Digital Outcomes and Specialists 4 open for business

  • 3,475 technology companies now available to the public sector
  • £1.5 billion has been spent through the framework since its inception
  • Over £200 million of that spend has been with micro-sized firms

94% of awarded suppliers on Digital Outcomes and Specialists 4 are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

The new agreement helps public sector organisations find suppliers that can buy, design, build, test and deliver software, supporting the delivery of world-class public services that meet the needs of citizens. 

Public bodies have so far spent £1.5bn through the three previous Digital Outcomes and Specialists agreements, with 32% going directly to SMEs. More than £200m has been spent with micro-SMEs.

Niall Quinn, CCS Technology Director says: 

‘DOS 4 will continue to help facilitate digital transformation for our customers while creating opportunities for collaboration with a wide range of suppliers. For this new version we have been able to enhance the framework and make some improvements to the Digital Marketplace in line with customer and supplier feedback, to improve their experience.’

Andrew Tulley, Director of Monitor Intelligence Services Ltd says: 

‘The DOS framework provides us a highly effective mechanism for engaging with our public sector customers. Its streamlined and straightforward nature means we can remain focussed on our mission of providing value-for-money enterprise technology services without being tied up by over-complex tender processes.’ 

There are four solutions available to customers: digital outcomes, digital specialists, user research studios and user research participants.

DOS4 is accessed through the Digital Marketplace, created in 2014 by CCS and Government Digital Service (GDS) to make government procurement easier and more transparent.

Find out more about this agreement.

 

 

Our top 5 tips for running a further competition for Multifunctional Devices – Crown Commercial Service

You have determined your need for a Multifunctional Device (or a number of devices) for your organisation and have looked through the documents on the RM3781 agreement, but are still not sure how to run a further competition and what information to include.

A further competition simply means you run a competition, between a set of pre-qualified suppliers, to find the best option for you.

Top 5 tips for what to include:

Tip 1: Consider pre-engagement as part of the bid process

This can be beneficial as you can get a feel for how suppliers will respond to your competition and it allows for the opportunity to get information from suppliers that you may not have considered.

Tip 2: Have the most up to date information to hand, regarding your print infrastructure

This will help suppliers fully understand your current situation.

  • how is your organisation structured?
  • how many locations and buildings do you have?
  • is this likely to increase or decrease over the contract?

Get an audit report from your existing supplier – this will help you to review your requirements

  • how many devices do you have?
  • how are they being used?
  • how many users do they have by type?

Tip 3: Provide as much detail around your specific requirements as possible

  • number and type of assets in scope (for example photocopiers, MFDs, desktop printers)
  • network infrastructure (for example locations of servers, active directory, security standards)
  • include dimensions of print areas or devices
  • include print management licenses/certificates

Tip 4: Include a section on innovation

Bidders can list areas of their proposal which are innovative or differentiators.

Tip 5: Keep pricing appendices as simple as possible

Including this information upfront in your tender documents will hopefully reduce the number of clarification questions you may receive.  However, if you find you still receive some questions, answer these quickly and in as much detail as possible, this will help to meet the deadlines of the bid process.

Allow as much time as possible for bidders to return the completed tender.  As a general rule, we recommend you allow between 4 to 8 weeks for suppliers to prepare their responses, dependent upon complexity.

Learn more

To get started take a look at the Multifunctional Devices page.

Got a question?

Supply Teachers deal helps Academies Enterprise Trust secure quality candidates and achieve savings

The Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) has 62 academies. They spent £4.6 million on supply staff in 2017/18, making it the trust’s 6th highest area of spend. Academies in the trust were sourcing temporary staff from 95 agencies, with supply being managed by each academy. The terms of the contracts often favoured the supply agencies, rather than the academies. The approach also meant that AET was not compliant with the public contracts regulations, and struggled to manage their supplier relationships.

The challenge

AET had 3 main requirements when it began its procurement review:

  • source quality candidates
  • ensure safeguarding of pupils
  • make cost savings

How we helped

Using lot 1 of the Supply Teachers framework, AET began negotiations with the 16 agencies that their academies were using most often. These agencies accounted for £2.2 million of their annual spend. They used the rates they were paying the agencies versus the maximum framework rates to negotiate cost savings.

