CCS update: July 2016
Published 28 July 2016
1. CCS annual report and accounts 2015/16
We have published our Annual Report and Accounts for 2015/16.
We’re pleased to report that we delivered £521 million of commercial benefits and savings for our customers, exceeding our target of £380 million in 2015/16; and plan to deliver £2 billion worth of customer savings by 2020. Highlights for the year include:
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£12.8 billion of public sector procurement spend was channelled through our central deals. This included £6.8 billion of central government spend and £6 billion of wider public sector spend
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£282 million of commercial benefits and savings were achieved for government departments
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£138 million of commercial benefits and savings were achieved for the wider public sector (excluding NHS)
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£101 million of commercial benefits and savings were achieved for NHS customers
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27.1% of central government spend in 2014/15 reached small businesses: 10.9% directly and 16.2% through the supply chain
Specific examples of the savings we helped our customers achieve include:
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£5 million was saved for 22 police forces on the purchase of 2,800 vehicles – the equivalent of 215 police officers
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£2.2 million was saved for the NHS on their text messaging service – the equivalent of 88 nurses
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£850,000 was saved for the Department of Work and Pensions by extending their records storage contract – the equivalent of 50 benefit case workers
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£750,000 was saved for a group of London borough councils on their postal services – the equivalent of running 4 libraries for a year
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£40,000 was saved for a group of 5 academies on their insurance – the equivalent of 3 teaching assistants.
2. New Minister for the Cabinet Office
The new Minister for the Cabinet Office is Ben Gummer. In this role he has responsibility for public sector efficiency and reform, which includes CCS.
3. New Crown Rep for SMEs
We’re pleased to welcome entrepreneur and author Emma Jones MBE as the new Small Business Crown Representative.
Working with CCS and government departments, Emma will help smaller businesses in the UK bid for and win important government contracts. This supports the government’s manifesto commitment to spend £1 in every £3 with SMEs by 2020.
Find out more about what the Crown Rep does
4. Designing government contracts for the digital age
We’re working with the Government Digital Service and Government Legal Department to change the way our contract documents are written and presented.
Traditionally, contracts are written in complex language and include lots of repetition. We feel that shortening and simplifying the documents will encourage a more diverse range of suppliers applying to supply to government. It will also ensure we can provide buyers with the best possible commercial deals for common goods and services.
We’ve created a multidisciplinary team and will be working together to combine our areas of expertise to create accurate and compliant model contracts written in simpler language.
We’d also like to create a network of people who share our vision and want to work with us to take this initiative forward.
If you’d like to be part of our network please fill in this form.
Read the blog post about how we are working together to design government contracts for the digital age
5. CCS brochures and case studies
We’ve published a series of brochures providing information about the organisation and the range of goods and services available through CCS.
We’ve also launched a collection of case studies online to show how we’re working with SMEs and using our commercial expertise to help our customers make significant savings - we’ll be adding more examples on a regular basis.
6. Procurement policy
6.1 Procurement policy note 07/16: legal requirement to publish on Contracts Finder
This procurement policy note reminds contracting authorities to ensure that procurement opportunities and contract awards above certain low thresholds are published on Contracts Finder. It also provides additional guidance to assist contracting authorities to meet the requirements.
If you are looking for public procurement policy guidance please take a look at our public procurement policy page. Looking for a particular procurement policy note? View the collection of all procurement policy notes
7. Mystery Shopper scheme
The Mystery Shopper scheme allows suppliers to report public sector tenders they did not understand or instances of what they believe to be poor procurement practice.
View the latest Mystery Shopper results to see how the scheme is helping to improve procurement practices across the public sector and support our ambition to make doing business with government as easy as possible for small businesses.
8. Take part in aggregated further competitions
When buying common goods and services, bringing together customers’ needs provides several advantages including savings, more consistent application of best practice through collaboration and a simpler tender process leading to reduced procurement costs for buyers and reduced bidding costs for suppliers.
8.1 Savings success
We recently held an eAuction to manage the hardware procurement for 34 local authorities, who were represented by a contract board. Over 48,000 devices were included in the forecast needs of the group, with a pre-auction value of £24.6 million. Savings of £8.8 million were achieved through the eAuction, showing that this approach can lead to significant commercial benefits for customers.
Our recent competitions for vehicle hire and technology products have also resulted in anticipated price savings of 12% and 36% respectively over the life of the contracts.
8.2 Vehicle telematics
There is still time to sign up and take part in our first national aggregated further competition for vehicle telematics (NFC57).
Vehicle telematics provide live, operational data so fleet managers can monitor things like fuel consumption, vehicle tracking and driver behaviour. The competition will include goods and services within the scope of lot 1 of the Vehicle Telematics (RM3754) agreement.
