Spend Matters UK/Europe » Procurement Commentary

Francis Maude speaks – is the Minister for Procurement an enemy of procurement ?

Peter Smith — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:31:30 +0000

The UK parliament Public Administration select Committee last week quizzed Francis Maude, Minister with responsibility for public sector procurement. I was going to do the same as in part 1 (here) and give a detailed commentary, but then we got onto the question of procurement skills in central government, and Maude made a statement that stopped me in my tracks. I listened several times to get his words exactly right. “Commissioning is about much more than procurement, it is about knowing the market of potential suppliers. Procurement is the relatively narrow and should be very short technical part in the [...]

Francis Maude at PASC – select committee digs into UK government procurement

Peter Smith — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:35:15 +0000

The UK parliament’s Public Administration Select Committee held the final hearing of their investigation into public sector procurement this week, and appropriately their witness was Francis Maude, the Minister with responsibility for the subject. As we’ve said many times, he is more interested in and knowledgeable about procurement than any other Minister we’ve had, and his hour or so on the topic was low key in style but quite illuminating. He got some good questioning from Bernard Jenkin, the Chair, but some of the other Committee members were poor in terms of their lack of any real insight or challenge. [...]

The Rolling Stones, variable pricing and booking a hotel for the CEO!

Peter Smith — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:31:10 +0000

We wrote in part 1 about the difficulty the Rolling Stones have had in selling tickets for their gigs in the US, and linked that to a debate about variable pricing strategies and how technology was helping some industries to differentiate better between customers prepared to pay different prices. What implications does this have for procurement people? Well, it highlights an issue around marginal costing and how procurement should be looking to take advantage of those opportunities. It highlights that economies of scale don’t go on indefinitely, and it is often better to be a relatively small buyer than a [...]

Crown Commercial Representatives – 99 Problems (well, 9 issues anyway)

Peter Smith — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:31:03 +0000

So , what do we think about the UK government’s appointment of new Crown Commercial Representatives? Here are a few questions. Not 99 problems maybe, as Jay-Z would put it, but certainly 9 issues. 1. Is there still significant cost to be taken out of government contracts, or has the first wave of CCR activity generated most of the benefit already? 2. Are the major suppliers going to feel even more victimised by getting set upon by these “heavies”, and less likely to offer any innovation to the government – will they just put “UK Government” firmly in the “cash [...]

The NHS Procurement Strategy – a nation (still) waits

Peter Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:28:45 +0000

So what’s happened to the UK’s National Health Service Procurement strategy? The story so far… (you might want to get a cup of coffee and settle down, this might be a long one). April 2012 At a conference in Manchester, the new NHS procurement strategy is going to be announced. Instead, the excellent Beth Loudon from Department of Health has to explain that top NHS management wanted more discussion with the market, and more “meat” in the strategy so there would be a delay whilst… May 2012 NHS appoints Sir Ian Carruthers to conduct a “call for evidence” to help [...]

Indirect Sourcing – readers comment on our briefing paper

Peter Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:31:05 +0000

Our last piece here around the recent Spend Matters / Xchanging briefing paper (“Indirect Category Sourcing Savings: Fact or Fiction?” – download it here) drew some really interesting comments, from some rather eminent procurement professionals. Many thanks to them. I’m going to feature those comments here today, and I’ll come back in part 2 and respond to some of the excellent points raised. You may remember that the research paper suggests that procurement should focus on managing the delivery from sourcing programmes, with a more structured approach and (critically) clearer measurement of benefits, including savings. So here are some of [...]

Crown Commercial Representatives – male, pale and … very successful businessmen

Peter Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:22:13 +0000

If you’re thinking that we haven’t exactly been hot off the press with reporting on the appointment of six more UK government “Crown Commercial Representatives”, you’d be right. that’s because I’ve been working out just what exactly I think about it… They’re joining Cabinet Office to help central government manage their largest suppliers, and negotiate further savings, particularly in IT related areas. We understand they are in the main taking over work from current government CPOs, who have been doing this CCR role in addition to their departmental day jobs for the last couple of years. The roles were widely [...]

Welcome to ProProcure, our new Spend Matters sponsor

Peter Smith — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:05:27 +0000

Super observant readers will have spotted another new logo in our Associate Sponsor section over to the right of the page. Yes, we’re delighted to welcome ProProcure to the Spend Matters site. We featured the firm quite recently, here, where we described their interesting and niche market positioning. They provide cloud-based software that supports the collaborative procurement of marketing and brand related items, mainly for large multi-national corporates. Their growth demonstrates that meeting specific customer needs is still the number one factor in business success – and their product does just that, for a very particular community and requirement. We’re [...]

ConsultancyONE finally complete – list of successful suppliers on framework published

Peter Smith — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:27:46 +0000

Hooray! As thousands of management consultants dance in the streets (see picture), the full list of successful suppliers who have gained places on the UK government’s ConsultancyONE framework has now been released. I was expecting some sort of formal announcement, but it just seems to have been slipped out quietly to the providers and with this list on the Gov.uk website. Perhaps the government doesn’t want to draw attention to what has been a somewhat troubled procurement, ultimately requiring 18 months from start to finish. There are 15 separate Lots, ranging through functional consulting, audit, finance and multi-disciplinary work, and [...]

Buying a Wedding Dress Spend Matters Style

Sheena Moore — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:28:55 +0000

This post is part of an ongoing series about “procuring” a wedding, Spend Matters-style. See previous posts here: Wedding Planning: Spend Matters Style Procuring the Perfect Chicago Wedding Venue Wedding Planning: Venue, Menu, Hotel Blocks, Stationary, Oh My! …and thank you so much for all of your advice and congratulations so far! Oh, the wedding dress. I didn’t think I’d spend what I spent. But before we get to that, here’s some background: I was going to get some minor alterations (shortening to cocktail length and then cutting the sleeves off) to my grandmother’s gorgeous lace wedding dress from 1955, [...]