AET then approached the rest of the suppliers they were using, who were also accredited framework suppliers, to negotiate more value for money deals.

The 3rd stage was to have discussions with framework suppliers who have low mark-ups, but AET weren’t currently using.

The aim of these negotiations was to develop a preferred supplier list. Throughout the process the CCS Supply Teachers team fully supported AET. Clive Hammond, Head of Procurement commented:

The team was extremely helpful in resolving queries from the trust and suppliers for whom this was the first time that they had been through the process, especially for a large multi academy trust.

Results

AET launched their new preferred supplier list in January 2019. It includes 40 accredited framework suppliers who offer the trust the best value for money.

The suppliers on the list hold industry standard accreditation, giving assurance that candidates undergo thorough safeguarding checks.

In the first 5 months the academies have been happy with the standard of candidates that supply agencies are able to offer us.

AET predict that using the CCS deal has identified cashable savings of £119,000 in the first year, when compared to the rates paid in 2017/18. This is a saving of 6.55%.

By choosing to use the CCS Supply Teachers deal AET ensured that they were compliant with UK public contracts regulations. This removed the need to run their own procurement, which would have been time consuming and expensive.

What’s next for AET?

Confident that they are getting quality teachers, they are now working closely with their academies to help them reduce supply staff spend further. Meetings between academies and suppliers are creating direct relationships, making them the first point of contact for the academies, rather than them relying on historical relationships. This will further increase the savings opportunities for the trust, as the academies move away from suppliers charging higher mark-ups, to ones offering better value for money.

Longer term AET is looking to work closer with other multi-academy trusts as by combining resources they can make even more savings for their academies.

Learn more

Visit the supply teachers web page for more information about getting started.

Got a question?

HGS UK deliver real savings for the Money Advice Service through the Contact Centre Service framework

The requirement

The Money Advice Service (MAS) is an arm’s length body of the Department for Work and Pensions. The service provides free and impartial money guidance and debt advice online and by telephone across a wide range of money topics. Some of these topics include homes and mortgages, pensions, savings and investments, and key life events, such as starting a family, redundancy, bereavement, care and disability.

MAS offer their services through their website and contact centre across telephony, web chat, email and whitemail channels. This service handles over 100,000 calls and 50,000 web chats and has a very high satisfaction level, with 83% stating that they received the help they needed.

As the current supplier contract for the contact centre service was coming to an end MAS needed a new value-for-money provider quickly to make sure there was no gap in service for its many users.

MAS anticipated that the tender would be awarded to a provider able to deliver a solution that would show significant savings without impacting customer service. In addition, they should have a proven track record delivering a quality fully managed contact centre contract.

The solution

MAS used Contact Centre Services (RM3815) lot 1 to get its procurement documents in order as MAS could not do this on their own at the speed required. They then used lot 2 of the same agreement (RM3815) to choose a supplier. The procurement needed a very quick turnaround as there was only a short window before the previous contract expired. It typically takes 6 months for this size of requirement, however MAS was able to do this across 3 months with the support of the CCS framework team.

Ahead of the invitation to tender, Crown Commercial Service (CCS) set up sessions so that all suppliers had the opportunity to meet with MAS, understand their brand values and customer services requirements, while also hearing first-hand the challenges they anticipated during the contract term. This gave all potential suppliers time to develop their proposed solutions. MAS was very transparent about their requirements and the challenges which enabled CCS to support and inform proactively in their procurement.

As a CCS Contact Centre Services (RM3815) supplier, Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS UK) were the successful supplier for MAS’ requirements. MAS needed a tiered model to ensure customers with different types of enquiries would be given the right information first time, without the need to transfer between staff.

HGS recommended MAS use a phased implementation moving from an environment where every call was handled in exactly the same way, to a triage system of basic enquiries and more complex ones. The more complex (tier 2) would be dealt with by a team of call handlers who have been trained to a deeper, more detailed level on the money guidance topics.

The results

So far under the new contract (CCS RM3815) MAS have reduced their call handling times compared to their previous supplier, reducing hourly rate costs, which means that MAS can invest in more projects to improve access to financial tools and calculators for budgeting, pensions and debt advice.

Also, technology has been used to improve the customer experience. WhatsApp was launched as an additional channel to support all, but in particular for the younger demographic who prefer digital interactions. Since its launch over 5,000 messages have been exchanged on WhatsApp between MAS and their customers. The added benefits of WhatsApp for customers is that they have the whole conversation at their fingertips, they can pick up the conversation where they left off at any point and send across screenshots or images of communications they have received.

Overall it has enabled MAS to deliver more help to more people who want to manage their money better with 92%+ calibrated quality scores across all channels.

We’re pleased to be working with our partners HGS to provide free and impartial money guidance through our new Contact Centre in Selkirk. We have a great Customer Advisor Team ready to support the thousands of people who come to us each week seeking help on how to manage their money. Last year, our contact centre delivered money guidance to over two hundred thousand people and we’re delighted to be taking this work forward with our new partners.

John-Penberthy Smith, Customer Director at the Money Advice Service

For further information

To find out more about the framework and how it can help you, you can:

 

Get involved

If you want to find out more about how we can help you, why not ask one of our customer team to give you a call or sign up to our newsletter?

Update on third party bid management organisations

Over recent months CCS has become aware of the growth in third party organisations offering to write, submit and manage bids for CCS frameworks. Their target market appears to be predominantly SMEs.

CCS has been contacted by a number of suppliers concerned about the claims being made by some of these organisations in their sales approaches and marketing literature.

Therefore, for the avoidance of doubt, CCS can confirm the following:

– Nobody can guarantee bidders a place on a CCS framework

– CCS treats all bidders equally and in line with the published procurement procedures for each framework, the Public Procurement Regulations and Public Law

– CCS avoids engaging in framework discussions with either bidders or third parties outside the published processes

– CCS has introduced additional questions at qualification stage to identify those bidders using a third party to write, submit or manage their bid

– Submission of the bid and the content remain the sole responsibility of the original bidder. It is the responsibility of the original bidder to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to minimise the risk of commercial information being compromised, or anti-competitive practice taking place as a result of third parties managing multiple bids

– If CCS is approached by third parties, claiming to act as agents for (or representatives of) bidders for forthcoming frameworks, we will direct them to take part in the same pre-market engagement events as all other bidders, in order to ensure equal treatment

– Third parties wishing to attend pre-market engagement events, claiming to act as agents for (or representatives of) bidders for forthcoming frameworks, will be required to provide a letter of authority from the bidder concerned, prior to attending

If you would like more information please contact us by email or telephone:

Email: info@crowncommercial.gov.uk

Phone: 0345 410 2222

CCS customer services team is available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

eSourcing Platform

IBM Emptoris is leaving the eSourcing application market and so the platform CCS uses will not be supported beyond May 2020.

Following the announcement CCS reviewed its strategy, a new lotted framework agreement was developed and awarded to Jaggaer (formerly BravoSolutions), and the DPS platform was awarded to NQC.

The agreement is available for central government departments and wider public sector customers to award call-off contracts for their own direct requirements.

CCS will continue to offer a service to customers who wish to use its platform to manage call-off activity from the CCS portfolio of commercial agreements and provide an assisted service to customers for call off activity.

Once the new platform has been implemented, current and potential customers of the “self-serve” facility will move from Emptoris to Jaggaer for new activity.

The Emptoris platform will not be available for new call-off activity after Sunday 1 September 2019, by which time Jaggaer will be operational. There will be no migration of call-off activity between the two platforms, any activity which starts on Emptoris before 1 September will be completed there.

Training materials and assistance with how the new service can be used are being developed, and further information will be provided to current and potential self-serve customers.

Separate discussions continue with the Home Office and UKSBS about their options for the future.

Any specific questions or clarifications should be directed to:

eenablement@crowncommercial.gov.uk

New NHS Workforce procurement partnership

Two leaders in the public sector and NHS procurement join forces to deliver health workforce services

Plans for this partnership are progressing well with three frameworks already launched under the new collaboration.

International Recruitment

This framework was the first to be launched to support the NHS and the public sector in its future recruitment strategies. The framework is in response to, and aligned with, recommendations set out for international recruitment in the NHS Long Term Plan and the NHS Interim People Plan.

Flexible Resource Pool – Staff Bank

This framework provides the ability to build a flexible staff bank for both clinical and non-clinical temporary staff. Whilst this is largely for the NHS, access to the framework and its services is available to the whole of the public sector. The framework offers a wide choice of suppliers from small regional businesses to national operators. This framework is the first of its kind to ensure pre-employment assurance is undertaken against NHS Employers Check Standards for all workers employed by an outsourced bank.

Non-Clinical Temporary and Fixed-Term Staff

Launched in July 2019 to replace the previous CCS Non-Medical Non-Clinical framework, it provides access to competitive pricing, with the ability to better use fixed-term appointments and statement of work. It continues to ensure non-clinical workers are subject to NHS Employers check standards.

National Clinical and Healthcare Staffing

This fourth framework will go out to tender in mid August this year. It will provide high quality, temporary, permanent, and fixed-term clinical and healthcare staffing services. It will replace the CCS Multidisciplinary Temporary Healthcare Personnel and the NHS Procurement in Partnership National Clinical Staffing frameworks.

A Workforce Alliance Executive Board has been established with representation from all the partner organisations:

We are delighted to be working together in support of our joint ambition for a sustainable NHS workforce model. The collection of expertise, resources and geographical reach across the alliance brings a willingness to listen and to work in partnership to benefit our customers across the NHS and the wider public sector.

Find out more

Take a look at the framework pages.

Got a question?

Annual Report and Accounts 2018/19 published

The report highlights strong growth in spend through CCS’s agreements, with significant commercial benefits delivered for customers across the public sector, and improvements in customer satisfaction scores.

£15.7bn of public sector spend was channelled through CCS agreements in 2018/19 – an increase of £2.7bn on the previous year, exceeding the organisation’s target by £0.5bn.

Customers have achieved commercial benefits worth £945m, with an additional £22m of benefits achieved through CCS-supported business change initiatives. 

Customer satisfaction scores have also continued to rise, while 1,011 procurements have been carried out for customers with an annual contract value of £946m.

Simon Tse, CEO of CCS said:

‘We’ve had an excellent year, growing the spend through our commercial agreements by over 20% and in turn helping to generate commercial benefits for the public sector of just under £1 billion. So first and foremost I’d like to thank all at CCS for their hard work and commitment.

‘I want us to build on what we have achieved and grow further and faster, to meet our ambition to double spend from the 2017/18 baseline of £13bn over the next 4 years and deliver more commercial benefits than ever.’

Tony van Kralingen, Chair of the CCS Board said:

‘The last year has been one of real achievement for CCS in its important role to help the UK public sector save money when buying common goods and services. 

‘We have made excellent progress against the business plan and the organisation continues to grow at pace. Most notably, we have seen the single biggest year on year increase in spend through our commercial agreements, a strong financial performance and an increase in delivering commercial benefits for customers.’

Performance highlights for 2018/19 include:

  • £15.7bn of public sector spend channelled through CCS commercial agreements
  • £945m of commercial benefits delivered
  • 1,011 procurements including call-offs carried out for customers with an annual contract value of £946m
  • Employee engagement index as measured by Civil Service People Survey increased from 63% in 2017 to 66% in 2018
  • Net Promoter Scores for customer satisfaction over the year reached +48 for Customer Service and +56 for Assisted Procurement

The Annual Report and Accounts are available to read now on GOV.UK.

Suppliers join new technology deal for education

The Education Technology framework, designed by Crown Commercial Service (CCS) in collaboration with the Department for Education, helps schools, colleges and universities to buy ICT equipment and services including hardware, audio-visual equipment and broadband fibre infrastructure.

Customers will also be able to use the agreement to fully kit out new facilities as well as refresh existing kit.

