1. Procurement Newsletter
Spring 2011
Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 2
About us / About the AoC FE Procurement Efficiency Team.................................................... 3
New Spend Analysis................................................................................................................................ 4
Benchmarking and How AoC can Help............................................................................................ 5
Case Studies............................................................................................................................................... 7
• A Day in the Life of a Buyer............................................................................................................ 7
• Informal College collaboration swaps ideas to save time and money.......................... 7
• Filton tests going green to generate new revenue.............................................................. 8
• West Notts slash computer costs by using consortia – again and again!..................... 8
Shared Services Update......................................................................................................................... 9
Announcements....................................................................................................................................... 10
• Procurement Regulation - What’s New?.................................................................................... 10
• New FE Library of Procurement (FELP) launching this summer....................................... 11
• College’s annual return on EU contracts awarded during 2010....................................... 11
• Filton’s procurement courses judged excellent for fourth year in a row...................... 12 .
Contracts Finder....................................................................................................................................... 12
Take our online survey to win chocolates....................................................................................... 13
1

2. Introduction
Welcome to the Spring 2011 edition of the AoC FE Procurement Efficiency Team Newsletter. Read
on for news about innovative procurement projects from across the sector, advice from colleagues
on how to get buy-in for cost-saving measures in your College, tips on easy-to-implement ways to
cut costs and updates on consortia deals.
In the first half of 2011, your College like all others will have found its budget stretched. But you’re having
to operate on less whilst still continuing to drive up standards. It’s a conundrum but it’s also one which
Colleges, with their long histories of responding to the demands of the marketplace, are well able to absorb
and grow within.
Tough as it is, we urge you to keep viewing the continuing period of austerity as a ‘challenge’ rather
than as a ‘problem’. Better procurement processes, as you know, can make a major difference to the
impact of Spending Review cuts. You and your College may well be already in the middle of long-
term procurement projects, which will bring significant savings. But don’t forget about the ‘quick
wins’ too – there are often some relatively simple ways to make minor savings that take little time to
introduce.
You can find examples of both short- and long-term cost-saving ideas here. We’re here to help inspire
you and offer support to College procurement teams, so you make the very best of the budget you
have.
Contact us
We’re here to help! Whether you’ve got a procurement problem or a success story you’d like to share,
email us at procurement_team@aoc.co.uk or call our helpdesk number on 0808 178 1669.
And let us know via procurement_team@aoc.co.uk what you think of this newsletter – what would
you like to see more of? Do you have a story you’d like us to feature in the next issue?
For previous issues and details about the AoC FE Procurement Efficiency Team, see www.aoc.co.uk/
en/aoc-procurement-team/
Stop press: we’ve set up a simple online survey so you can let us know what you think of our
work in the Procurement team – complete it and you could win a box of chocs. See the end of this
newsletter for details.
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3. About us/About the AoC FE
Procurement Efficiency Team
As a team of procurement professionals, we work Some of the things we can do for you or support
hard to identify procurement efficiency initiatives you with are:
and to help implement them in FE Colleges. We
work alongside other professional services within • Visit your College to do a procurement
each College, such as the college’s finance, IT, HR review
and estates departments. • Offer detailed advice about procurement
issues – from general to specific queries
The team was set up in 2005 as part of the
former Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to • Give hands-on support with tendering and
develop procurement knowledge and expertise contracting
specifically for the FE sector. We became a • Support and co-ordinate collaborative
part of the AoC in April 2010. We’re based projects
throughout England and are able to support
Colleges across the country. • Provide training and guidance
• Disseminate the latest procurement policies
Tony Watmough, AoC Regional Director for the
North West region states; • Send out market updates.
