Annual Conference 2010

Central Buying Consortium Annual
Conference and Exhibition review

Delegates at the recent Central Buying Consortium Annual Conference and Exhibition heard how collaboration can be a key force in achieving the latest round of efficiency savings.

The Central Buying Consortium (CBC) Annual Conference and Exhibition, held on 20 May at the Institution of Civil Engineers in central London, provided delegates with an opportunity to discover how a collaborative procurement approach can help transform government service delivery. The aim of the conference was to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency at local, regional and national levels across all sectors of the economy.

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Transforming Government through Collaborative Procurement’, and the event brought together a wide range of suppliers and procurement practitioners.

Chairing the conference was Stephen McHale, Chief Procurement Officer at Oxfordshire County Council. Speakers included Rob Gregan, Vice Chair of CBC and Central Bedfordshire Head of Procurement; Julian Young, CEO, Matrix SCM; Richard Tyndall, Programme Manager, Improvement and Efficiency South East; John Warrington, Deputy Director, Procurement Policy and Research; Investment and Commercial Division, Department of Health; and Pippa Bass, Director of Procurement Efficiency, Office of Government Commerce.

Rob Gregan spoke about the importance of CBC members’ input, stating: “CBC is your institution; what you put into it, you will get out of it, with interest.”

Mr Gregan also highlighted that CBC is a catalyst for collaboration, adding: “Collaboration makes sense, and that is why we are all here. There is still much to do, but we have to keep moving forward if we are to make the most of the £660 billion that we in the public sector spend every year. There is no other way.”

He went on to inform delegates about the Pro5 group, consisting of CBC, Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation, North Eastern Purchasing Organisation, West Mercia Supplies and Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation: “We are a consortium of five consortia, representing over 50 owning authorities and a huge number of schools. Also, the contracts let by Pro5 are used by many more customer and affiliated public bodies.”

He concluded: “Although at CBC we are well versed in collaboration, we are finding, perhaps not surprisingly, it takes much more effort to work with more partners, and more remote partners, especially in terms of communications and logistics. To some extent we are addressing that with a trial of eBox, an electronic collaboration tool for tendering and contracting, which will be rolled out to members in the coming months.

“The collaboration journey will be a long one. We may never see its end, but I am sure it will be an exciting journey, and a rewarding one – not just for us professionally, but for society as a whole.”

Julian Young spoke about the complex environment of public procurement and the importance of driving top-level strategies through all organisations, proposing some possible solutions to current problems, such as outsourcing the procurement process to an external contractor.

Mr Young said: “We believe in the view that you can outsource procurement, and doing that you can actually work with a proper dynamic supply chain. Many problems in local government are due to the fact that you are driven by OJEU principles and OJEU rules, which actually doesn’t allow you to have a dynamic supply chain.

“To some degree, if you can outsource the procurement to a primary contractor and persuade them to manage the supply chain differently, you can actually start to increase competition and take the price down and also start to deliver against outcomes.

“Most organisations should have an enterprise-wide finance tool; then you should have the client data systems, and sitting above that a transaction tool which will actually allow you to interface with your supply chain in a way that everyone can understand, is totally transparent and can help you deliver against the best price.”

Pippa Bass spoke about developments since the establishment of the new Coalition Government, and how collaboration can help organisations meet the latest spending reduction targets.

Ms Bass said: “With the pressures that all organisations are going to be feeling, and this also applies to the OGC, with less and less money around – we have to make our spending work better. So my call to you is to thank you for working with us on the collaboration that we have achieved so far; and from here on in, we need to take that a step further.”

Closing the conference, Stephen McHale thanked speakers for their informative and insightful contributions, and hoped that delegates had learned more about collaboration and how to use it to their organisations’ and end users’ best advantage.

Further information

For further information, please visit: www.cbcconference.co.uk