Helping our customers say thank you with Print Marketplace

Print Marketplace is a UK-wide digital tool for buying printed material including brochures, flyers, leaflets, business cards, and letterheads.

It’s a self-serve platform which is free to use. In a few simple steps you can define your needs and decide which design option is best for you:

  • choose from a range of preloaded templates and easily upload your artwork
  • customise your design using the free and simple to use online design tool
  • use our team of designers – whether you need new concepts or tweaks to existing artwork
  • receive instant quotes and filter by price, location, or carbon impact

How our customers are using Print Marketplace

We have been helping our customers say thank you to some of their most important stakeholders.

HM Land Registry

HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership valued at £7 trillion, enabling over £1 trillion worth of personal and commercial lending to be secured against property across England and Wales.

The department wanted to recognise its employees for all their work during the pandemic with a series of thank you cards sent out directly to all employees.

The design team at the Land Registry scoped out Print Marketplace and decided that it was a good fit for the project. They particularly liked the instant prices they could review, as well as being able to support social value by analysing the carbon impact of the job, and the range of SMEs available in the supplier directory.

Stacy Gibbs, Deputy Head of Corporate Communications at HM Land Registry said:

‘We wanted to pay tribute to our colleagues’ hard work after a particularly challenging year and felt a traditional thank you card would be lovely. Print Marketplace offered excellent value for money and achieved exactly what we set out to do, which was to produce a card that would surprise and delight colleagues.’

Cats Protection

Cats Protection is the UK’s largest feline welfare charity, helping around 200,000 cats and kittens every year, thanks in no small part to their network of over 230 volunteer-run branches and more than 30 centres.

The charity was looking to streamline its procurement processes and wanted a print solution that was easy to implement and good value for money. After a demo from the team at Print Marketplace they decided to try the new online tool.

Cats Protection used the marketplace to place an initial order of a range of thank you cards for its fundraisers. As all suppliers are pre-vetted, no extensive procurement process was required.

“I wanted to get in touch to say thank you for your help and how good the ordering process has been. Once this order has been finalised, we will be looking into placing a more expansive order.”

Procurement Officer, Cats Protection

Find out how we can help you

There’s lots of information about the Print Marketplace on our website, including frequently asked questions. 

Registering for Print Marketplace is quick and simple on the website. You can also request a demonstration of the system.

If you have any further questions or would like to speak to a member of our team please fill out this short online form referencing ‘RM6071’ in the comments box.

Alternatively, you can: 

call 0345 410 2222

email info@crowncommercial.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.

The National Procurement Policy Statement – what you need to know

The National Procurement Policy Statement asks that all contracting authorities have due regard to a set of national strategic priorities when exercising their functions relating to procurement.

The statement puts public procurement at the centre of our economic recovery as we build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic, with common benchmarks and standards to enable continuous improvement in public procurement practice and boost the social value generated by the public sector when it buys goods and services. 

The National Procurement Policy Statement – what it means for CCS customers

CCS is already working to implement the strategic priorities:

  • embedding social value through our commercial agreements
  • regularly assessing our capabilities against commercial standards

The guidance focuses on three areas:

Social value

The NPPS sets out national priority outcomes for social value. It places emphasis on creating new businesses, new jobs and new skills; tackling climate change and reducing waste, and improving supplier diversity, innovation and resilience, all themes within the social value model. 

The NPPS clarifies how contracting authorities should secure the best mix of quality and price, directs contracting authorities to include award criteria that achieve social, economic, and environmental benefits, and advises on the development of procurement specifications, as well as other measures.

You can read about how CCS is building social value considerations into our frameworks on the ‘Responsible decisions’ area of the website.

Commercial and procurement delivery

The statement requires all contracting authorities to consider whether they have the right policies and processes in place to manage the key stages of commercial delivery it sets out, where relevant to their procurement portfolio. 

CCS works in partnership with our customers to build the latest Government procurement policy and best practice guidance into our commercial solutions.

