OPINION
Why use public sector tenders?
John Doherty, managing director at UK public sector buying organisation ESPO, looks at how outdated perceptions of public sector supply work are changing…
WHEN PUBLIC sector tenders were mentioned in the past, eyelids became heavy. And that was for the company representatives still left in the room. For many fi rms, tendering for a council or NHS trust’s contract was simply too diffi cult and too time consuming.
But the work of specialist public buying organisations (PBOs) nationwide is changing outdated perceptions of tendering. And it is giving private companies a simpler route into attractive public sector supply work. PBOs work with local authorities and other public bodies to harness those organisations’ collective buying power and deliver quality products and services often at reduced cost.
PBOs owned by the public sector provide quality products or services at very competitive prices for buyers and regular revenues for suppliers: they return revenues to members via rebates or similar
new additions. Our own catalogue has over 27,000 product lines from more than 2,000 different suppliers, translating into tens of millions of pounds in orders every year. For areas such as IT and telephony, where the contract spend is over a certain threshold, and specifi c EU competition regulations apply, PBOs develop frameworks that give buyers and suppliers assured product quality and regulatory compliance. These frameworks take the ‘legwork’ out of tender compliance for small and large fi rms that are accepted onto them. PBOs also support these suppliers with feedback on
“Opportunities opened up by UK private
companies through Public Buying
Organisations are raising
eyebrows.”
arrangements. What’s not generally realised is that PBOs provide a number of profi table routes to market for private fi rms – big and small – through their product catalogues and supply frameworks. Buying consortia catalogues give buyers a ‘one-stop shop’ for anything from post-it notes to an academy’s laptops. These catalogues have literally thousands of products and PBOs are always on the look-out for
John Doherty, ESPO
improvements for future tendering. While the
Government is pushing for 25 per cent of its contracts to be met by SMEs by 2015, one buying organisation has reported that 55 per cent of its frameworks are supplied by small fi rms. Being accepted on a framework can open doors to new business, because the public body is assured that the supplier is meeting essential standards.
Innovative fi rms can avoid the knockbacks of the past when they were not approved by ‘procurement’ while targeting the government sector. The opportunities now being opened up by the UK’s private companies through PBOs are raising eyebrows… rather than closing eyelids.
John Doherty is managing director at UK not-for-profi t public sector buying organisation ESPO.
www.espo.org
Sell IT to schools – get rich quick?
The intricacies of schools and how they buy their computers means it’s not as easy as you might think supplying them, as reseller Ben Parker explains…
DO NOT think you will get rich quick from selling to schools. You have to fi rst understand their needs, which are very different to working with corporate customers.
You have to understand what the school needs best to deliver its core product – teaching and learning. If a teacher cannot use the technology it will soon sit in the back of a cupboard. If you cannot deliver your service on time and effectively you will not make it to the second year of a contract. Understanding and communicating with the school at all times is in my opinion probably the most important factor when selling to the education sector. Teachers and
offi ce staff want ease of use. They want it to work fi rst time and have things done for them. They do not have the time to go through all your questions whilst preparing their lesson or trying to control 30 children
Around 90 per cent of my meetings are successful if I get in front of the IT manager; 30 per cent of my phone calls are returned only to say that they are happy with their current provider.
“Teachers and offi ce staff want ease of use. They want a computer to work fi rst time and get things done.”
in a classroom who are waiting to be taught, whilst your laptop decides if it wants to log on or not.
Once you have worked that part out, you have to open the door that is usually locked very tightly by the gatekeepers. There is a wave of people that you have to get through just to get a message to the right person, and if that message makes it to the pigeon hole, you are very lucky if they call you back. My advice is getting an appointment and getting in front of that person.
I have been supplying IT equipment and services to schools for over 15 years and have seen them go from having just a few computers in an IT suite to more than most businesses. A regular primary school in London will have an IT suite, teacher laptops, pupil laptops, interactive whiteboards, iPads and a wave of technology to make it all work. This means that an average school when upgrading could easily spend £70,000 in a year if they
Ben Parker, Parkertron
perform a full upgrade. And once you have the perfect solution and understand how to sell it effectively, you will fi nd that your product fl ies off the shelf, as word of mouth from school to school sells your product for you. In my
fi rst year of selling services to schools, I went from fi ve schools to 30 without having to do anything other than meet with the ICT coordinator and head to sign my contract. Back up your product at all times with training and after sales service, but don’t try and set up a box shifting business. If you’re a specialised fi rm with a unique product, take it to an education show, such as BETT, and get in front of as many local authority advisors as possible.
Ben Parker is director at IT solutions provider Parkertron.
www.parkertron.com
www.pcr-online.biz
PCR August 2014 | 21
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