‘Share the costs'
Joint Procurement Manager Service

Working collaboratively with other councils brings real benefits:

• undertaking a shared supplier/spend analysis
• developing shared contracts
• benefiting from significant rationalisation and cost reduction.

However those councils that have already embarked on this have found that it demands a significant investment of time and effort and needs experienced and skilled people to make it work and generate the benefits. You may not have these resources available at present.

Even making the changes in your own organisation, implementing new purchase-to-pay systems, purchase cards and other electronic procurement tools may be stretching your existing capacity and creating new full-time posts might be out of the question.

One solution might be to come together as a group of councils and share the costs of appointing a skilled procurement and e-procurement consultant who would act as a part-time procurement manager for each council according to their need. This model has been successful for a number of regional groups, including the Essex Procurement Agency (which we helped to create) where it has been formalised.

The cost of this ‘interim manager' would be no more than a few thousand for each council, based on size and spend of each organisation, but look at what it would bring you:

• The skills of an experienced procurement and e-procurement manager, supported by a nationally recognised team of experts
• Establishment of a regional or sub-regional procurement strategy, developing joint contacts and supplier agreements with tailored involvement for each council
• An agreed number of days dedicated to working on-site with each authority to improve local procurement performance and bring in e-procurement.
• A clear and well-structured programme of work which would deliver substantive savings to each participating organisation.

Imaginist also has a track record in development of best practice guidance and case studies, standardised documentation, tenders and communication materials. As a group focuses on working together, it is often this work and these materials which form the basis for collaboration. We can provide independent advice and support for any larger contracts, selection of new systems etc for the group as required.

As with all our services, we would only undertake the shared procurement manager role if we believed from an initial analysis that the cost-benefit ratio is sufficient to justify your investment.

If you would like to discuss the 'Share the Costs' service, please contact us