We expect to finalise customer requirements in August and carry out the further competition during September and October. This means we anticipate you will be able to enter into a contract with the successful supplier during November.
The deadline for submitting your requirements is 9 August. To register your interest in participating or ask any questions please email technologyaggregation@crowncommerical.gov.uk
8.3 Mobile voice and data services
We are currently gathering customer interest before collating requirements for mobile voice and data services (NFC60). Services will include (but not be limited to) voice calls, voice mail, messaging, data and devices and equipment credits.
We expect to award a contract in December 2016. If these timescales meet your needs, please express your interest by emailing technologyaggregation@crowncommercial.gov.uk
If there are other goods or services you are interested in joining a further competition for please let us know by emailing technologyaggregation@crowncommercial.gov.uk
9. Great savings for schools
The Department for Education has created new guidance for schools, outlining how CCS can help them save thousands on energy, ICT, printers and photocopiers.
10. Events
10.1 Insurance services: customer insight days
We’re hosting a series of customer insight days, in collaboration with YPO, ESPO and NEPO, to provide you with knowledge and support on the procurement of insurance services using the Insurance Services framework (RM3731). We’ll also be updating you on all the latest market insight and sharing best practice.
The session will provide you with information on a range of issues including rating trends, issues concerning underwriters and new legislative issues such as the Insurance Act. We’ll also use case studies and sample documentation to demonstrate the benefits of using a framework, as well as show you how to validate a claims experience, prior to tender.
The overall objective of the day is to make sure you leave armed with all the practical advice and information you’ll need to run an effective and successful tender.
Register for your preferred date and venue:
10.2 G-Cloud
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 10 August at 10.30am. The session will last about an 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.
If you cannot make this date, the next sessions are scheduled for 10:30am on:
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14 September
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12 October
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9 November
To register for a webinar email cloud_digital@crowncommercial.gov.uk with your choice of date.
11. New agreements
Corporate Finance Services (RM3719) is now live, giving you access to a wide range of services for the analysis, advice and execution of corporate finance related issues and transactions.
Working with a wide range of stakeholders, the framework has been developed to align with the way the corporate finance industry works. It is split into 7 service options, covering clearly defined areas of corporate finance, and provides access to a broad choice of suppliers to meet the diverse needs of the public sector. Suppliers range from large international investment banks to small specialist boutiques, including 9 SMEs.
The agreement will give you the tools to specify, procure and manage services in a cost effective and efficient manner, helping maximise the value of the corporate finance services you receive.
12. New contract notices
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Traffic Management Technology 2 (RM1089): if you are interested in helping with tender evaluation please email TMT@crowncommercial.gov.uk
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Pan European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) Access Point Services (RM3784)
You can view details of all ongoing or planned procurements on our procurement pipeline.
13. Agreements expiring shortly
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Occupational Health Services and Employee Assistance Programmes (RM932) is due to expire on 3 October. We are currently developing a replacement agreement which is expected to be in place in early 2017. To ensure continuity of service during the development of the new agreement, you may wish to consider your options to extend if you have an existing contract. The latest date your contract can be extended until is 3 October 2017.
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Technology Products (RM1054) is due to expire on 16 November 2016. It is being replaced by Technology Products 2 (RM3733) which is expected to be in place before the current agreement expires.
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Furniture and Associated Services (RM1501) is due to expire on 16 December. We recommend that you consider extending your existing contract and, where appropriate, bring forward any future requirements, as we are currently reviewing our construction strategy and there will be a gap in service provision whilst a new agreement is developed. If you would like to join our customer stakeholder group to help develop the replacement agreement please email property@crowncommercial.gov.uk
14. Agreement extensions
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Local Authority Software Applications (RM1059) has been extended until 3 August 2017.
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Liquid Fuels (RM1013) has been extended until 11 August 2017.
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Enterprise Application Support Services (RM1032) is being extended until 25 August 2017.
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Managed Email (RM1085) has been extended until 28 August 2017.
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Supply and Fit of Tyres (RM955) has been extended until 9 October 2016 to provide continuity of service during the development of the new agreement.
15. Recently expired agreements
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Traffic Management Technology (RM869) expired on 10 July. Traffic Management Technology 2 (RM1089) is being developed and we expect to have the new agreement in place in the autumn.
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Law Costs Draftsman Services (RM1675) expired on 25 June.
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PSN Services (RM1498) expired on 26 June. It has been replaced by Network Services (RM1045)
16. 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
17. 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 by providing your email address and selecting the frequency you wish to receive updates.
18. Quick links
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