The Future
With Phase 2 well underway, and Phase 3 planned for early 2026, the Canal & River Trust is well on its way to delivering a fully integrated Dayforce platform. Through ongoing maturity assessments and KPI workshops, the Trust is shaping a transformation journey designed not only for efficiency today, but also resilience tomorrow.
Lavasource will continue to support the Trust every step of the way – ensuring their people, processes, and platforms are as strong and future-ready as the waterways they care for.
