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Category Archives: Public Sector
← Older postsRenegotiating PFI Contracts: 3 Steps to Cutting Costs in a Successful Partnership
April 30, 2013
The adverse financial ramifications of large PFI contracts that were negotiated in healthier economic times are only now becoming clear to many public sector organisations across the UK. Such agreements were entered into with the best of intentions and were usually fit for purpose at the time, but the dramatic shift in finances available to the public sector has changed the financial viability of such partnerships drastically. If you have
Posted in Contract Management, Outsourcing, Public Sector | Tagged BSF, contracts, Private finance initiative | Comments OffThe Failure of Southwest One: What Can We Learn?
April 9, 2013
In 2007, Somerset County Council struck a deal to outsource various services to a joint venture company. That company — Southwest One (SW1) — was intended to serve as a trailblazer that demonstrated how public and private organisations could work together to benefit the communities of the South West and further afield. However, at the end of March the death knell of the relationship was marked by news that Somerset
Posted in Contract Management, IT Contract, IT Dispute, Managed Services, Outsourcing, Performance Improvement, Project Recovery, Public Sector, Risk Management | Tagged culture, southwest one | Comments OffHow to Create an Evaluation Framework for Procurement Tenders
April 2, 2013
In a recent post we outlined our four step minimum risk procurement strategy in which we discussed the creation of an evaluation framework. This is something that I cannot stress the importance of enough — not only is a good evaluation framework the only way to accurately measure the relative merits (or otherwise) of submitted tenders, it is a necessity for public sector organisations with regards to transparency and the
Posted in Procurement, Public Sector, Risk Management | Tagged evaluation framework, evaluation matrix, procurement tenders | Comments OffHow to Address the Dangers of Pensions in Strategic Commissioning Procurement
March 26, 2013
Professional Pensions recently reported that the procurement of library services by Croydon Council has been severely hamstrung by issues relating to Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) contributions. Although John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS) was selected as the preferred bidder in November 2012, the procurement process has recently taken a major step back due to an “unexpected” change in their bid. There is a strong moral to this story that should
Posted in Procurement, Public Sector | Tagged lgps, local government pension scheme | Comments OffERP Procurement: Discovering the Method That’s Best For You
March 19, 2013
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) procurement is an area that I find fascinating. Undertaking to purchase one system that spans the entirety of an organisation’s processes is both ambitious and risky — it promises enormous reward but is ready to trip you up if you don’t handle the process properly. In purchasing and implementing ERP software you are essentially stripping down your organisation’s infrastructure and building it up again from the ground
Posted in Contract Management, IT Contract, Procurement, Risk Management | Tagged cloud computing, due diligence, erp, procurement, project management | Comments OffG-Cloud Procurement: The Importance of “Caveat Emptor”
March 12, 2013
The government’s G-Cloud programme recently celebrated its first birthday and its success (or failure) still seems to be in the balance. On the one hand you have the G-Cloud programme director Denise McDonagh stating that “most big government departments have bought services from the Cloud” and citing “significant buy-in from local government.” Meanwhile, the numbers tell perhaps a different story with just 0.04 percent of all government IT spending taking place
Posted in IT Contract, Procurement, Public Sector | Tagged cloud store, g-cloud | Comments OffA 4 Step Minimum Risk Procurement Strategy
March 5, 2013
When it comes to the world of procurement, the old phrase “prevention is the best cure” comes to mind frequently. The fact is that most faulty or failing supplier relationships are the result of a poorly executed pre-contract process. With the best will in the world, a poorly-constructed contract is going to lead to miscommunication between both the client and the vendor which is likely to result in dissatisfaction down the line.
Posted in IT Contract, Procurement, Public Sector | Tagged business outcomes, due diligence, evaluation matrix, procurement strategy, revenues and benefits, supplier relationships | Comments OffHow to Reduce the Risk of Your Strategic Partner Using Sub-Contractors
February 28, 2013
Last week we featured 2e2′s administration in an article about disaster avoidance. However, the 2e2 story offers up more than one moral that we can apply to the practice of outsourcing. Yes — 2e2 failed as a prime contractor, which acts as a reminder of the importance of carrying out effective due diligence in any outsourcing contract. But in another circumstance, it also failed as a sub-contractor, which in turn
Posted in Procurement, Public Sector | Tagged due diligence, prime contractors, sub-contractors | Comments OffWhy Eric Pickles’ “50 Ways to Save” Fails Local Authorities
February 5, 2013
On Friday 21st December 2012 — the last working day before the Christmas break — the details of core grant allocations to councils across the UK were announced. The data revealed that cuts to local authority budgets could be as high as 15% in 2013, rising cumulatively to nearly 40% in 2014-15. It is against this backdrop that Eric Pickles issued a document under the auspices of the Department for
Posted in Public Sector | Tagged central government, eric pickles, local government | Comments OffMulti-Sourcing: 7 Steps to Reduced Costs and Improved Services
January 29, 2013
Multi-sourcing offers a huge opportunity to both the public and private sectors in terms of achieving (and even surpassing) desired outcomes. The reasoning behind this is rather simple — it is, in principle, a far more streamlined and efficient version of outsourcing. Whilst “traditional” outsourcing hands the entire service to a main contractor, multi-sourcing utilises multiple “best of breed” providers, each with specific skill sets, all managed by the client. However, the
Posted in Contract Management, Outsourcing, Procurement, Project Management | Tagged contract management, governance, intelligent client function, man marking, multi-sourcing, relationship management | Comments Off ← Older postsGet Free Updates
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- The Failure of Southwest One: What Can We Learn?
- Vendor Responsibilities: The 7 Key Things to Bear in Mind
- Renegotiating PFI Contracts: 3 Steps to Cutting Costs in a Successful Partnership
- Terminating a Failed Outsourcing Relationship: Key Points to Consider
- How to Create an Evaluation Framework for Procurement Tenders
- Preparing to Exit Your Outsourcing Relationship? 2 Steps to Follow
- Outsourcing Contracts: The Top 10 Clauses that Service Providers Try to Manipulate
- Back to Basics: The 3 Outsourcing Methods (and Which One You Should Utilise)
- Strategic Commissioning: One Mistake Many Local Authorities Make
- Multi-Sourcing: 7 Steps to Reduced Costs and Improved Services