Skills and capability for procurement

The statement requires all contracting authorities to consider their organisational capability and capacity, with regard to the procurement skills and resources required to deliver value for money. 

CCS regularly undertakes assessments of capability and capacity against the Government’s commercial standards and publishes the outcomes in our annual report and accounts.

Find out more

You can read the National Procurement Policy Statement along with accompanying guidance on GOV.UK.

Cabinet Office’s Commercial Policy team are hosting webinars for contracting authorities from across the public sector, suppliers and any organisations with an interest in public procurement. You can sign up using Event Brite.

How to prepare for a software audit and avoid excess charges

No organisation wants to be audited, but the fact is, you are likely to face an audit from a supplier at some point so it’s important to be prepared. This is particularly true for software consumers – anyone with a software supplier contract will be aware that they need to be careful to ensure license compliance, ensuring that all of their users are only using applications they are licensed for.

This has become more important than ever in recent years. There are several organisations that have acquired smaller software suppliers, and are now using those acquisitions to drive additional revenue streams through auditing their customers. Most contracts include ‘self declaration license products’ unrestricted by license keys, and often addenda for free license use. Customers without adequate records are at risk, as these organisations can make substantial claims based on several years of accounts, with charges based on recommended retail price (RRP) rates rather than the preferential rates that could have been negotiated in advance.

Luckily, this risk can be mitigated. Here are our recommended top tips to help you avoid unexpected auditing costs:

  1. good contract management including clear paperwork
  2. good software asset management including regular monitoring of software licensing requirements
  3. take any audit communication seriously, and raise immediately with your contract manager and/or procurement team
  4. reach out for support if needed
  5. analyse the audit toolset and the information being presented – check for errors, backdating, interest, and any other additional charges for licenses
  6. do not accept initial claims from the supplier at face value, but do take care to meet deadlines
  7. be mindful of any aggressive tactics from the supplier, such as early completion offers
  8. ensure any agreed claims are full and final settlements, with full license entitlement documentation

Support when you need it

Don’t forget, we have a team of software industry experts here to support you. If you receive notification of an audit, you can contact us by completing our online form or if you would like to speak to a member of a team, call us on 0345 410 2222.  

Please note due to resource constraints, we can only support audits of over £300,000 value.

Discover our 2 new software frameworks

Available to all public sector organisations, the Back Office Software (BOS) and Software Design and Implementation Services (SDIS) frameworks give you access to the software, skills and services you need to deploy cloud-based back office systems or upgrade legacy IT systems.

With an increasing trend for organisations to migrate more of their on premise workloads to the cloud, moving the workloads of back office systems is a fundamental part of this. Often used to manage business operations, including Human Capital Management (HCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), successfully moving these workloads to the cloud can help you achieve large cost and workflow efficiencies. 

You will find market leading vendors and suppliers offering value added services, alongside support and maintenance for products and services through the BOS framework. The framework is ideally suited to support policies such as ‘Cloud First’ and the ‘One Government Cloud Strategy’ where public sector buyers are encouraged to initially consider Software as a Service (SaaS) models, particularly for their enterprise IT and back office functions . 

During extensive market engagement it was clear that one size doesn’t fit all. Organisations have a wide range of requirements from support for migration away from highly customised on premise software,to complex system implementation, configuration and implementation, and specialist support for change management. To that end, the SDIS agreement offers you access to a wide number of suppliers, ranging from SMEs with specialist expertise through to large service integrators and software vendors.

With ‘the cloud’ providing greater ability to automate back office processes and workflows, we want to help you reduce your transactional efforts and focus on more strategic outputs. Given the heightened requirements for cloud migration over the past 12 months, BOS and SDIS will underpin the direction of procurement in this space. 

To supplement these frameworks, we also offer a variety of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with some of the largest vendors in the industry including Microsoft, Oracle and SAP. These agreements offer market leading discounts and beneficial terms for public sector customers buying cloud products and services. 

