Improve interactions with your suppliers

Getting best value from your non-pay spend with private and third sector suppliers of goods and services is essential if authorities are to manage the complex balance of reducing budgets and increasing demand.  

We will support you to target how you can drive greater value from your non-pay expenditure whilst ensuring services are sustainable.

We believe that engaging the market effectively is at the heart of successful procurement:

• Reduce the cost associated with procurement exercise by clarifying the objectives and priorities of the procurement early in the process;
• Reduce the time it takes to undertake the procurement by ensuring the most appropriate route to market is selected;
• Deliver better value contracts by engaging the market and understanding its capabilities.

Rita Stebbings, East Sussex County Council

We support authorities to:

• Analyse non-pay spend: members of BDO‟s Local Government team have carried out spend analyses for over 75 authorities, to give them a clear picture of what they are buying and with which suppliers using sophisticated data analytical tools. For example we have recently conducted an in-depth spend analysis for Hull City Council;
• Carry out effective procurement exercises: we support authorities through the procurement process (be it competitive dialogue or other), working with the Council’s team to deliver a swift and successful tendering of your goods and services. Our experts work with the Council to deliver the project successfully, providing support and guidance where needed, leading negotiations where required, and transferring our skills and experience to your staff. For example we have recently helped East Sussex County Council procure a new Facilities Management partner using competitive dialogue;
• Take cash out of budgets: identifying savings is important but your budgets won’t be reduced unless these savings are delivered. Our team is adept at making change happen, be that by renegotiating contracts or by redesigning processes.

We are also experienced in hard and soft market testing to feed into options appraisals or feasibility studies.  We can work with you to prepare business cases too.  Finally, we understand the importance of having the right skills, resources and structure to deliver services.

If you would like to hear more about how BDO can enable you to improve interactions with your suppliers please contact our lead on Supplier Interactions Olivia Crill on 020 7893 2216 or her mobile 07964 777 066.  Olivia can be emailed at olivia.crill@bdo.co.uk