Brooklands Hotel
Thursday, March 2nd 2006
On Thursday
the 2nd of March South Yorkshire hosted the third
of 4 events
focused on informing SMEs
about Public Sector Procurement processes. The
event was hosted by Barnsley Chamber of Commerce
and featured speakers from e@sy Connects, Business
Link South Yorkshire, the South Yorkshire Strategic
Health Authority and Sheffield Children and Young
People’s services.
The theme of the day
was that e-procurement is fast becoming an
integral part of the buying
and selling process, particularly in the public
sector.
Although this can be daunting for SMEs and
organisations with limited IT capability, this
need not be
the case. The long-term benefits far outweigh
the short-term
demands of establishing a system and there
are plenty of resources and expert support sources
in the field. Crucially, not only are public
sector bodies fully engaged with encouraging
SMEs and
local suppliers to take up tenders, they are
actively working towards making this a realistic
prospect.
In terms of procurement, technology has fundamentally
levelled the playing field at every stage of
the tendering and contracting process. Now
it
is time
for the suppliers to take advantage of it.
****
Gary Simpson
Project Manager, e@sy Connects
www.easyconnects.org.uk
Gary outlined the importance of SMEs making sure
they make the most of their capability to engage
with the e-procurement processes and contracts
of the public sector. 97% of businesses have
the potential to acquire this capability, but
awareness on the issues involved needs to be
raised.
The first stage of this awareness-raising
is to dispel existing apprehensions that will
be
countered as a result of the steady national
uptake of e-procurement methods in the public
sector. Prior to e-procurement there was no
consistency in the tendering process, which made
building
expertise in the area of tendering very difficult
for SMEs. Gary explained the benefits for SMEs
of putting in place electronic processes:
-
They
allow you to build partnerships with other
suppliers
-
There are excellent resources available
to help get set up
-
The involvement of SMEs
in public sector contracts is essential to
the stimulation of the
local economy
"This
is very important to South Yorkshire. If
you are successful your region is successful
too and everyone benefits."
****
Alan Marshall
Head of Strategy
and Performance, Children and Young People’s
Services, Sheffield
Children
and Young People’s Services,
Sheffield
Alan illustrated the way
procurement works in the public sector and
what is being done
to enable SME involvement. "The
council has responded to changes by amalgamating
the
various services into single agencies and each
department has it’s own procurement budget." The
natural consequence is increased levels of
inspection and grading. Sheffield Council already
has a high grade, which Alan attributes to
securing quality services through procurement.
The kinds
of specific benefits that SME’s
bring to a contract include;
-
Quality
-
Willingness to take risks
-
Innovation
-
Low administrative
overheads
-
Short management
chains – less
bureaucracy
-
Business is more important to
SMEs
-
Tailor made services
Barriers
to smaller businesses are also being countered
by steps such as:
-
Wider advertising of procurement
opportunities
-
Reduction of cost and complexity
via e-procurement
-
Breaking down large contracts
-
Allowing
subcontracting so that SMEs can work together
-
More
flexibility in financial evaluation of tendering
companies
-
Clear and concise documentation
Alan
offered some essential practical advice
for SMEs:
"When
you tender for a public sector contract,
find out
what has been achieved by the council.
Part of any contract
award
is knowing that a good
relationship can be built, so make sure
you are
armed with plenty
of research."
****
Alan White
Assistant Executive
Director of Property and Procurement
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Alan provided an insight
into the relationship between Local Authorities
as buyers and their
suppliers. He also revealed that at present
only 18% of BMBC’s suppliers are based
locally, something that they are working to
alter through using all 26 of Yorkshire and
the Humber local authority supplier details
in order to understand who to target and how
to appeal to local organisations.
All
of Yorkshire and the Humber’s local
authorities are installing common e-procurement
systems, by June 2006 all 26 will be in place
and by December all will be live. Alan was
clear that although different councils may
use different software packages for e-Procurement
they are all similar and they must all work
to a common standard.
For further information
on BMBC and e-procurement, go to our case
studies section.
****
Steve Wragg
Head of ICT and e-Business, Business
Link South Yorkshire
www.blsy.com
A focus of BLSY’s work
is to help organisations take up IT and use it
effectively, the IT implications
for SMEs was a topic picked up by Steve Wragg.
A recent Yorkshire Forward survey of business
IT revealed that:
-
34% of businesses do not use
IT
-
87% do not train to use the IT
they have
-
13% do not know where to go when
they their IT systems fail.
Steve outlined the
situation by asking, "Do
you want your IT to be supplied by a
trained professional? Many people still buy
their
technology from people who know little about
IT."
The BLSY team are working to bring
large IT vendors closer to small businesses,
which in
turn will
stimulate the region’s economy
through supply and demand. BLSY is providing
resources
for ICT and business support such as
the ICT directory and new initiatives
such as the ICT
Helpdesk. This is currently in the trial
phase and aims to help people to work
through their
own IT problems.
****
Helena Fuller
Commercial Director of South
Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority
www.southyorkshire.nhs.uk
Helena illustrated the national, regional and
local structure of the NHS Purchasing and Supply
Agency (PaSA) and talked about the NHS commitment
to working with local suppliers. She discussed
how the NHS aims to use procurement in order
to improve the socio-economic status of the
region by working with local suppliers, and
by education of the procurement staff. Pilot
projects are currently in the planning stage
and a regional advisory group has been established.
****
Following the initial session
delegates were invited to attend two of three
workshops with
a group of experts. The workshop topics were;
"How to do business with Local Authorities",
"Understanding The Opportunities and How we
Can Help" and "How
to do Business with the NHS."