“Efficient procurement and the development
of shared services has become an increasingly Most of these services are free to member
important area for Colleges to explore in the Colleges or offered at discounted rates. You’ll
current financial climate. The AoC Procurement find out about other things we do as you read
Team offers invaluable advice and support this newsletter.
to Colleges in this field, helping to develop
best practice. I would urge all Colleges to take We’re very friendly so get in touch by emailing
advantage of the services they provide.” us at procurement_team@aoc.co.uk or by calling
Regardless of who is responsible for our advice/helpline on 0808 178 1669.
procurement at your College, how long it’s been
established and how well it’s embedded into
College activities, our role is to help make your
life easier.
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4. New Spend Analysis
AoC embraces cloud-based spend analytics to Cost
deliver value for money to Colleges
Organisations usually pay for cloud analytics
Cloud analytics involves elements of the data applications and services by subscription or
analytics process being provided through a through pay-per-use. The cost for an FE College,
public or private ‘cloud’. Cloud in this context following negotiations by AoC with Exor, is
means not a fluffy white collection of water £2,097.50 plus VAT for the complete package.
droplets up in the sky, but an invisible, remote This includes analysis, the online tool, a report
hosting platform that holds complex information and an individual visit. Colleges may be able to
securely. secure a reduced cost by working together and
approaching Exor as a group or collaboration.
To support the spend analysis work they are
carrying out for the AoC, Exor Management To sign up and get started please email either
Services has picked Rosslyn Analytics, a Carl Johnson at AoC via carl_johnson@aoc.co.uk
leader in cloud-based spend data management or Andy Johnson at Exor, who can be reached at
solutions, to help Colleges track and analyse andy.johnson@exorms.co.uk
spending.
More information
Benefits
Email us at procurement_team@aoc.co.uk or
Using Rosslyn’s platform (called RA.pid), call the helpdesk on 0808 178 1669 if you want
Colleges will be able to consolidate and analyse to know more about spend analysis in general
their spend data quickly and efficiently. The or about the electronic RA.pid spend analysis
company predicts in fact that you will halve platform before you make a decision.
the time you spend “obtaining, enriching and
analysing data”. This includes identifying cost Exor Management Services website can be found
savings and meeting EU and UK regulatory at www.exorgroup.co.uk/analytics
compliance requirements.
Through RA.pid, Colleges will have 24-hour
access to their cleansed and enriched spend data
at line item detail. This means that you will be
able to see what you have spent item by item –
what you bought from whom, when and how
“ We are excited to be given the
much it cost. opportunity to work with AoC to introduce
powerful, yet easy-to-use spend data
About RA.Pid
management technologies to procurement
A secure web portal, this enables users to create
executive dashboards, drill-down analytical professionals. ”
reports and alerts based on a range of data-
driven dimensions including: Charles Clark, CEO of Rosslyn Analytics
• spend by transaction,
• spend by supplier,
• spend by category using Thompson, ProClass
and UNSPSC classifications, and
• spend by parent.
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5. Benchmarking and How AoC can Help
Did you know that the AoC FE Procurement Some Colleges are still putting tenders out direct to
Efficiency Team provides a national purchasing suppliers whereas others are using consortia almost
benchmarking service? Learn more about the value exclusively. On the ground, it’s a mixed pattern –
of benchmarking and how we can do some of it for but some Colleges are missing out on better deals.
you, saving you time and money. We wanted to help more Colleges get the best value
for more products and services.
So what exactly is benchmarking?
Benchmarks are actually things you might find The service aims to benchmark Colleges’ unit
when out on a weekend ramble. Surveyors cut costs of procurement against price structures
arrow-shaped marks into rocks to indicate points from CPC and Buying Solutions, so that we can:
they have measured, so they can work out the
elevation of other points nearby. These days the • Highlight alternative, better value for money
word is more commonly used to describe a point consortia contracts to Colleges.
of reference, but the idea of a ‘mark’ is a useful • Let consortia know which contracts don’t
one to keep in mind. We test and check how offer best value for money so they can
things compare to a particular benchmark or improve these.
industry standard.
• Find out how local suppliers are performing.
