Industry news

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been called a failure in the latest report from the committee, after only 2 per cent of items where purchased through the procurement hub.

The hub, which is used by 43 police forces across the UK, was targeted to deliver 80 per cent of procurement services for UK police forces by 2015.

The committee also criticised the lack of data being delivered by police forces regarding their procurement spend. The quality of data is seen as vital to the Home Office’s efforts to develop savings and increased efficiencies.

PAC chairman, Margaret Hodge, said:” “National contracts with suppliers are not used by enough forces and do not cover many basic goods and services. Forces’ use of the new, online police procurement ‘hub’ is also woefully below the Home Office’s expectations. By 2013, a miniscule two percent of items were being bought through this central hub, against a target of 80 percent by the end of this parliament.”

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The states of Jersey have awarded Wax Digital a contract to implement procurement software within the public sector.

The contract will see Wax Digital supply its web3 Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) procurement software solution, which is designed to enable more efficient purchasing and improved supplier management and also provide increased visibility of public expenditure.

Wax Digital web3 will be used by up to 2,000 of the States of Jersey’s employees to improve purchasing across all ten of the States’ departments including Education, Health, Social Services and Home Affairs.

The software is to be integrated with the States’ existing accounting software to facilitate the payment of over 3,500 invoices a week.

Director of Strategic Procurement, States of Jersey, Caroline Hastings, commented: “We are very excited about working with Wax Digital to make further improvements to our procurement system. This is a major project for the States of Jersey and the ease-of-use of web3 was a key factor in us choosing Wax Digital as it will mean that people using the system will be able to make purchasing efficiencies from the outset.

Many of the people who will be using the new software have already been involved in a number of workshops led by Wax Digital to ensure all our requirements are met.”

Business development director, Wax Digital, Daniel Ball, added: “We are absolutely delighted that we will be working with the States of Jersey to help them achieve further efficiencies and savings using web3. The software offers complete transparency throughout the purchase-to-pay process and will integrate with its existing software systems.”

Public and private sector outsourcing challenges

Smart meter manufacturer Landis+Gyr have been awarded a £600 million contract by British Gas to provide smart meters to the energy giant.

The contract comes as British Gas moves to install smart meters in 16 million homes as energy giants update monitoring infrastructure throughout the UK.

The contract with Landis+Gyr is expected to improve the speed of the smart meter rollout while reducing costs.

The smart meter rollout, which is being pushed by the government, is set to place energy smart meters in all homes and businesses across the UK by 2020.

British Gas has already started to install smart meters, with one million having been already installed in sites across the UK.

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The sale of Lloyds Banking Group has begun, with 6 per cent of the bank being sold to investors as the government places shares for sale on the market.

The sale comes nearly five years after the government carried out a multi-billion bailout of the failing bank, with shares selling at 77.36p at the close of Monday markets.

Chief executive of Lloyds, Mr Horta-Osorio, said: “I am pleased that the Government has been able to begin the process of selling its stake, and giving taxpayers the opportunity to get their money back. I believe this reflects the hard work undertaken over the last two years to make Lloyds a safe and profitable bank that is focused on supporting the UK economy.”

Treasury spokesman said: “We want to get the best value for the taxpayer, maximise support for the economy and restore the banks to private ownership. The Government will only conclude a sale if these objectives are met”.

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Outsourcing firm Genpact has partnered with global financial information services company Markit, in order to reduced illegal activities, including money laundering from the development of screening checks.

The partnership will see the creation of the first centralised service for end-to-end management of client skills and knowledge.

The service is expected to enable the industry to streamline operations, reduce costs and enhance compliance through better data management and quality.

HSBC and Morgan Stanley are the first banks to work exclusively with Markit and Genpact on the initial scope and design of the service.

David Burnett, chief operating officer, HSBC Global Banking and Markets, said, “We are pleased to be involved in the design of this service. An industry solution for client onboarding and KYC has the potential to deliver benefits to our clients and help drive higher standards, consistency and best practice.”

Global consultants Avasant have moved to acquire Sourcingboard, a leading sourcing advisory provider.

The acquisition comes as Avasant moves forward with its expansionist policy, having recently completed a series of purchases in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, and doubling its size over the last two years.

Avasant Global CEO, Kevin S. Parikh, said: “the acquisition of Sourcingboard was designed to support a marked increase in both client demand and our global expansion of the firm’s consulting offerings.”

Sourcingboard’s CEO Warren Gallant, said: “Avasant is an excellent firm with a clear strategy to provide global management consulting services. Sourcingboard is proud to join this fastgrowing and exciting team."

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Public sector suppliers have expressed fears over the UK government’s move to privatise procurement services.

The running of the Defence Equipment & Support agency (DE&S), which delivers procurement services for the Ministry of Defence, has been offered up to the private sector.

U.S. groups Bechtel and CH2M Hill have emerged as the leading bidders for the management service, with other firms bidding for the contract including Serco and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A major supplier to the MoD has reportedly raised concerns surrounding the privatisation of procurement services according to the Independent. The issues surrounded the ability of private procurement organisations to effectively negotiate with suppliers, when security details of the service could potentially be revealed, damaging both the stock position of the defence supplier and the security of UK defence capabilities.

The move to include the private sector in defence procurement agencies was promoted by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, as a way to create greater cost savings, in keeping with the need to reduce public sector spending.

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The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has claimed that the Cabinet Office is set to outsource a range of department services to France based Steria.

Steria which provides outsourced IT services will provide services including IT, HR and finance, according to union.

Steria has previously been named preferred bidder as a private sector partner for the ISSC2 (Independent Shared Service 2) joint venture, which seeks to consolidate back office services.

The reported move to outsource department services would come as the government seeks to reduce costs and create efficiencies under the Civil Service Reform Plan.

Cabinet Office plan for new procurement service

Prime Minister David Cameron has admitted that there are a shortage of contract management skills within the civil service.

The acknowledgement came during a House of Commons Liaison Select Committee, with questions relating to recent outsource contract failures including the West Coast Mainline, in which civil servants failed to correctly manage the procurement process. The tendering process failure resulted in the expensive scrapping of the process and a £50 million bill to taxpayers.

Mr Cameron said: “I think there are skills shortages in the civil service that have to be addressed,” adding, “There are examples of good contracting and bad contracting,”. “I think the more general point is that the civil service needs to have more expertise across the piece on this.”

West Coast Rail Line procurement failure caused by ‘major’ public service failures

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Data management firm QStar Technologies and media asset management provider Square Box Systems, have joined up to deliver a joint software platform to deliver file archive services.

The new product, CatDV, will provide date protection and management services, alongside metadata functionality and multi-site storage.

The delivery of the archive platform comes as analytic services uptake increases within cloud platforms as consumers seeks to optimise services.

CSC moves to extend data analytics capabilities with start-up acquisition