By
4th May 2016

Over the last few weeks I’ve been meeting with suppliers and conducting review meetings of the Corporate Software Framework.These meetings are a really effective way of building up relationships with your suppliers as well as;

  • Finding out whether the framework is working as effectively as it should be
  • Developments within the market place
  • Ensuring that members receive the best service from both from supplier and the framework Highlights any areas of improvement or in some cases cause for concern
  • It is also an opportunity for members to feedback to the suppliers any compliments, issues that have arisen and any concerns they have too and vice versa.

CPC thought you may want us to share the outcome of the meetings with you.

Member feedback

We had received several queries in relation to the implementation of one of the suppliers on the framework. This was raised with us at the time and we did discuss with the supplier what had gone wrong at the time. The issues surrounding the implementation process was basically down to the fact that the supplier had grown quite quickly over a short period of time and didn’t have the back office staff to ensure that the project ran smoothly. The supplier has worked hard with the institutions in question to resolve the situation and has now established a good working relationship. At the review meeting we re-visited this query as I wanted to ensure that they had put a strategy in place to ensure that projects this supplier undertakes are implemented and delivered on time as well as to budget. The supplier has looked at its business as a whole and put a strategy in place surrounding bidding. They will now only respond to bids where they have the appropriate resource in place to deliver the project. Likewise, if they receive a bid and the timescales of the project are not realistic and allow them time to test the software appropriately, they won’t bid either. Their main aim is ensuring that the customer is happy even if that unfortunately means not applying for bids.

Members have also raised questions in relation to the Terms and Conditions that some of the suppliers have been trying to adopt their own. Again, this was addressed at the time and re-visited within the review meetings and whilst some suppliers have slightly different terms and conditions to The CPC’s usual T&C's it was stipulated to the suppliers that the T&C’s agreed to at the beginning of the framework will be adopted by members unless members agree otherwise.

Supplier feedback

The feedback we received from suppliers was very positive. Suppliers sometimes felt however that timescales in which they had to respond to RFQ’s were a bit short. Although most are able to respond some are concerned that they may get a surge of RFQ’s and don’t have the resource to respond. Members should bear this in mind as not giving enough time for suppliers to respond you ultimately mean your project is delayed.

Suppliers who haven’t been successful in RFQ’s don’t always get effective feedback from members. I know you are really busy and that sometimes it is really difficult to give effective feedback especially when scores are close, but this really does help suppliers and highlight areas where they need to improve upon.

Information that I fed back to the suppliers is that the framework is due to expire in August, however feedback from members is that the market place has moved on from when we first launched it and that it possibly doesn’t meet all our member’s needs e.g. members have suggested that they would like to see areas such as

  • Asset Management – Parago software (common in Academies)
  • Library Management
  • E.Tendering Systems
  • Finance systems such as sage and interga
  • Visitor Management Software
  • Student Record System

With this in mind we will be looking at re-tendering the Corporate Software Framework and even going as far to have a separate framework for Academy members.

Other areas that I’m looking at as to whether include are;-

  • Enterprise Resource Planning Software Solutions
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Solutions
  • Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Software Solutions
  • Data Management and Reporting Systems
  • Mobile Application Solutions

f you would like to be involved in the tender working party for the new Corporate Software Framework please get in touch at [email protected] or alternatively my telephone number is 0161 974 0955.

Spend on the framework Aug 15 - Jan 16

Suppliers Lot 1 Financial Management Software Lot 2 HR Management Software Lot 3 Payroll Software Lot 4 Learner Management Software Lot 5 One Stop Shop Total
Supplier 1 £60,593.74 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £60,593.74
Supplier 2 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Supplier 3 £0.00 £0.00 £121,419.25 £0.00 £121,419.25
Supplier 4 £0.00 £0.00 £176,390.89 £0.00 £176,390.89
Supplier 5 £0.00 £324,057.00 £0.00 £0.00 £324,057.00
Supplier 6 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Supplier 7 £0.00 £0.00 £81,916.40 £0.00 £81,916.40
Supplier 8 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Supplier 9 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Supplier 10 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
Total £60,593.74 £324,057.00 £0.00 £379,726.54 £764,377.28

Please note lot 2 value is split with lot 3 as it is one system as members generally require if for their HR systems.

Spend for corporate software contract : 01/08/2014 to 31/07/2015

Supplier Spend (ex VAT)
Supplier 1 £822,466.97
Supplier 5 £377,000.34
Supplier 2 £341,296.00
Supplier 6 £118,048.00
Supplier 3 £0.00
Supplier 4 £0.00
Supplier 7 £0.00
Supplier 8 £0.00
Supplier 9 £0.00
Supplier 10 £0.00
Total £1,658,811.31

If you think there are any areas that I haven’t covered within the reviews meetings please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or on 0161 974 0955.Likewise, if you have been working with a suppliers who has done a brilliant job, whether it’s a smooth implementation and delivery of a project, efficiency savings or how easy the framework was to use we would like to hear about it. We always appreciate positive feedback.