Benchmarking helps you do things better and
more cheaply How the service can help you
In business, benchmarking means comparing If you’re unsure whether you’re getting best
business processes and performance to industry value for a particular product or service, we’ll do
best standards or to best practices from other a benchmarking exercise for you so you can get
industries by measuring quality, time or cost. on with your job while we work out the results.
This results in a ‘performance metric’ (i.e. a It takes us on average two weeks to get back to
measure of an organisation’s activities and you, though occasionally it’s a little longer if a
performance), which can be compared against new pricing structure is being introduced.
others.
We give you feedback directly and confidentially,
Benchmarking’s ultimate aim is to find out so you can make the right decision for
how to do things better, faster or more cheaply. your College. AoC carries out the exercise
Performance is measured using a specific anonymously, which means that we never tell
indicator: in procurement, we use a ‘unit cost of the consortia which College has requested the
procurement’. It enables organisations to plan benchmarking. We won’t use your information
how they can improve aspects of their processes publicly, just aggregate the cost savings for a
or adapt others’ best practices to enhance an particular product or service.
aspect of their own performance.
Benchmarking exercises we’ve carried out so
It can be something your team does as a far show the following cost savings made to
one-off but it’s better if you’re continuously individual Colleges by using CPC or Buying
benchmarking. Solutions:
Why we set up the AoC’s national purchasing
benchmarking service
We set up the service to test College and consortia
pricing to find out how consortia contracts compare
to Colleges negotiating on their own.
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6. Cost saving identified by AoC’s national bench-
Product or service
marking service through using a consortium
Computer consumables – virgin ink and toner
18.6%
cartridges
Mobile solutions 37.5%
Sanitary disposal equipment and related services 21.1%
Stationery 30.4%
Telecom networks 14.2%
Supply of hair consumables, equipment and
19.3%
supplies
Vehicle hire 2.8%
Virgin and recycled photocopier paper 2.5%
How to request a benchmarking exercise How much does it cost?
Simply email us at procurement_team@aoc.co.uk Our benchmarking service is currently free to AoC
and we’ll give you a timeframe for completing the member Colleges.
exercise. Or go to www.felp.ac.uk entering ‘national
benchmarking exercise’ into the search field,
complete a template and email that to us instead.
There are 21 commodity areas with templates
already created so you can simply input your data
– or get your existing supplier to complete it. If we
need more information, we’ll be in touch.
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7. Case Studies
A Day in the Life of a Buyer...
Paul Rumble currently works
How long have you worked in procurement?
as Procurement Officer at
It’s been 25 years man and boy! I started
City of Bath College and as
Procurement Manager at New off in the Post Office’s supply centre where
College Swindon, while also their purchasing function was, and moved
juggling a further contract into the College sector around eight years
with Swindon College. ago. We’d moved back to Swindon from
Cornwall, I was looking for a procurement
position and a full-time contract at Swindon
College became available.
How do you manage so many jobs at once?
I work three days a week at New College In what ways is the College sector different?
and two at the City of Bath and I’m also There are lots of things you need to
doing some work for Swindon College. understand that are completely unique. You
I work on fixed-term contracts. The make a lot of contacts in this sector. For
requirements for the Colleges are all slightly instance, I’m in close contact with Roger
different and I’m working on different Coles: we talk about what’s going on in the
projects, so it does get tricky to differentiate; marketplace and what’s coming up. A lot of
you just have to be organised. Basically, it is...For full article visit our website
they’re all the same role, just with different
titles.
Informal College collaboration swaps ideas to save time and
money.
