MEMBERNEWS IN BRIEF


Ton up for Efficiency East Midlands initiative


University of Derby offers free bus service


The University of Derby has made its Unibus service completely free for students and staff. The university has invested


more than £300,000 to improve the Unibus waiting times, increase capacity and eliminate the cost of travelling to university by bus. As part of the improved


service, a new shuttle bus to connect the city’s eight halls of residence has been launched. James Brown, Transport and


Travel Manager at the University, said: “Last year, more than 470,000 trips were made on our Unibus service, so the move to make it a free service with additional routes represents a significant investment from the University and we are looking forward to seeing how these improvements are received.”


Primary is the first to hire out Ferrari land


Primary has become the first agency to exclusively hire out Ferrari land on behalf of a corporate client, part of its European Consulting Conference for Siemens PLM Software. Market Harborough-based


Primary hosted the Converge European Consulting Conference 2017 for the German electronics giant in PortAventura, Salou, with 1,100 employees from three service areas of the business attending the three-day event. Primary was responsible,


among other things, for the creation and implementation of an online registration site, event app, all event branding across the site, as well as the bespoke custom design-and-build of a 12-metre LED screen. Managing Director Dan


Stevens said: “Working on a European conference of this size, managing the event production and logistics and playing an instrumental role in content creation is quite incredible, given the project was delivered by a team of just five people.” Christian Wilmshoefer, VP


Digital Enterprise Services Germany, added: “It’s a pleasure to work with Primary and we had confidence everything would work from a technical and logistical perspective. It was an outstanding performance.”


8 business network October 2017 Alpha to help restore park life


Metal railings and gates specialists, Alpha Rail, has been appointed to help restore one of the most loved parks in Nottinghamshire. Located by University Boulevard,


next to the University of Nottingham, Highfields Park is a Grade II* listed park currently undergoing major redevelopment work to remove silt from the boating lake, and restore and improve historic infrastructure.


The £4.8m project has been


funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Big Lottery Fund’s Parks for People programme and Nottingham City Council. Alpha Rail Sales Director, Phil


Ball, said: “Highfields Park is an iconic park space that is enjoyed by groups of people from all age ranges. Alpha Rail is a keen supporter of any campaign that


supports the regeneration of the UK’s green spaces. I am very happy that Heritage Lottery Funding is helping work to be completed that will benefit the local community.” In 2014, Alpha Rail was involved


in the £5.3m project to restore the famous Goose Fair site on Forest Recreation Ground, and has carried out works for the same contractor and Nottingham City Council.


Established in 2010 as part of the Homes and Communities Procurement Efficiency Initiative (PEI), Efficiency East Midlands (EEM) has secured its 100th member. EEM is a procurement consortia owned by its members, which include housing associations and local authorities, securing cost and qualities efficiencies through collaborative and aggregated procurement.


‘We have listened to feedback from the members and developed a transparent, efficient solution that works for the membership’


It now supports 85 housing providers, four NHS


trusts, three police districts, four universities, an academy trust – consisting of 26 academies – and three like-minded procurement consortiums. While EEM’s core area is the East Midlands, the


South and Wales areas are covered by partnering with Westworks, Advantage South West and South East Consortia. More enquiries are being received nationally due to


EEM’s efficient model, which has been designed to support the public sector obtain the best value from a free membership. The increase in membership has resulted in the


contracts projected throughout for 2017/18 to exceed £100m – a 70% increase on 2016/17.


Phil Ball (left) with the restoration team


Pete Smith Pete Smith, Chief Executive at EEM, said: “I am so


proud of what the whole team has achieved over the past seven years. We have listened to feedback from the members and developed a transparent, efficient solution that works for the membership. Reaching 100 members, 100 new call off contracts and £100m throughout this year so far are all massive milestones for EEM.”


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