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Value Match support the education sector through the delivery of our Commercial Discovery programme to enable organisations to maximise their opportunity to drive efficiencies, release cashable savings and create Social Value through all their commercial and procurement activity.
The Commercial Discovery programme includes a detailed analysis of third party spend, alongside key information such as understanding ways of working, schemes of delegation and current contracting statuses to create a baseline from which improvements can be made.
Challenge
Based on our engagement with over 100 schools to date, there are common challenges:
- Procurement is a complex and a continuously changing landscape so often don’t know where to start.
- Many schools simply don’t have the time, resources or skillsets to navigate the procurement process efficiently.
- External procurement services may have the required expertise but don’t understand the nuances and specific needs of the education sector.
- Different schools have diverse requirements and ‘one size’ doesn’t fit all
- Spend is disaggregate across multiple contracts and suppliers.
- Large numbers of low value transactions.
To date, we have analysed over £70,000,000 of spend data, 150,000 transactions, covering over 100 schools which has demonstrated all trusts are experiencing the same issues.
Solutions
Our Commercial Discovery interprets spend patterns to identify areas of inefficient spending, categories of high spending and areas of non-compliance. The output being a set of key actions to improve outcomes around:
- Cost Reduction
- Improved efficiency
- Greater control of suppliers
- Tighter compliance processes
- Increased Social Value impact
- Improved contract management and supplier relationship management
Our services have been comprehensively designed to support the entire commercial and procurement process. Whether you’re completely new to purchasing or want to develop a more coordinated, strategic approach to consistently unlock better value, we can help.
Our expert team will work with you to understand your current situation and requirements with a view to establishing a tailored strategy that will release cashable savings now and in the longer term. Working with you, rather than simply for you, we want to demystify the procurement function, share best practice and upskill and empower your team.
Outcomes
The Commercial Discovery process identifies various outcomes based on your organisation’s current position.
Examples include:
Procuring workplace solutions for a multi-academy trust in the North East, whereby we were able to deliver benefits such as:
- Provided an overall 42% saving against current costs. (equating to £142,000 over the life of the contract)
- Consolidated invoices from 3000 invoices per year, to 12 invoices per year for each school from a single supplier
- Suitable and focused added value with the supplier to offer sessions such as mock interviews to prepare the pupils for the world of work, climate change engagement talks and school garden project workshops with a monetary donation to support this initiative.
- Visibility of CO2 emissions linked to deliveries with optimal delivery plans enabled to minimise impact.
Procuring waste management services for a multi academy trust based in West Yorkshire, which enabled them to begin their journey to become an eco-school:
- Appointed a single supplier to deliver waste management services across all academies within the trust, removing duplication and generating efficiencies.
- Free annual waste audit, reporting on waste streams to be recycled and eliminated
- Introducing Environmental awareness campaigns and Fundraising
- Using the ‘Environmental Calendar’ to engage through events targeted around specific agendas such as Earth Day, World Bee Day, Every Flower Counts and National Allotments Week.
For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul
T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk
