FAQ Procurement

Supplier negotiations for strategic projects can be complex and long-drawn-out affairs. If you don’t get the balance right, they can be costly and even fail outright to achieve your desired business outcomes. Contract negotiations need detailed preparation if you want…

Public sector bodies often consider the future delivery of a particular service or suite of services. In these deliberations, you will likely undertake an ‘options appraisal’ to assess which service delivery model would best support you in achieving your organisation’s vision and outcomes. So,…

Implementing a hospital theatre scheduling software solution is a complex and multifaceted endeavour. Healthcare organisations face numerous challenges in the successful execution of such major projects, including the need to balance patient care with operational efficiency, navigate an ever-evolving technological…

One practically inevitable fact of life is that when drafting contract terms for complex projects and services, the less clear your understanding is of the requirements of the project, the greater the chance of poor contractor performance behaviours. Two cases…

A well-articulated business vision means having documented clarity of your required business outcomes, what your organisation or department is aiming to achieve over the short, medium and longer term. It has two primary aims:  To ensure your internal team understand…

Increased accuracy in predicting the costs involved within any complex/strategic project offers significant advantages – whether in negotiations within the procurement process, in developing more collaborative working relationships with your suppliers or in optimising efforts towards shared outcomes. And, while…

Post Brexit, consultations continue over efficiency changes to the public sector procurement process. However, until we are informed otherwise, the EU procurement regulations remain inherent within UK legislation. No matter whether or when changes are introduced (or whether you are…

In this article, you should find everything you need to know about procurement services (including strategic procurement), procurement and contracting strategies, and procurement consultants and advisors. It will also offer guidance on whether external advice for procurement might be helpful…

You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been, as they say. So, by taking a look back at the origins of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and how the outsourcing market has evolved and…

Although we are no longer part of the EU, large parts of the EU Procurement Regulations still apply for UK public sector bodies. For above threshold procurements there are five main procurement routes you can take, these are: Open Procedure, Restricted Procedure, Competitive Procedure with Negotiation (CPN), Competitive Dialogue (CD) and Frameworks. There are hundreds of…

In the pursuit of successful strategic supplier relationships, the old adage ‘prevention is the best cure’ comes to mind frequently, so the question of how to minimise and mitigate procurement risk is a common one. The fact is that most…

The most successful service delivery relationships have business case development at their core, ensuring that they clearly articulate the specifics of what will change in the organisation once the business objectives or outcomes have been achieved. A sound business case will identify what operational, financial…

Competitive Dialogue (CD) is a public sector procurement tendering procedure whereby you enter into dialogue with suppliers until you find a solution that meets the needs of your organisation. It is ideal for complex and high-risk solutions where there are…