Let us add power to your procurement

To find out more about our Back Office Software (BOS) and Software Design and Implementation Services (SDIS) frameworks, get in touch with our commercial experts by completing our online form quoting ‘RM6194’ for BOS or ‘RM6193’ for SDIS, or call us on 0345 410 2222. 

Customer newsletters for June

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.

Crown Commercial Service announces 3 year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oracle

This replaces the previous MoU which expired on 30 April 2021 and will continue to deliver excellent value for money for public sector customers across all of Oracle’s cloud-based offerings. 

Customers who are looking to modernise their Oracle estates have access to discounts and a wide variety of commercial benefits through the updated new agreement. It covers everything from infrastructure to software offerings as well as support and maintenance through to cloud migrations. 

The scope of the agreement will include some newly added benefits for example Market Driven Support Transition Services, which offer customers the ability and freedom to migrate aging systems to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, reducing risk and with minimal downtime.

MoUs are a preferential pricing agreement negotiated by CCS on behalf of our customers, and are available to all eligible public sector customers through any route to market used for technology procurement. We recommend using our Back Office Software and Software Design and Implementation Services frameworks for this MoU, which will run until 30 April 2024.

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

This enhanced Memorandum of Understanding will continue to deliver savings and benefits for new and existing public sector customers using Oracle’s cloud based technologies. It will continue delivering value for money whilst supporting public sector customers’ journey to the cloud.

Let us bring power to your procurement 

To speak to one of our technology experts to find out how we can support your requirements, please complete our online form quoting ‘Oracle MoU’ and we will be in touch. 

Changes to our frameworks in May

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 May 

Frameworks extended in May

Frameworks that expired in May 

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.

New ways of travelling – top tips for safe business travel

After a few months of working from home and not being able to travel pretty much anywhere, we are so eager for things to return to some sort of normality. For some, it may be commuting to their offices, visiting customers or suppliers locally, while others may be already thinking about more complex longer stays, either within the UK or abroad. If you do not feel ready yet, that is fine too. Whatever the purpose of our travel is, and whether it is tomorrow or in six months’ time, we all need to make sure we plan it well and adapt to the new normal.

Regardless of the mode of transport or service required, it is recommended that you book all your travel through your Travel Management Company (TMC) or a dedicated specialist supplier. They will be able to advise you on border restrictions, in-country legislation and local protocols, as well as other elements of your journey such as transfer options and accommodation. They can also alert you to any changes and provide electronic documentation, such as e-ticketing options to maintain social distancing and minimise your need for physical interaction with staff and technology.

These tips are generic to help and support all travellers, but of course, when travelling on business, it is important to always check and book in accordance with your employer’s travel policy.

Before you go

  • check-in online and save your boarding pass/ticket on your phone (when possible) for a contactless journey through the airport or station
  • take your passport and necessary documents and have them easily accessible – at some airports, you may be able to hold your passport up rather than hand it over to border control to avoid contact
  • pack a few face masks and hand sanitisers as you will need them at every stage of your journey
  • take snacks in case the meal service is not available or is reduced –  you can ask your TMC for more information about your flight / train operator
  • don’t forget your pen, as in some places, you may have to sign something. You will likely get a pen that has been disinfected, but just in case, have your own
  • pack your debit/credit card as you should try to use contactless payments rather than cash, where possible 

Public transport and car journeys

  • use your own car, rental car or book a taxi (your TMC will be able to help you) to get to/from the terminal and station
  • in a taxi, sit in the rear left seat and never in the front (the further from the driver the better). Have windows open, where possible. If travelling in a group, use more than one vehicle
  • if you hire a car, go for a paperless pick-up, where possible. Your supplier should be able to arrange that for you
  • wipe the steering wheel and other surfaces in the car with a disinfectant before you set off. In addition, all cars should be thoroughly cleaned after each drop-off
  • wear a mask and use hand sanitiser (frequently) throughout the journey
  • travel at off-peak times, especially if you have to use public transport. Wear a mask and remember the rules on social distancing
  • reserve your seat on a train, if available. Train operators are able to distance you from other confirmed passengers

