Case study: Scottish Government -eProcurement Scotland team

Scottish Government http://www.eprocurementscotland.com

eProcurement Scotland's team facilitates the catalyst for technological change in how public procurement is managed and practiced across public sector organisations. The services is the only one of its kind in the UK and Europe and provides a fully hosted and managed purchase to pay shared service.

Its success is based on the team having a cross-cutting range of expertise including service development and support, ICT management, customer relationship management, eProcurement implementation and procurement support, provided by 30 staff in total. The team is fully funded and managed by the Scottish Government."

2007 saw a five-fold increase in spending through the ePS system. The total value of transactions was £1.7 billion in 2007, five times the previous year's total of £321 million. In the first six months of 2008, a comparison against the same period last year, has shown a 31% rise in the number of orders placed and a staggering 93% rise in the value of spend and to date has reached over 50% of all public sector procurement, which is worth around £8 billion per year. The number of public sector organisations now signed to use ePS is over 92 and steadily increasing.

Last year more than 23 new organisations committed to using the service and a further 12 have coming onboard this year. No other eProcurement service in the world has attained this level of success. A recent example of how the team, and the service it provides, has delivered real hard cash benefits is through a collaborative IT hardware eAuction. This first demonstration of collaboration at a national level harnessed the combined purchasing power of the Scottish Public Sector. Central Government, Local Authority and Further and Higher Education organisations took part in the eAuction for PCs, TFT monitors and laptops. This auction, using the ePS service eSourcing technology, was a real success giving savings averaging 26% against an earlier auction held in February 2007.

This is an example of how the team support procurement professionals through the provision of tools and, where required, advice and training on use of the tools. To date over 11.2 million orders have been placed through the service. Each order placed electronically generates substantial and sustainable time, process and cost savings across the public sector. The ePS team, through its expertise in benefits tracking and process efficiencies, have worked with public sector organisations to automate transactional processes and purchase payments to deliver over millions of pounds of savings to the Scottish public sector. These savings are redirected to frontline services."

The success of ePS team has been recognised and praised both in the media and by the Cabinet Secretary John Swinney who said "eProcurement Scotland delivers cost savings and the efficient use of resources. It saves businesses time and money by providing an easy route into public sector procurement. Small to medium sized enterprises benefit from being paid a lot more quickly. The speed from order to delivery has improved, so there is no reason why the public sector should not get online and start making the business of doing business easier"

Tony Newjem, Director of Procurement at Heriot-Watt University recognised that there recent implementation had been a very challenging project and praised the tremendous efforts and professionalism of all involved in successfully completing the project activities. " I'm sure this system will quickly become a relied on and vital resource for the end users. For procurement, its ease of use and ongoing functional enhancements will help us achieve our goals of efficiency and effectiveness throughout the P2P process.

Andrew Watson, spokesman for FSB Scotland, said: "As eProcurement Scotland goes from strength to strength it is transforming the way the public sector procures goods and services in Scotland. More and more buyers and suppliers are signing up and more contracts are being agreed

Regular contact is made with suppliers through liaison with FSB Scotland and CBI. ePS regular attend meet the buyer events and supplier roadshows and have developed information of eTenders and eAuctions specifically for suppliers. Robert Wiseman & Sons Ltd were involved with the development of a training DVD and usability study of the ePS website. Accountancy in Bankruptcy (AiB) carried out a series of events with potential contractors where a member of staff attended to explain the benefits of eSourcing.

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Background: e-Government National Awards
The e-Government National Awards 2008 recognise "best of the best" strategies, achievements, teams and individuals in UK public sector web, ICT & e-Government services. The Awards were presented 20th January 2009 in the City of London Guildhall by Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson MP, and Government CIO John Suffolk. Prime Minister the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP joined the awards dinner via video link. Watch the Prime Minister's speech on YouTube at this link

The Awards winners are listed at this link

Platinum sponsor was KPMG.
Also sponsors were O2, Directgov, and Jadu.

The Awards were supported by the Government Chief Information Officer (Cabinet Office), the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers).