Flexible Procurement Service gives valuable support to University of Strathclyde

University of Strathclyde became associate members of Scotland Excel in October 2019. Since that time, they have successfully used many of our frameworks, including road maintenance, furniture, fire safety, water coolers and trades contracts. They have also benefited from attending conferences, events and training courses.

Overview:

The university first used our Flexible Procurement Service in mid 2021 to support their estates team on a series of tenders related to repair and maintenance using Scotland Excel’s agency model.

The agency model allows our members to purchase procurement time weekly, over a period of time that suits them.

Our Flexible Procurement Team determined the best resource to deliver the requested work. The team always operate as our members would, abiding by their standing orders, and using their templates. They essentially become extra members of the client’s team.

The university then returned to us for further procurement support in late 2021. The new piece of work was specifically driven by external funding that had to be spent or committed before the end of the financial year - 31 March 2022.

To achieve this, there were a series of tenders that needed to be developed, actioned and awarded in a tight timeline. By partnering with Scotland Excel, the university gained a focused resource, to help them make that happen.

What we did:

We began work in December 2021 for the university’s National Manufacturing Institute (NMIS) and Power Network Distribution Centre (PNDC), research and development facilities - which resulted in our involvement in six tendering exercises.

Three were developed by Scotland Excel entirely, from strategy including analysis on the best route to market all the way through to award. The other three were at different points of the tender flow, and so we took on and completed various tasks for each including evaluation, managing questions, and award.

We worked closely with the university’s procurement team, and also with the technical experts within the research and development facilities, at each stage of the tender process. This ensured each project progressed in line with the agreed timescales.

The tenders conducted for the university supported the procurement of two industrial robots, a cavity ringdown measurement system, electric vehicle data logging system and electric vehicle charge point management software.

Our procurement expert became an extension of the university’s own team and, as a result, we were able to pick up several tenders that were mid-project and ensure continuity. This was all done virtually, without incurring any travel costs for the university.

Outcome:

Becoming part of the university’s procurement team was crucial to the success of the projects, with the tenders all delivered compliantly to ensure that external funding was invested as planned within the short timescale.

The university’s procurement team was therefore able to carry on with its busy programme of planned work, while taking advantage of the available funding to pay for Scotland Excel’s services.

And thanks to the external funding being invested within the timescale, the research and development facilities with the NMIS and PNDC gained several pieces of innovative equipment to benefit the university and its students.

Testimonial:

Fiona Hughes, Deputy Director of Finance, Procurement at the university, said: “The Flexible Procurement Service has been an invaluable resource in the successful delivery of our Procurement workload on two separate occasions.

“The dedicated resource was able to quickly familiarise themselves with University processes and documentation. They were then able to work with technical clients independently to deliver compliant contracts in the ambitious timelines needed.

“Shared areas were created by the Flexible Procurement Service to ensure all documentation and tender packs were held in a shared area for collective review. This made working remotely with the individual seamless and ensured the University always had access to the documentation being worked on.

“The University would have no hesitation about making use of the service again to support the delivery of our workload at high demand periods.”