The M4 Collaboration Group, so-named “We speak a lot or email and only meet up when
because all the Colleges involved – Wiltshire, we have a concrete proposal to work on. If one
Filton, Swindon, City of Bath and New College of us is thinking of doing something, we ask the
Swindon – are based around the M4 motorway, others if they’re interested so there isn’t a fixed
was set up to share expertise as much as money. number of Colleges involved in each project. For
It’s an innovative idea based on networking, each project, one College will take the lead, do a
building excellent long-term relationships lot of the donkey work and then the others will
and local sharing, and that works successfully hop on board. We take it in turns. For instance,
alongside more formal groups. And it’s led we identified one college that had a very good
to some impressive savings. Member Paul price for paper supplies so we discussed that
Rumble explains: and decided we could aggregate usage for the
four...For full article visit our website
“It’s an ad hoc collaboration that was never
intended to be formalised; we felt we could react
more quickly to the individual and collective needs
of the Colleges that way. It originated because I
knew the Purchasing personnel at both Swindon
and Wiltshire Colleges and we were
used to throwing ideas about. It grew from that.
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8. Filton tests going green to generate new revenue
Filton College is currently tendering through across the College. We have a Green Team
the EU for wind turbines and photo-voltaic Committee that meets on sustainable issues and
(solar) panels. The College would like to these projects came up from looking at energy
install small-form wind turbines at their Wise saving initiatives. We also have a new renewable
Campus. This could create revenue through centre, which has recently opened within the
rental for the land. In addition, the wind College, so we felt it would be beneficial to have
turbine company could give Filton some of the some of the technologies here that are being
energy generated for the campus or the College taught.
could sell it back to the grid. They also plan
to install photo-voltaic panels on roofs at both “We’ve gone through the competitive dialogue
Wise and Main Campus. The solar energy route for both projects. We initially advertised
brings in revenue through roof rental and/or in OJEU for expressions of interest, which
energy used in the buildings. generated a lot of responses nationally. We then
invited interested parties to come to view the
Filton’s Procurement Officer, Andrew Williams- sites and put a rough proposal together. From
Lock, explains: “We’ve been looking at ways we the proposals we wrote a specification in the best
can reduce energy consumption and save money interests ...For full article visit our website
West Notts slash computer costs by using consortia –
again and again!
Since Angie Pilgrim, West Nottinghamshire “When I started here the college were buying
College’s Procurement Manager, arrived at expensive, non-branded computer products, the
the college in 2004, the college has saved over staff didn’t like them as they weren’t reliable
£1m in computer hardware such as desktops, and when they broke down, the item had to
AppleMacs, laptops, printers and consumables. be shipped back to the supplier at the college’s
They’ve made year on year savings and expense, which took months to repair them.
continue to do so – last year alone, West Notts This was completely turned around at the first
cut £61,000 (including VAT) off their bill. time...For full article visit our website
Angie explains how they keep doing it:
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9. Shared Services Update
Government funded shared services projects Until recently, the FE sector lagged behind other
involving over 200 Colleges now underway. public sector organisations in exploiting the
benefits of shared service solutions.
The Efficiency and Innovation Fund (EIF) is
an initiative arising from £15 million allocated The AoC Shared Services team is working with
by Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business the Colleges involved to find out in detail about
Innovation and Skills, to the SFA in June 2010 to the projects and gather information. We plan to
support the AoC and the FE sector in delivering disseminate learning materials to the sector in
“an innovative suite of shared service solutions”. the near future. This will cover:
A shared service is basically the shared provision
by one or more organisations of a specific service • lessons learnt
or function – from waste management to exam
• successes
administration, finance and HR.
• challenges and how to overcome them
EIF funding has since been released in two • advice on how to approach collaboration and
rounds to support 41 shared service projects shared services.
involving over 200 Colleges. All these are now
underway. We talked to managers working on a few of these
diverse projects to find out how they’re getting on
The aim of EIF is to help Colleges – at a time and what they see as the successes and challenges
of austerity and cutbacks – to develop and test so far.
different collaborative models to:
For further details on this visit our website.
• identify ways of improving service delivery
of both back office functions and frontline
services;
• determine where efficiency savings can be
made; and
• find solutions to barriers and problems that
collaborating groups can come up against.
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10. Announcements
Procurement Regulation - What’s New?
Credit checks no longer satisfy legal stringency of this test.” In other words, Colleges
transparency tests, warn solicitors must supply bidders with all this information
upfront – clearly and transparently – and not
Colleges, like all other organisations in the hide the fact that they intend to run a check on
business of awarding contracts, can be heavily the bidding firm.
reliant on credit checks from one of numerous
credit reference agencies to assess bidders’ If a College doesn’t give bidders full information
financial strengths. The demand for these checks on how bids will be assessed, then bidders have
is intense, especially in the current economic the right to challenge them legally. To prevent
climate. As we all know, awarding a contract to this, “the contracting authority must not only
a firm that’s on the brink of ‘going under’ could disclose the fact that it will conduct a credit
have major legal as well as financial implications check but it must also disclose what information
– not to mention embarrassment to the College will be assessed and how it will be assessed”.
and the cost of wasted time. ‘How it will be assessed’ is the formula used to
create the credit score.
Now Mace & Jones, a firm of solicitors based
in the North West (recently merged with But this causes a bit of a tricky problem: each
Weightmans) who’ve been involved in long- formula is the intellectual property of an
running litigation related to the use of such individual credit reference agency, which will
agencies, warn that credit checks may no be “very reluctant” to disclose it. And if the
longer “satisfy the transparency test mandated contracting organisation can’t disclose the
by the Public Contract Regulations 2006 and formula, the assessment is at risk of a successful
subsequent case law”. And this might extend challenge by any bidders who are excluded as a
also to ‘part B’ services. result.
Mace & Jones say (in April 2011) that the law So how do you get round this? Mace & Jones
is now clear: “Bidders must know all criteria, believe that many finance departments will go
sub-criteria and weightings used in assessing back to running the standard accountant’s range
their bids so that they can prepare their best bid. of ratios and formulae themselves to determine
No surprises are allowed when it comes to the bidders’ financial strengths. Either that, they
marking regime. The use of a credit reference say, or you have to “accept the increased risk of
agency does not, in any way, alleviate the successful challenge”. You have been warned!
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11. New FE Library of Procurement (FELP) launching this sum-
mer – www.felp.ac.uk
You may be aware that we at the AoC FE • the option to personalise the site, i.e. to create
Procurement Efficiency team host the FELP a ‘My FELP’ page, where you’ll find the latest
website, a collection of practical procurement news and be able to access documents you’ve
resources. We’re now redeveloping the site so recently used;
it’s got a fresher design, is more user-friendly
and better meets College business needs. Once • more videos delivering training and
we’ve finished transferring data and testing it, guidance;
we’ll launch the new version this summer. • ‘whole-Life’ costing models, which you can
either use on-screen or download; and
As well as the advice, good practice guidance
and sample documentation on the existing site, • better opportunities to collaborate and get
the new version of FELP will provide: involved in shared services projects.
• a better ‘journey’ through the site’s advice We’ll let you know when it’s ready!
and guidance sections;
Advance notice to start preparing your College’s annual return
on EU contracts awarded during 2010
All Colleges have a legal requirement to 3. CPV code (as listed in the OJEU notice)
report the contracts they awarded during
4. Contract award type (i.e. open or
2010 (that’s the 2010 calendar not financial
restricted etc.)
year) to the EU. This is to comply with the
European Community’s Directives on Public 5. Total contract value in pounds sterling
Procurement.
Please note: this requirement applies only to
We’ll send round full details as soon as we those contracts awarded by your College under
receive them from the Department for Business, the EU regulations; you won’t have to submit
Innovation and Skills (BIS). This will include information on call-offs relating to consortia
deadlines and where to send your reports. framework agreements.
But, to save time, you should start preparing Not had to do this before? Email us at
your submissions now. Based on past years, procurement_team@aoc.co.uk if you’re unsure
you’re likely to be asked for the following what to do or if you need to know more about
information: EU Procurement regulations.
