1. Derby Chamber of Commerce – Public Procurement Seminar

2. Contact Details
Jane Brailsford– Senior Category Manager- Estates Phone: Alex Lawrence – Assistant Category Specialist – Corporate Services & Technical Phone:
Hello! Thank you for inviting us today.

3. University of Derby - Procurement
Top 30 University
TEF Gold Teaching Excellence
Campuses:
Derby - Kedleston Road, Markeaton Street, Britannia Mill & One Friar Gate Square
Buxton & Leek - Devonshire Dome, Oaklands Manor
Chesterfield
Over 20,000 Students
Annual procurement spend is in the region of £59million
Very proud University at the moment - on the up in a very competitive environment – recently voted as a Top 30 University (Guardian) and have got a TEF Gold award (excellent teaching). Our marketing team – beside themselves – we have these logos printed everywhere!!!
University of Derby has a number of sites with Kedleston Rd being the biggest. It has amazing facilities – sports centre, library, shops and food outlets and is in a great location for the City.
There are other sites within the City including crown court, crime scene (blood), criminology lab and interview rooms
Buxton - specialise in spa management (degree in spa management) – lovely facilities and treatments, hospitality – own fine dining restaurant and events management - running weddings and other functions in the beautiful Devonshire Dome – well worth a look if you’re ever in the area (wellies and a shovel – snows).
Chesterfield - St Helena Centre (nursing & healthcare) – mock hospital ward, simulation suite, computer lab
Derby University offers very hands-on and experience-based courses with some of the best facilities in the UK and students who leave us go on to great things.
So, enough of selling the University – it’s a great place to be though
Over 20k students – go on to great things

4. University of Derby - Procurement
Wide range of goods and services is required – from physiotherapists and ground penetrating radar (!) to cleaning, catering and printing
New developments in Procurement at UoD:
Oracle Cloud
Category Management - the main aim behind category management is to aggregate the internal demand and achieve economies of scale by contracting the best suppliers at the lowest price.  In its best form, it involves an active category manager to roll out category plans, strategic sourcing and supplier management initiatives. IT
Facilities Management
Professional Services
Business Services
Regulatory bodies – EU, UK procurement law & Public Sector – why we do what we do
What about Brexit – currently applying to have GPA status – continue to access European and world-wide trade.
Buy all sorts, from medical supplies to consultancy to ground penetrating radar as well as all of the corporate-type goods and services you would expect.
Currently implementing Oracle Cloud which will replace our existing (not very popular!) finance system and eventually e-Tendering system.
Governed by EU and UK procurement law and working in the public sector means we have to do things in certain ways. Documentation is… comprehensive. Liverpool University has just taken the big step of removing themselves from the Public Sector so others may follow but for us, being part of the public sector, while having to work with sometimes significant amounts of red-tape, offers us protection and ensures what we procure is done in a fair and transparent way.
As a University - different types of reporting requirements to local authorities and the NHS and a big challenge for us at the moment is that, as we are now governed by the Office for Students rather than the Higher Education Funding Council, we now have to measure the success of our procurements by the amount of value they offer to students. Not an easy task!!
Brexit – nobody knows but the way we procure is not likely to change massively. Indications show that we’re likely not to have to have to do standstill periods and there may not be remedies for ineffectiveness.

5. Common misconceptions about tendering

6. Common Misconceptions
Tenders are not suitable for SMEs – too many documents, lengthy processes, requirements are too large – small suppliers can’t resource all of the work
Only interested in large, national companies
Have already got someone in mind for the work - fixed
Lowest price is the most important thing
Tenders can be lengthy processes, documentation can be full-on and requirements can be resource-intensive – but that’s not the only way we buy!
There are plenty of much smaller, easier to manage requirements that we have that SME’s are best placed to deliver, even better if they’re local! As SME’s you have flexibility, a more personal approach and the ability to really tailor your services to the requirements. Quite often you want the work more and bring more commitment and enthusiasm to contracts. These are all really positive attributes to be able to offer.
Sometimes, requirements are split into Lots which break a big contract down into smaller packages, either by geographical location or commodity type which can help give SMEs a chance at bidding for big contracts.
DPS’s good for SMEs too – very straight forward initial selection process.
The University may know of suppliers and there are cases where you get a particular individual favouring an organisation but that’s why we’re here – to ensure that the playing fields are levelled as far as possible and to provide an objective and impartial block to anything underhand – you can imagine how popular we are!!!! But this is the world we work in and the need to be fair, open and transparent governs the way we work (and we encourage others to).
Lowest price really isn’t the most important thing. If we appointed a supplier - really cheap paper, for example, aside from any quality issues there may be with poor print quality, printers jamming/breaking/blowing up… etc., if their service is poor and they deliver when they feel like it rather than we need them to, our overall costs escalate because we perhaps have to go to another supplier who will charge more (sensing the desperation!) together with the time cost of each department across the university having to do the same, resulting phone calls to the procurement department and supplier. So, the lowest price doesn’t usually end up being the lowest cost. This really isn’t in anyone’s best interests so we ensure that the balance of quality and price is carefully considered for each procurement exercise we do. It’s rare that our weightings go below 70% Quality and 30% Price and it’s usually 60%/40%. Depends what you’re buying though – price is more important in some areas than others but for services, quality is usually by far the most important element and we structure our documents and evaluation weightings accordingly.
We are under pressure to make savings, but this isn’t the way to do it – it’s far better to have clear requirements that can be met and ensure quality forms part of the evaluation. The savings we concentrate on are added-value and efficiency savings which we like to work with our suppliers to discuss possible innovations throughout the life of the contract.