Travelling by plane

  • plan some extra time at the airport to familiarise yourself with the new regulations. There may be a new pedestrian traffic flow system in place and a limited number of people allowed in each check-in zone
  • consider checking in your bags, if possible. Some airlines suggest keeping your hand baggage to a minimum
  • change your face mask every 3 to 4 hours if you are travelling long-haul
  • sit back and relax – airlines prioritise your health and safety and are disinfecting all surfaces after each flight. The HEPA filters replace the air in the cabin every 2-3 minutes. That’s probably better than in your office
  • many airports have a disinfectant facility for luggage but you should remember to wash your hands or use hand sanitiser before you leave the airport for the next stage of your journey

Accommodation

  • choose contactless check-in and check-out when available. Your TMC will be able to explain how this is operated
  • wear a mask in all public areas and use hand sanitiser regularly (if you can’t wash your hands). All public areas are frequently cleaned in most hotels and have rooms disinfected after each guest
  • take advantage of room service, if you prefer a contactless stay. In some hotels buffets are not available and restaurants may be still closed. There may be some take away restaurants in the vicinity of a hotel that can deliver so check with the hotel if they accept them
  • ask for an electronic invoice rather than a paper one

Need more information?

Hopefully you have found the tips above useful. If you need any more advice or guidance, please contact our travel team and we will be happy to help you. 

You can also find out more about each of our travel frameworks, and our suppliers, by following the links below:

  • RM6016 – Public Sector Travel and Venue Solutions 
  • RM6164 – Public Sector Global Travel and Venue Solutions
  • RM6121 – Public Sector Passenger Transport Services – taxi, mini bus & coaches

All things to all people: exploring social value approaches in public procurement

This article was originally published in Public Finance.

A different kind of squeeze is coming to public sector finances, after a year of unprecedented and unforeseen spending. 

For the coming decade, ensuring that the public sector is getting every ounce of value that it can possibly get from its procurements is going to be the name of the game. And different ideas of value will be added to, and magnify, traditional concerns of pounds and pence.

In September 2020, the Cabinet Office published Public Procurement Note 06/20 – taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts.

The guidance note requires all central government departments to explicitly evaluate social value in their new procurements, where the requirements are relevant and proportionate to the subject matter of the contract.

The PPN also includes a new social value model, which contains a menu of priority social value themes and policy outcomes that can be applied in new procurements and contracts.

And social value is certainly not restricted to central government bodies. If anything, local government has led the way in considering how to make sure its local citizens’ money is being used to boost local economies and tackle social inequalities. 

We know that suppliers are having to review their offer to the public sector to catch up with often developed and preconceived notions of what they should be able to offer.

For many companies, it will be a step into the unknown.

A complex environment

Thousands of suppliers of all sizes are currently signed up to supply goods and services through Crown Commercial Service frameworks, across a dizzying array of categories and specialisms.

When we also consider that CCS works with 18,000 customers across the length and breadth of the UK, the opportunity for social value to be generated through our procurement solutions is clear. What is also clear however is that a one-size fits all approach to delivering that value is not going to work.

Self-evidently, a large central government body is not going to look at social value in the same way as a rural local authority or large hospital trust. That poses a challenge for suppliers – how should they structure their bids to meet the needs of a complex customer market?

At CCS we’ve been starting to see the first generation of framework agreements awarded since the new PPN came into effect, and the many and various ways suppliers are trying to meet the new requirements to set out their social value offer.

Supplier approaches

CCS supports the public sector to procure goods and services. The distinction between those two different kinds of product is an important one when considering social value.

For service-led sectors, people obviously sit at the heart of potential opportunities. For suppliers who are connecting the public sector with human resources and expertise, focusing on how those people are recruited and engaged offers one route to delivering social value. 

