Guidance

Crown Commercial Service customer update: March 2016

Published 23 March 2016

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/crown-commercial-service-customer-update-march-2016/crown-commercial-service-customer-update-march-2016

1. Overview

The monthly customer update from the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) provides government and public sector buyers with the latest information about developments in procurement policy and commercial reform, the range of CCS agreements available, new commercial agreements being developed and training opportunities and events.

2. The Crown Commercial Service is a winner at the GO Awards 2016

The CCS Facilities Management team has won ‘Procurement Team of the Year’ at the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards. The team’s innovative approach has achieved savings of up to 23% through better buying, aggregation of requirements and standardisation of specifications. This is expected to lead to savings in excess of £500 million over the life of the agreement – a substantial increase on the initially anticipated £200 million saving. Find out more about why the team won

3. Civil Service Live

We will be attending Civil Service Live events throughout June and July to deliver a series of workshops on commercial as a profession. The events enable civil servants and organisations to share best practice and innovation across government.
The programme of events and locations are: Thursday 16 June - SECC, Glasgow; Wednesday 22 June - City Hall, Sheffield; Wednesday 29 June - Ricoh Arena, Coventry; Tuesday 5 July - Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff; Tuesday 12 and 13 July - Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London.

Delegate registration opens in April and there are a range of opportunities for suppliers to get involved now. Take a look at the opportunities to get involved.

4. Upcoming Events

4.1 THINK Cloud for Local Government

Will Laing, our Senior Relationship Manager for Local Government will be speaking on ‘Where next for SMEs and the Cloud Market’ and we will be available throughout the day to answer your questions and explain more about G-Cloud and Digital Outcomes and Specialists at the THINK Cloud for Local Government conference in Manchester on 14 April.

4.2 Procurex Live 2016

At Procurex South Live 2016 in London on 20 April our Chief Executive, Malcolm Harrison, will be presenting on integrated public sector procurement and we will be available in the pavilion, at the centre of the exhibition, to answer your questions. We will also be exhibiting at Procurex Ireland Live in Dublin on 27 April.

4.3 FPS Expo 2016

We will be attending FPS Expo 2016 at the Liverpool Exhibition Centre on the 20-21 April 2016. The event forms part of our early market engagement ahead of the development of a new liquid fuels framework and we would love to see you there - you can find us on stand 112A. Also don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join us on Linkedin to make sure you are the first to hear about future engagement opportunities.

4.4 Contingent Labour Replacement - Customer Engagement Events

We have two events coming up for customers across the public sector to meet with us and provide feedback on our new draft strategy for Contingent Labour. These have been arranged in London on 8 April 2016 and in Liverpool on 15 April 2016. If you wish to attend one of these sessions please email contingentlabourone@crowncommercial.gov.uk providing details of attendees and your preferred date. Responses should be received by 12 noon on 1 April 2016 .

5. CCS on social media

We share regular news and updates throughout the month on Twitter and LinkedIn so if you are not already following us why not take a minute to do so now. You can follow us on Twitter and connect with us on LinkedIn

6. Prompt payment code signatories

21 of government’s 33 “strategic suppliers” have now signed up to the Prompt Payment Code which promises to pay suppliers, including small businesses in their supply chain, promptly and fairly. View the list of signatories

7. Latest Mystery Shopper results

The Mystery Shopper scheme allows suppliers to report tenders they did not understand or instances of what they believe to be poor procurement practice. We use this information to help procurers across the public sector ensure they are transparent and open. The scheme publishes the results of investigations monthly. View the latest Mystery Shopper results to see how the scheme is helping to improve procurement practices.

8. G-Cloud webinar

We run regular webinars for customers interested in learning more about G-Cloud, the Digital Marketplace and the buying process.

The next webinar will be on 13 April at 10.30 am. The session will last about one hour and include a presentation and Q&A session.

It may be of interest to you if you are looking to buy commodity based, pay-as-you-go cloud services. Please email cloud_digital@crowncommercial.gov.uk to book a place.

9. New agreements

The following new agreement is now available for customers to use:

Merchant Acquirer Services (RM3702) and Processing of Re-useable CE Marked Barrier Theatre Textiles (RM3772) have recently awarded and will go live shortly.

Digital Outcomes and Specialists (RM1043iii) also awarded in early March and will be available for buyers from mid-April. Find out more on the Digital Marketplace blog

As well as being able to view full details of all live agreements in the find an agreement directory you can also download a summary list of all the available CCS agreements. This list is updated regularly so you will always have access to the latest information. Stop press: We are currently working on a further update and hope to have this live by the end of March.

10. Agreements expiring shortly

11. Agreement extensions

12. Expired agreements

  • Insurance Services (RM958) expired on 25 February. It has been replaced by a new Insurance Services agreement (RM3731) which is now live.

  • Merchant Acquirer Service (PS/09/93) expired on 8 March. It has been replaced by a new Merchant Acquiring Services agreement (RM3702), which will be going live shortly.

  • Information Management and Learning Services (RM1500) expired on 22 March. Customers requiring these types of services should now use G-Cloud 7 (RM1557vii)

13. Contract notices

You can view details of all ongoing or planned procurements on our procurement pipeline

14. Procurement policy notes

Looking for a particular procurement policy note? View the collection of all procurement policy notes

15. Sign up for email alerts

You can sign up for immediate, daily or weekly email alerts which will tell you what we have added or updated on the GOV.UK website. It is a great way to stay up to date with the latest news and information from CCS. Sign up for email alerts and provide your email address and select the frequency you wish to receive updates.

eSourcing log on

eMarketplace log on

If you use these tools frequently why not save them to your favourites for easy access? Not yet registered? Find out how to register:

If you need further information about anything in this update please do not hesitate to contact us by email info@crowncommercial.gov.uk or call our helpdesk on 0345 410 2222 You can also follow us on Twitter and connect with us on LinkedIn

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