How St John’s Innovation Centre Transformed Their Expense Management with Kinabase

About St John’s Innovation Centre

Founded in 1987 by St John’s College, Cambridge, St John’s Innovation Centre (SJIC) was Europe’s pioneering innovation hub, designed to foster knowledge-based businesses. Today, it provides flexible office spaces, comprehensive business support, and facilitates networking, strategically positioned within Cambridge's vibrant tech cluster. SJIC’s impactful support has nurtured notable successes like Autonomy Corporation plc, Jagex Ltd, and Owlstone Ltd.

The Problem

Before Kinabase, SJIC struggled with managing expense claims efficiently. Their reliance on spreadsheets created inefficiencies, draining time from their administrative and Business Growth teams. The lack of integration hampered seamless workflows, calling for a modern, unified solution to replace the outdated system.

Why Kinabase?

SJIC chose Kinabase for its flexibility and ease of implementation. The centre's team highlighted that Kinabase’s adaptability was pivotal: “The ease of implementation by ourselves and the flexibility of the product were major factors.” Furthermore, Kinabase’s responsiveness to SJIC’s needs—customising features and promptly addressing requests—sealed the deal. As one SJIC representative put it, “Even when a feature was not available, we could count on a quick fix.”

Another key reason was the alignment in scale and support. SJIC valued Kinabase’s approachability, noting, “We had great support from the Kinabase team [...] and a clear roadmap was there to implement what we needed down the line."

SJIC’s unique position as a Kinabase tenant reinforced their decision: “We were keen to be early adopters to explore further Kinabase Collections as both our organisations developed.”

How SJIC Uses Kinabase

SJIC’s initial focus was on expense management, chosen to pilot Kinabase in a controlled, low-risk manner. This step proved successful, resulting in a significant reduction in admin time and smoother expense claim handling. This success has sparked interest in expanding the use of Kinabase across other business functions.

“As one team member shared, “It drastically improved our expense processes and reduced the admin time that was previously allocated to this task. It has also opened our eyes to the possibilities to implement other processes using this valuable tool.”

Results and Benefits

The shift has empowered SJIC to allocate more resources to their core mission—supporting high-growth businesses. “Kinabase has increased the productivity of our Business Growth team, allowing more time to focus on delivering client support,” noted SJIC. This shift has enabled the team to prioritise strategic initiatives over routine operational tasks.

A key takeaway for other organisations:

Appointing an internal champion can make all the difference. SJIC successfully designated a lead to liaise between their users and Kinabase, facilitating smoother adoption.