Customer newsletters for August

Welcome to our monthly newsletters. You can read the latest news most relevant to the sector you work in by selecting the appropriate link below:

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter, you can sign up by completing this short form. Each month, we’ll send you the newsletter most relevant to you, based on your organisation. 

You will also find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.

Benefits beyond cost with new approaches to alert paging

Alert paging has been a robust method of contacting people for many decades. Features and functionality may seem basic compared with today’s technology but it remains cost-effective, non-intrusive and simple to manage. 

However, the national alert paging infrastructure that underpins the service, and the number of suppliers offering paging solutions, has dramatically reduced over the last decade. This leaves users at risk of increased costs and disruption to long-term service continuity. 

For this reason, many organisations are now considering new approaches to alert paging that can improve the effectiveness of contact management while boosting staff productivity. 

The replacement journey

The first step for any organisation considering a change from alert paging to a more future-proofed solution is to conduct a thorough audit of their current communication platforms and channels. 

Do you use email and intranet? Mobile and messaging? Fixed voice or work-based applications? Additionally, ways of working, locations, how individuals interact with existing applications and communication devices, and policies around tools and devices, will all need to be assessed. 

Conducting an audit will give an organisation a clear understanding of the types of solution that must be considered and allow for a set of requirements to be established. Once this is done, consideration can then be given to the types of contact management solutions currently available.  

Potential solutions include: 

  • like-for-like replacement: careful consideration should be given to adopting a like-for-like replacement. The UK national paging infrastructure is operated by a single supplier and has inherent risks to costs and service availability
  • like-for-like using on-site paging: moving from a national paging provider to a locally implemented solution offers a simple migration path for users and operators. However, it is vital to assess the estate for how radio access points would be installed and the existing WiFi network to ensure it can provide additional coverage and contact assurance
  • two-way paging: two-way pagers offer an affirmative response to being alerted, reducing time wasted in waiting for responses, or creating duplicate alerts to alternative users
  • enhanced multimedia paging devices: these devices deliver more content rich information such as video, images, text, and numbers. Due to the nature of these messages, encryption and security should be priority concerns when selecting this type of solution.
  • mobile phone messaging/bulk text messaging: relying on standard mobile messaging is a valid alternative and with many users already having mobile phones, may offer a reduced cost. These solutions have been enabled by the pervasive availability of WiFi, 3G/4G and offer a simple direct replacement for legacy paging alerts. However, battery life, mobile connectivity and coverage, management of alerts (delivery and read receipts), and ensuring users carry their phones at all times need to be assessed.
  • secure mobile phone messaging applications: this solution builds on the mobile phone messaging capability by adding additional alerting applications to securely manage delivery and alerts. This has proven to be very successful in many public sector organisations.

Replacing paging technology – benefits beyond cost 

Getting to the right people, with the right information, in a timely manner can save significant time and make employees more efficient. As the public sector begins to recover from the impact of COVID-19, ensuring every employee spends every minute as effectively as possible has never been more important. 

To drive further benefits, organisations must evaluate how their new contact solution is integrated into existing communication networks and solutions. Blindly integrating mobile, fixed voice, messaging applications, email, and paging into a single contact solution may seem ideal, but does not guarantee realisation of benefits.

Furthermore, ensuring a replacement system complies to open standards and interfaces will provide a future roadmap for integration and achieving additional benefits.

We’re here to help

If you want to learn more about how CCS can help your organisation implement a future-proofed contact solution: 

Changes to our frameworks in July

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Frameworks awarded in July  

Frameworks extended in July

Frameworks that expired in July 

Frameworks due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these frameworks please get in touch. 

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? Just fill in this short form.

Empowering you to get the best possible technology deals

To empower customers during these challenging times and demonstrate our commitment to helping you save money on technology, we have signed a number of Memorandum of Understandings’ (MoUs) with our technology suppliers. 

By doing this, we are using our national buying power to agree preferential pricing and discounts across a range of technology products and services, so that we can offer you the best deals and help you ‘Build Back Better’ post pandemic. 

What are the benefits of MoUs?

  • by positioning the public sector as a ‘single customer,’ we are able to negotiate larger discounts with suppliers to offer best value for money to the customer
  • every public sector organisation, no matter how big or small, will benefit from the exact same discounts
  • our selection of technology MoUs are available to customers through any route to market used for technology buying, such as our many technology frameworks
  • customers can access certain technology products and services which may previously have been too expensive or unavailable to the public sector

Let us add power to your procurement

Visit our brand new webpage to discover our selection of technology MoU’s and find out how you can start saving.

Or, to speak to one of our technology experts, please complete our online form quoting ‘MoU’ and we will be in touch. 

Alternatively, you can call us on: 0345 410 2222

Rising to the challenge: CCS publishes its Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Crown Commercial Service has recorded strong spend growth, improvements in employee engagement, and record commercial benefits delivered for customers, as the organisation publishes its Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21.

During 2020/21, CCS played a key role in the Government’s response to the pandemic, helping customers to adapt and respond to the historic challenge posed by COVID-19 while continuing to support the transformation of UK public services.

And the organisation continues to support the public sector to build back better by delivering record commercial benefits, growing direct spend with small and medium-sized enterprises, and building the latest updates to UK procurement policy around social value and carbon net zero into our commercial agreements. 

£22.71bn was channelled through CCS commercial agreements in 2020/21, an increase of £4.6bn from the year before. Customers who used CCS agreements achieved commercial benefits equal to £2.04bn.

Tony van Kralingen, Chair of the CCS Board said:

In a year where business as usual hasn’t been usual at all, CCS rose to the challenge, supporting the government’s pandemic response, adapting to meet customers’ needs and helping other agencies. The achievements of CCS in such a year have been magnificent, and I must commend Simon and the Executive Board’s leadership.

Simon Tse, CEO of Crown Commercial Service said:

I am incredibly proud of everything CCS has delivered in the past year. Now we must look to grasp the opportunities of the recovery and how we can support our customers to build back better. After our successful delivery against our targets, despite the challenges of this year, I am confident that we have the skills and ability to do so.

The year at a glance

  • £22.71bn of public sector spend was channelled through our commercial agreements – an increase of £4.6bn from the year before
  • customers who have used our agreements have achieved commercial benefits equivalent to £2.04bn
  • Our employee engagement index, as measured by the Civil Service People Survey, has increased to 72% in 2020 – maintaining top quartile performance
  • £1.54bn was spent directly with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through CCS’s commercial agreements – an additional £302 million compared to 2019/20
  • we helped deliver procurements for customers worth a total annual contract value of £2.36bn

Read the full report

You can read CCS’s Annual Report and Accounts on gov.uk.

Don’t forget, you can find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.

Customer newsletters for July

Welcome to our monthly newsletters 

Every month our customer newsletters feature the latest news, webinars, events and aggregation opportunities for the sectors you work in:

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter subscribe and you will get these updates and more directly to your inbox. Just fill out this short form.

You can also find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.

Public Sector Show 2021: read Simon Tse’s keynote speech

Welcome to the Public Sector Show 2021. I’m Simon Tse, CEO of Crown Commercial Service. I join you today virtually, as we’re all now well accustomed to. I know this will be a fantastic event. 

It’s especially great to be able to speak to so many of our customers, including leaders in public procurement from every corner of the United Kingdom and every part of the public and third sectors. 

CCS works with 18,000 public and third sector organisations, and when you break down that number it gives you an idea of the diversity of places that we reach, and the variety of demands that can be placed upon us and the supply chain.

  • We work with 10,000 education bodies including schools, colleges and universities
  • 2,000 organisations in the health sector
  • More than 550 housing associations
  • Around 1,000 local authorities and other local government bodies
  • 800 not for profit organisations
  • And more than 500 organisations covering Police, fire and rescue, and the prison and probation services

It’s truly an honour to be able to speak to you all, to take stock of a momentous 12 months, and to look ahead to an equally busy and exciting period.

Please do visit our virtual exhibition stand and speak to our procurement experts about your requirements. Our sector representatives are also on hand to meet you.

The world has changed, and we have all changed with it. What has not changed is CCS’s focus on supporting our customers – our citizens, communities, and businesses, as we emerge from the pandemic to build back better. 

Whilst the pandemic has separated us physically, there has never been so much collaboration across the whole public sector and our supply chains.

We have faced a mammoth challenge during the pandemic, and we have met that challenge. 

From the earliest days back in March last year, CCS has been part of a coordinated government response. Our commercial expertise has been instrumental in enabling rapid access to capable suppliers and coordinating supply chains – interpreting requirements and matching them to suppliers’ offerings, and in establishing compliant routes to market.

When I look back at some of the projects CCS and our customers have been involved in, it brings home more than ever what can be achieved when we collaborate effectively.

We have delivered more than £2bn of assisted procurements for our customers, often further alleviating the burden on them by stepping in to help with operational support. 

At the outset of the pandemic, we helped to repatriate 40,000 British nationals on 107 flight charters from 52 countries.

Around 160 million meals were delivered to more than 900,000 children through our Free School Meals voucher scheme, and 1.3 million disadvantaged children received devices to assist with their home schooling.

At a crucial moment in the UK’s response, 14,000 staff were deployed to the vaccination programme, and 1,000 to laboratories – thanks to CCS agreements.

And 500 mobile testing units have been designed and delivered to provide Covid-19 symptomatic tests estimated to have saved 6,000 lives. 

At CCS, we set great store in evaluation and the feedback we get from our customers, so I’m delighted to say that, throughout it all, we have maintained a healthy customer satisfaction score of plus 48, and an average satisfaction rating in excess of 8 out of 10. 

This is a challenge that has taken the whole public sector working in partnership with the private sector to respond, and I know you will all have stories to share of how your colleagues and your organisations have played your part. 

As the vaccine rollout continues and the country opens up, our work to support the recovery continues.

The focus now is on building back better, making sure that the UK emerges from the pandemic stronger, fairer, and greener.

We will continue to respond to what our customers need – using data, insights and your feedback to understand how we transition from helping you to deal with the immediate impact of Covid-19 to adapting to the new world in which we’re operating.

We’re building on our category strategies to develop innovative solutions that meet the needs of our customers, focusing on new customer and sector channels, digital products and go-to market strategies to enable future business growth.

  • Innovating in the delivery of public services, accelerating the digital transformation of the public sector to create end-to-end solutions that work for citizens – building back better
  • Putting sustainability considerations at the beginning of our planning, not treating the environment as an afterthought – building back greener
  • And creating new opportunities for small businesses, social enterprises, and charities to work with the public sector and rebuild our economy, building back fairer

We will work to make sure that government policy around these issues is written into our commercial agreements – so that it is one less thing for customers to worry about. 

We’re already starting to see the first generation of new agreements come through our pipeline with the Social Value PPN baked into them, and I will talk in a bit more detail later about the ways we’re adapting our solutions to the many opportunities for generating social value that exist.

Now I just wanted to pull out one key initiative we are working on.

The Government has committed to reducing our carbon consumption to net zero by 2050, a key part of the Treasury’s Plan For Growth, published with the Budget in March. 

Since then the Government has announced it will set the world’s most ambitious climate change target into law – to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035, compared to 1990 levels.

Hitting this target will mean the total decarbonisation of electricity, transport, buildings, industry, and the public sector, with interim targets and legislation to help us get there.

We’re working with customers right now to understand your biggest carbon net zero challenges and to gauge where you are on your decarbonisation journey. 

We’ve identified dozens of our agreements that can be used to help with that journey already – from the obvious areas like Fleet and Energy to technology hardware and even, in future, food.

And we’re helping suppliers to build Carbon Reduction Plans into their bids from September, in line with the latest Cabinet Office procurement policy note.

Our vision for Carbon Net Zero is that we will achieve an integrated offer with easy buying solutions. We will only do that by continuing the conversation with customers and suppliers, and I urge you to get involved. 

You will have the chance to hear from Noreen Winhall, our Buildings Director who is speaking later this morning about carbon net zero, on a panel with the Energy Savings Trust, BEIS, and Bath and North East Somerset Council. In case you miss it you can watch a recording via the event website.

As you have heard me say many times our priority is to put our customers at the heart of what we do.

We want to bring power to our customers’ procurements by offering the best deals along with our commercial expertise to help achieve greater value for money, and commercial benefits.

Last year customers who used our agreements achieved commercial benefits in the region of £2 billion – money that can be reinvested into delivering front line services for citizens.

I was also pleased to receive the NAO’s latest operational delivery report in March. 

The NAO praised CCS’s progress since 2015 and particularly the strides we’ve taken in ramping up the value of commercial benefits we deliver for our customers, and our customer satisfaction scores.

We are continuing our journey to transform the organisation into a customer focused business, making it simple and easy for customers to access our products and services. 

In the coming year and beyond we will identify new categories, new commercial products, enter new markets and establish collaborative alliances with external partners. 

In parallel, we will continuously improve our capabilities through the development of our people and ways of working.

Many of you will have heard me say that CCS is always working to increase the spend through our agreements.

For 2020/21 we expect to have grown spend to around £22 billion. The more spend that comes through our agreements, the more money we can generate to re-invest in raising the bar, investing in our own capability and sharing that knowledge and expertise with you, our customers.

This year we achieved around £2bn of commercial benefits, under exceptional circumstances. For 2021/22 we have set ourselves a still-ambitious target of achieving £1.5bn of spend-related commercial benefits, and almost £2bn for 22/23.

We will continue our work to negotiate the best deals, benchmarking our prices and working closely with customers to deliver tailored solutions that meet your needs.

We work collaboratively with Cabinet Office’s central commercial teams to support the delivery of the Government’s commercial and procurement policy objectives, including on the new National Procurement Policy Statement.

As an active member of the National Social Value Taskforce, we’re also working with the public and private sectors to make it easier for public bodies to measure the value they are helping to deliver through their procurements.

As I’ve said, CCS currently has 18,000 customers across the length and breadth of the UK, so the opportunity for social value to be generated through our procurement solutions is clear. 

Some examples of our work in this area are:

  • We can ask suppliers bidding to join our agreements to demonstrate how they work to ensure fair, inclusive and ethical employment practices
  • Suppliers on our furniture agreement are asked to support the Greening Government Commitment to ensure that all packaging of products is reusable or readily recyclable
  • And our Fleet category are backing Highways England’s Driving for Better Business campaign to boost driver safety standards for public sector suppliers, requiring suppliers on our agreements to sign up to the scheme

The examples I’ve given show a little of how we’re delivering the Government’s policy agenda in partnership with our customers and suppliers.

You can read much more about the latest developments on the Government’s public procurement policy, and what this means for your contracts, on the Crown Commercial Service website.

That’s it from me. I’d just like to take this opportunity to say thank you once again for listening, and to urge you all to please visit the Crown Commercial Service virtual exhibition stand and speak to our team about how we can help bring power to your procurement.

Now more than ever, procurement has a vital role to play in supporting and strengthening our country and our public sector.

As an organisation, Crown Commercial Service is committed to ensuring that the whole public sector can play its part as we build back better, fairer and greener. Thank you.

Transforming Glasgow into a world-class smart city

Updated: August 2023

The requirement

Before its digital upgrade Glasgow City Council already had 2 existing contracts in place providing CCTV traffic management camera network services across the city. Both were due to expire and needed to be replaced to ensure these critical services continued to operate efficiently. 

 A strategic decision was made that both components should be brought together and delivered through a single supplier.

In addition to the basic needs of CCTV and traffic management, the new replacement network needed to support: 

  • future requirements for the implementation of 5G over the next decade
  • improving the ability to deploy IoT (Internet of Things) technology
  • economic regeneration and growth by breaking down digital barriers 
  • the council’s future cities ambitions. 

The council also needed to deliver social value through the contract.

The solution

After consideration, the council ran a further competition through CCS’s Network Services 2 framework. This commercial agreement was well-suited to the council’s requirements as it has robust terms and conditions, enables access to a supplier market with the skills and experience required to deliver the contract, and allows social value elements to be assessed alongside other criteria. 

The solution was to appoint a single supplier to install, manage and support a brand new robust, scalable and flexible full fibre network. 

Consisting of 633 circuits, the network will support the delivery of CCTV, traffic control and other services across the city. This will enable the roll-out of leading-edge IoT technologies – including sensor-enabled automation such as noise and pollution monitoring, footfall, flood and water management as well as measuring of footfall. 

The results

Commsworld was awarded a 10 year contract for £5.8 million. This represented a cost avoidance of approximately £4.4 million, calculated by comparing the successful bid against the average value of all bids received including the winning bid.

The solution delivered as part of the contract gives the council advanced technological capability to make more informed operational and strategic decisions in the future. For example data harvesting will enable it to deliver more efficient, targeted services for the benefit of citizens.

Key to this is the availability of high-speed fibre infrastructure that could help drive forward the implementation of 5G across the city – increasing the reach of 5G to all areas of Glasgow. 

In addition, the council successfully leveraged the terms of the Network Services 2 framework in order to achieve a variety of social value outcomes focused on tackling the digital divide and economic regeneration in the city. As part of the contract the successful supplier, Commsworld, agreed to recruit an apprentice, provide a mentoring programme for digital skills and offer work experience placements to those from digitally deprived backgrounds.

Councillor Angus Millar, Chair of the Digital Glasgow Board, said: 

We recognise the vital role that our digital infrastructure plays in the smooth running of Glasgow, which in turn impacts on the city’s prosperity and productivity.

Working closely with Commsworld, we are firmly committed to enabling a CCTV and traffic control system that makes Glasgow’s road network more efficient, while at the same time bringing quality job opportunities to our city.

Laura Moffat, Category Manager at Glasgow City Council, added:

We chose to use the Network Services 2 framework as it met all of our assessment criteria. In addition to the framework’s suitability, we received excellent support from CCS’s category team throughout the procurement process.

The council was really pleased with the final outcome. As well as investing in our city’s infrastructure, we were able to build community benefits into the procurement which will have a lasting impact beyond the lifetime of the contract.

Connecting you with the right solutions for your organisation

Our Network Services 3 framework has been designed to help you with all your telecom and network requirements, from mobile, voice, and video, to data and security. Please note Network Services 2 framework is now expired.

To learn how Network Services 3 could help support your initiative you can:

Breckland Council expect to make 30% efficiency savings by using chatbots

The challenge

Breckland Council, one of 7 district councils in Norfolk, receives on average 9,000 calls into its customer contact centre each month.  

The council’s customer experience manager wanted to explore ways to to reduce some of the inbound telephone and email traffic and increase the support the contact centre team could provide to callers with more complex enquiries, whilst also achieving efficiency savings.

The solution

The council trialled using chatbots, exploring how an application with voice recognition could automate the more straightforward queries and interact with callers through a messaging platform. 

A business case was written to prove how this concept would benefit the council. Following approval, the council used our Artificial Intelligence DPS to run a further competition and appoint a suitable supplier. The specification included mandatory elements that the bidders must have, and desirable elements that they could have now or would be able to develop. 

The council also stipulated that they were seeking not just a contractor but a partner with experience of working in local government who could provide an end to end partnership. 

The result

Breckland Council awarded Ubisend a 4 year contract. They expect the chatbot application will achieve efficiency savings of around 30% through:

  • receiving less telephone and email traffic 
  • more queries fulfilled with the chatbot 
  • machine learning and automation to manage certain email types such as council tax, bins and recycling, and benefits

The contact centre team at Breckland Council will now have more time to focus on the complex queries, improving customer satisfaction as waiting times are significantly reduced and resolution times improved. Due to the success of the procurement the council anticipates that other of their teams may now look at similar solutions to improve their outcomes.

