Case study

Shared Services Alliance (SSA) for the nuclear decommissioning estate

An alliance of client organisations collaborating in the procurement of shared goods and services from the supply chain.

From:
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Published
1 November 2016
Shared Services Alliance

Shared Services Alliance

Alliance Members

The Alliance is comprised of the following organisations:

In addition to cross-estate procurement on common supply requirements, the SSA Team works to improve interactions with the supply chain.

We work together on achieving value for money for Alliance Members by identifying opportunities to collaborate on common supply requirements.

We continually improve how we work and interact with the supply chain on a portfolio of shared services that help the nuclear decommissioning estate to achieve its objective to be the “nuclear client of choice”.

Since its inception in 2009, the SSA has established over 50 contracts for the Alliance Members to use, covering a wide range of shared supply requirements, including access to routes to market provided by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS).

Alliance Members’ spend through collaborative contracts has grown to £400 million per year, over 20% of the estate’s £1.8 billion annual supply chain spend, saving £286 million so far.

Collaborative Procurement Plan

The Collaborative Procurement Plan is updated on a quarterly basis; therefore, the information contained within the Collaborative Procurement Plan is intended as a guide for forthcoming procurements only, as dates shown may be subject to change.

Current Collaborative Procurement Plan

SSA strategy

The SSA approach is built on 3 strategic themes:

  • collaborate – adopting category management to drive value delivery opportunities from the alliance’s collaborative procurement programme

  • facilitatate – coordinating alliance-wide strategic supply chain management activities and support to government’s growth and enterprise initiatives

  • integrate – delivering improvement projects to simplify and integrate shared processes and systems across the alliance

Collaborate

Cross-alliance collaboration on procurement of goods and services continues to be the cornerstone of the Alliance’s activities. Under its strategy, the SSA Team lead the implementation of category management to deliver best value from the collaborative procurement programme under 6 shared categories.

The six shared categories for the collaborative procurement programme include: People, Corporate, Buildings, Technology, Operations and Nuclear.

The six shared categories for the collaborative procurement programme include: People, Corporate, Buildings, Technology, Operations and Nuclear.

Facilitate

A healthy supply chain is critical to the successful delivery of the nuclear decommissioning mission with strategic management of the supply chain an essential part of being the nuclear client of choice. Under the new strategy, the SSA Team coordinates supplier engagement at a strategic level to improve performance and increase diversity, capacity and capability. We support the UK government’s growth and enterprise initiatives and investigate ways to reduce the cost of supply:

1. Growth and enterprise

  • Estate Action Plan for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
  • increasing apprenticeship opportunities
  • delivering growth from supply chain spend

2. Supplier mobility

  • security access arrangements
  • site induction processes
  • equivalent training recognition
  • access to shared IT systems
  • collaboration tools

3. Supplier assurance

  • alignment of quality standards
  • common cross-alliance application
  • accreditation processes
  • collaborative audits and inspections

Integrate

Feedback has shown that the nuclear decommissioning estate can be too complex and difficult to supply to. Under the new strategy, the SSA will lead improvement projects aimed at simplifying shared procurement processes and systems to respond to these concerns.

1. Process improvements

  • standard selection questionnaire deployment
  • common tender document templates and forms
  • procurement specification standardisation opportunities

2. Systems development

  • spend analytics tool
  • market insights tool
  • common use of e-tendering
  • contract management system
  • value reporting system

3. Contract standardisation

  • model contracts / clauses
  • simplification of terms
  • review of intellectual property / liabilities / damages / insurance
  • contract automation

The SSA Team

At the core of the SSA strategy is a full-time SSA team, consisting of 16 people, who lead shared services procurement and supply management on behalf of the Alliance Members. The SSA team works with a network of people across our client organisations and the supply chain to deliver these 5 strategic objectives:

  • build a high performing SSA Team and Network that delivers quality shared services
  • integrate procurement and supply management best practice across the Alliance
  • collaborate with Government and suppliers to drive value and performance
  • deliver savings from shared services to support nuclear decommissioning
  • ensure the nuclear decommissioning estate becomes ‘the nuclear client of choice’
Published 1 November 2016