Niall Quinn, Director of Crown Commercial Service’s Technology Pillar, said: ‘Guided by the feedback we have gathered by engaging with schools and the Department for Education, we are proud to offer a practical solution for schools to be able to procure all of their technology needs through one single agreement.’

40 suppliers have been awarded places on the agreement, 78% of them small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

46% of a total £44m of spend through its predecessor, ICT Services for Education, went to SMEs.

Joskos Solutions were awarded a place on CCS’s ICT Services for Education agreement and Nick Madhavj, the company’s founder and CEO, says it helped them to compete at a national level with some of EdTech’s biggest players.

Nick Madhavj says: ‘To a great degree the ICT Services for Education agreement levelled the playing field, and our results over the last 4 years are testament to that. As a result we’ve scaled the company from being a local London business to now having trusted relationships with multi-academy trusts and schools across the UK. 

‘This has created over 75 new job opportunities and £40m of contract awards, leading to new partnerships with local suppliers across the UK and meaning Joskos ultimately has a greater impact in delivering our core purpose. That enables better outcomes for our learners through confident use of technology in the classroom and beyond.’ 

21 suppliers were named on Lot 1 of the agreement in June. 

The deal runs for 3 years with the potential for a further 12 month extension. 

Find out more about this agreement.

Use our Facilities Management framework to get your sites ready for Autumn

The great British weather…

And although we’re not wishing the summer away, it won’t be long until the days start to shorten and the beautiful autumn colours arrive.

We understand that facilities managers face daily challenges in ensuring your sites are kept to a high standard. So while we can’t control the weather, we can help you plan for seasonal activities, limiting potential autumn threats to ensure that your sites’ facilities are taken care of.

Check out our top tips to help protect your property this autumn

Roofs and gutters

Can your roof withstand our ever changing climate? From high temperatures to heavy rain, make sure your roof is well weathered. Now is the perfect time to check your roof for any loose tiles or slates. Look at your gutters and clear out any debris or leaves which might affect water drainage.

Heating and draught-proofing

The great British summer doesn’t last long and nobody wants to be cold. Get your boiler ready for winter. A well maintained boiler burns less fuel – save money and avoid any breakdowns by getting your boiler inspected and serviced.

Do you have back-up power and emergency generators? No one can predict the UK weather and power cuts. Having a standby generator provides backup power protection during an outage. Different sizes are available to either backup essential circuits or complete coverage for your business. Whether it’s for lighting, computers, heating or security, it’s important to have a backup power plan in place.

Lighting

As our natural daylight reduces, check that you have sufficient outside lights to keep your property well lit. Have you maintained your street lighting? Light levels can decrease due to dirt so keep your fixtures cleaned on a regular basis.

Equally, make sure your indoor lighting is ready for autumn. Lighting isn’t just essential for the obvious reasons but can also contribute to a business’ energy costs. Convert traditional light bulbs to energy efficient lighting and control usage through automated lighting in your building.

Security

With longer nights, keeping your buildings and occupants safe is essential. Make sure your security protections are in place. From mobile security, remote monitoring, manned guarding and technology solutions, there’s lots of ways to ensure you have the most effective security solutions.

Ground maintenance

Don’t wait until autumn to put your ground maintenance programme in place. When leaves start to drop, paved areas can become slippery with leaf algae and mould – use a high pressure washer to keep your paths clear. Trim trees to get rid of any dead branches, prune back hedges and tidy borders. It’s not a jungle out there.

And although we can’t think of winter just yet, check your supplies of rock salt for gritting paths when the weather starts to freeze.

Find out how our team can help today

We can help you save time and money on everything from maintenance to waste management, cleaning to catering services, and mechanical to electrical services.

Our FM frameworks provide access to a wide range of specialist suppliers, offering you more choice without compromising on quality. With our regional lot structure you can procure services locally and tailor your contracts to match your social value priorities.

Whether you require a single year contract or a call off contract for up to 10 years, we can help you drive real value for money for your organisation.

If you would like to find out more about any of the CCS facilities management solutions and how they can support you please get in touch and quote ‘FM’.