CCS may ask suppliers bidding to join our agreements to demonstrate how they work to ensure fair, inclusive and ethical employment practices. This could include evidence that they’ve advertised vacancies in a wide range of locations, are using name-blind recruitment practices, or that they’ve engaged with VCSE organisations about the possibility of offering apprenticeships. 

Many suppliers of products on the other hand are looking at the impact their manufacturing processes have on the environment, and on the UK’s carbon net zero targets.

Suppliers on CCS’s furniture agreement are asked to support the Greening Government Commitment to ensure that all packaging of products is reusable or readily recyclable. They report on their greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of waste they send to landfill, and are obliged to demonstrate sustainable sourcing practices for the timber they use.

The commonality here is the importance of considering how social value can be maximised at every stage of the procurement process, whether you’re buying in physical goods or human expertise.

Find out more

You can find a full list of our commercial agreements and details of how to build policy considerations into your procurement in our interactive digital brochure.

Visit our social value webpage or get in touch with our expert team to find out more about social value and how it’s embedded into our agreements.

 

Helping the education sector avoid cyber attacks

Since late February 2021, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has identified an increase in cyber attacks within the education sector.

These attacks are predominantly ransomware attacks. This is where cyber criminals use a malicious software to block access to computer systems, and threaten to release the organisation’s sensitive data unless the ransom is paid.

Due to the nature and amount of sensitive information that schools, colleges and universities hold, these attacks can have a devastating impact. 

How can my organisation be attacked?

Ransomware attackers can gain access to your computer systems in many ways:

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) 

This is an attack designed to cause widespread damage and disruption to the network, causing a massive impact on productivity. Attacks against online educational resources are over 3 times more prevalent in 2020 than they were last year, due to the lack of security protection when working from home.

Spear phishing 

This is an attack through email or electronic communications, in an attempt to scam the individual and to lead them into a bogus website full of Malware, giving the hacker access to a wealth of information. 

Other areas of access include:

  • phishing
  • vulnerable software or hardware
  • remote access
  • remote desktop protocol
  • virtual private network (VPN) vulnerabilities

Why is it important to protect your data?

Data is valuable. In the education system it is important that the safety of students, and all of the information that you store is not compromised. In the unfortunate event of an attack, data can be used in many ways: 

Financial gain

Data can be used as a bargaining tool to extort money. As universities and colleges are handling large amounts of money in student fees, they are a prime target for cyber criminals.

Fraud

Data is extremely valuable and can be used to steal someone’s identity or to gain access to their online accounts for malicious purposes.

Espionage

Universities are usually centres for research and hold intellectual property. This can be used for personal, economic, political or military advantage. This also poses a large threat to a large volume of personal data and the misuse of information.

How can these attacks be prevented?

Useful guidance

Familiarise yourself with the NCSC alert for the UK education sector. The NCSC are the UK’s National Technical Authority for cyber incidents and have a wide range of guidance on their webpage. 

Cyber training

Managing risk isn’t just about having the right technology – people are an important part of risk management too. Raising awareness of cyber security within your organisation can play a vital role in countering cyber threats. Cyber awareness training will ensure that your staff understand the potential threats, the impact they have on the organisation, and the steps they need to take to prevent these threats infiltrating their workspace.

Back-ups

In the event of a cyber incident, having access to recent, tested offline backups will ensure that your organisation is able to recover quickly and to restore data. 

Penetration testing

This can be used to audit and test your IT systems, identifying potential vulnerabilities and recommending effective security countermeasures.

To mitigate malware and ransomware attacks please seek NCSC guidance.

Please report any incidents to the NCSC and seek expert advice. 

How can CCS help?

We have a dedicated cyber security team that can help you protect against the increasing complexity of cyber attacks. The Cyber Security Services 3 dynamic purchasing system (DPS) is the only route to market for NCSC-assured services and covers a wide range of cyber services. 

To learn more, visit our Cyber Security Services page or contact the team.  

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.