1. Nationality of supplier
2. Type of supply (supply, works or service)
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12. Filton’s procurement courses judged excellent for fourth year
in a row
Following an audit by the Chartered Institute experienced team of lecturers, who have all
of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), Filton had first-hand experience of supply chain
College has been again been given a Centre of management.”
Excellence award. This confirms the College’s
status as among the UK’s leading providers of Filton teaches the level 4 Foundation Diploma,
procurement training. the level 5 Advanced Diploma and the level 6
Graduate Diploma. Kelly Gillett, Director of
Organisations have to be well-established Curriculum 19+ at the College, says that their
providers to receive the CIPS award. They must courses no longer attract only those looking to
also have excellent course management, a strong build a career in procurement: “We’ve also seen a
teaching team, above average exam results, rise in students from smaller companies who are
excellent teaching facilities and happy students. looking to save money through procurement”.
She says it makes a real difference: “it really does
Course Leader for Procurement, John Bone give our provision great credit when completing
OBE, comments: “College exam results continue against universities or for tenders”.
to be above the national average thanks to the
continued support of our motivated and
Contracts Finder
Business Link hosts Government’s new Background
Contracts Finder portal
All Government bodies have a duty to make the
If you’ve been using the Government’s way they spend public money transparent. They
contract opportunity portal www.Supply2.gov. are more accountable than private organisations
uk to advertise OJEU and non-OJEU tender for their procurement and contracting activities.
requirements, please note that this website is no
longer live. All public spends above a certain threshold
(£156,442 for Part A Good and Services) have
You can access the Government’s new Contracts to be advertised in the Official Journal of the
Finder portal (and replacement for Supply2.gov), European Union (OJEU). For public spends
on the Business Link website at http://www. below this threshold or for Part B Goods and
contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/ Services, public bodies are not required to
advertise through OJEU but they still have to
To register for an account as a Buyer, you be open and ‘transparent’. Advertising your
need to go to: http://www.contractsfinder. requirements through Contracts Finder will help
businesslink.gov.uk:80/Buyer%20Overview. your College fulfil this requirement.
aspx?site=1000&lang=en
To find out more about the need to show
As before, the new Contracts Finder portal transparency, please see http://transparency.
gives you easy access to lower-value contract number10.gov.uk/
opportunities (typically worth under £100,000)
offered by the public sector, and to find live
opportunities to tender for.
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13. What do you think of what we do? Take our online survey to
win chocolates
We really value your feedback on the work The first 10 people to finish the survey
of the AoC FE Procurement Efficiency Team. (including their name and contact details) wins a
Are we meeting your needs? What else could box of chocs! You’ve got until 30 June.
we do to make your life easier? We’ve created
an online survey that will take you at most 10 Want to feed back on this newsletter? Got a
minutes to complete. success story you’d like to shout about?
Email us at procurement_team@aoc.co.uk We
Take it now at https://www.surveymonkey. welcome all your comments and ideas.
com/s/QGSJDBH or by 30 June at the latest.
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14. Contact us
Association of Colleges Procurement Team Helpdesk Number:
Procurement 0808 178 1669
2-5 Stedham Place
London Ray Poxon
WC1A 1HU Senior FE Procurement Manager
07917 266 082
Carl Johnson
FE Procurement Manager
07767 323 191
Martin Toomey
FE Procurement Manager
07818 533 393
Beverly Aboagye
FE Procurement Manager
07584 528507
Roger Coles
FE Procurement Manager
07920 720651
James Durcan
FE Procurement Analyst & Customer Advisor
07917 426 077
Lesley Templeman
Shared Services Project Manager,
07827 277 096
Roanita Burke
Shared Services Project Manager,
07584 528727
Morag Henderson
FE Procurement & Shared Services Administrator
General enquires: procurement_team@aoc.co.uk
EMM queries: emmfe@aoc.co.uk
AoC procurement pages: www.aoc.co.uk
FELP website: www.felp.ac.uk
Shared Services enquries: sharedservices@aoc.co.uk
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