Let us bring power to your procurement

By using computers to improve processes, artificial intelligence can help you manage and use data better, making public services more accessible. We can offer you access to these cutting edge technologies, along with support from our industry experts, giving you the power to transform your digital services. Created in collaboration with the Office for Artificial Intelligence, our Artificial Intelligence DPS makes it easier to buy this new technology and take advantage of what it has to offer. To find out more:

Don’t forget, you can find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.

New ‘full lifecycle’ technology services agreement launched

The Technology Services 3 framework enables customers to procure information and communication technology services across the entire lifecycle; from strategy through to transition and operational deployment.

The new agreement builds on the success of the Technology Services 2 (TS2) framework, adding refinements to the Lots and making it easier and more efficient for customers to procure IT services.

TS3 launches in July 2021 and runs for 4 years. Call-off contract durations can be from 2 to 7 years. It replaces TS2, which is due to expire in September 2021.

Philip Orumwense, Commercial Director and Chief Technology Procurement Officer, Crown Commercial Service says:

Technology Services 3 has been designed and developed using an extensive discovery and consultative process with many of our customers, suppliers, and partners. This framework truly reflects and represents their expectations and provides the platform for the country to build back better with the right mix of quality and innovative suppliers, including SME providers.

This is another example of how CCS is putting customers at the heart of everything we do to help support the public sector to continue on its digital transformation journey.

Innovations

Lot 4, covering major service transformations, has been simplified. Market feedback was that the previous security-focused sub-Lots were confusing and restrictive, and they have been removed.
Customers will now be able to specify these classifications across all Technology Services 3 Lots instead.

A new Service Integration and Management (SIAM) Lot has been introduced to support customers looking to disaggregate the delivery of their technology services. By using SIAM, customers can manage multiple suppliers of services and integrate them to provide a single, business-facing IT organisation.

New call-off terms have been designed to better reflect the diversity of technology services offered through the agreement, whilst making them simpler to use for both customers and suppliers.

The new agreement aims to build on the progress made on making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to become suppliers. It includes 253 suppliers, 64% of which are SMEs. This is compared to 52% SME suppliers for TS2.

Lotting structure

The Lots will comprise:

Lot 1 – Technology Strategy and Service Design

Offers access to market expertise to help set your technology strategy and create a supporting service design. It also supports creating an output that can provide an implementation roadmap via the other Lots within TS3.

Lot 2 – Transition and Transformation

Provides access to additional resources such as project management support to help implement and manage your transition while ensuring risk is managed and deadlines and budgets are maintained.

Lot 3a – End User Services

For when you need the right operational support for end users. Whether through a service desk or end user training and management of your devices throughout their lifecycle. 

Lot 3b – Operational Management

Giving you access to everything you need to manage a complex technology estate in order to implement effective and robust cyber security across all your technology, from physical devices to networks to access management.

Lot 3c – Technical Management

For customers who have a complex network supporting wired, wireless and mobile connectivity that needs ongoing management and support. This Lot will ensure you are able to effectively track and maintain all technology assets from acquisition to disposal.

Lot 3d – Application and Data Management

Support services for the management of data-related services to ensure relevant data is available to be consumed by other services. The Lot also allows for software and applications to be maintained and developed in-line with your organisation’s development roadmap. 

Lot 4 – Major Service Transformation Programmes

With a maximum contract length of 7 years, this Lot provides a procurement route for customers requiring elements of all the other TS3 Lots as part of a significant transformation of their technology services.

Lot 5 – Service Integration and Management

This Lot offers access to market expertise to deliver service integration and management (SIAM) in-line with organisational needs and to get the resources, tools and knowledge transfer required to implement and transition to operational SIAM

Find out more

To find out more about Technology Services 3 visit the agreement webpage or contact us by completing our online form or calling 0345 410 2222.

Don’t forget, you can find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.