7. Opportunities to work with us

8. NEUPC – Delta - https://www.delta-esourcing.com/
Contracts Finder -
OJEU -
We are now using Oracle Cloud although not for eTendering straight away –
– Supplier Zone
£2.3million spend with organisations in the East Midlands which correlates to 1344 purchase orders in the last year.
Derbyshire companies 1,402 purchase orders
133 SMEs in Derbyshire
£165, of which £92, was with sole traders, small, micro or charity organisations
We do use frameworks quite a bit at the moment although this is set to change once category management is fully underway.
While we’re using Oracle cloud from November, we’ll still be using Delta as our eTendering system for some time yet. Once Oracle Cloud is fully up and running, you will be able to sign up for alerts for relevant projects – 3 quotes, tenders – everything. If you want to us, we can let you know when you’re able to sign up. In the meantime, please visit Delta and sign-up (if you haven’t already).
Oracle Cloud - to sign up as a potential supplier.
We are also in the process of updating the procurement pages on our internet site which will have useful information and links under ‘Supplier Zone’.
As a University that is keen to engage and support the communities we work with, we are keen to use local SME’s, micro businesses and sole traders where we can. Use a lot of local sports coaches, therapists, trainers for example etc.

9. What makes a winning tender?

10. HINTS AND TIPS…
First point of call should be the instructions document – and keep referring back to it
Includes key timescales for the project
Gives information about how the evaluation will be undertaken
Provides the weightings of the different elements of the tender (i.e. shows you where to concentrate your efforts)
Read the specification and supporting documents thoroughly – make sure you can meet the requirements, in particular the pass/fail requirements
Don’t change the format of the documents!
Answer the questions that are asked – in full! By missing bits out, marks will be lost
For example if a question asks you to include XXX in your response, make sure you do
Ensure your response is related to the University – don’t just copy and paste
Ask questions if there is anything unclear – before the return date via the system
Upload your response in plenty of time – don’t leave it to the last minute!
Respond in detail to any clarification that is requested
Don’t chase us too soon
All of what I’m about to say sounds ridiculously simple and I apologise now if I’m telling you things you already know but it’s surprising how often these things crop up from our perspective and I thought today was the perfect opportunity to share them with you:
Lots of information to plough through (not always great at being succinct) but all of the detail you need should be in there! Read through and then if there are still questions, get in touch (in the way it asks you to in the documents – i.e. usually via the eTendering portal so there’s an audit trail etc.).
Completing tender documents takes a significant amount of time and energy so if you don’t think you can meet the requirements, ask any questions if you need to but if you don’t think you can fully meet the requirements (especially essential or pass/fail criteria), to be blunt - don’t waste your time.
If you can meet the requirements – great! Complete the documents in the way it asks you to in the instructions. Pet hate - organisations (usually multi-nationals with their own bid-teams – you’d think they’d be great but often, really not!!) add own logos and backgrounds to the tender documents and totally change the look of the documents - distracting. Understand companies want to make sure their bid stands out above the rest but a better way to do this is to put the time in to answer the questions thoroughly – I can’t tell you how happy it makes us procurement people to read a properly completed, relevant and sufficiently detailed tender/quote return. It’s not about providing loads of information either, just being selective so that you really are answering the question that’s been asked in enough detail to ensure the evaluators can fully assess your response.
I’m all for copying and pasting bits of responses from the last tender return you did to save time but please make sure you change the name of the organisation – referring to the University of Durham instead of Derby makes evaluators think you can’t be bothered (and if you can’t be bothered in your response, will you be bothered to service a contract for us….). You can also lose marks for lack of attention to detail or quality of response in some tendering authorities.
Once you’ve submitted your response and the evaluation begins, we may need to ask you for clarification. Please answer the questions thoroughly within the timescales identified (sometimes, it’s the next working day) so we can give you the best chance of getting maximum scores.
I think I probably speak for all the speakers you’ve heard today but following the tender return, evaluation is a lengthy process and then the approvals processes can take some time too so while we know how much work you’ve put into your tender response (and quite rightly want to find out the outcome as soon as possible), please give us a few weeks before you start chasing us.

11. Thank you for your time today