PAE Ops and Systems Meeting 13thJuly 2009 at BasildonMINUTES
ATTENDEES / APOLOGIESChris Lay / Chelmsford BC / PAE Chairman / Robert Stone / Chelmsford
Jarl Jansen
Ann Nagy
Dawn Jolley / Castle Point
Maldon
Epping / Tina Mcdermott
Dominic Warren
Simone Cox / Harlow
Braintree
ECC
Paul Hinsley / ECC / Matthew Petley / Rochford
Diane Morrison / Basildon / Katie Lock / Tendring
Jane Taylor / Tendring / Chris Buckley / EGS
John Hindley / ECFRS / Jackie Martin / Colchester
Adejoke Asemota
Paul Tye
Dave Levy
Mandy Rose / Brentwood BC
ECFRS
Southend
Braintree DC / Matt Howe
HR colleagues:
Maya West - Maldon / Braintree
HR colleagues:
Sandra Bell - Thurrock
2 x Basildon HR colleagues
Paula Maginnis - Epping
Key Points / Action1. / Minutes of the last meeting on 20th March
Benchmarking
Results of the Cambridge benchmarking exercise received – EG to circulate
Equality in terms and conditions for goods and services
This is still outstanding – West Midlands forum to advise
CBC content for Marketplace
EG to remind CB for this content (mainly around social care)
Hub Framework suppliers
EG working through the list of suppliers to set up at EMP – contacting suppliers to find out if they can accept a single marketplace record
Marketplace catalogues
Screwfix – new catalogue due next week
A to Z – reminder that the special offer catalogue will expire at the end of the month
Alexandra’s – catalogue still outstanding – EG to follow up
Bridon – all catalogues now up and running – Tendring happy with the catalogue and service – Southend use Unique Office Solutions (LCSG)
Ballantyne and XMA now the suppliers are self loading due to number of changes required – this is working well
XMA – EG to contact Will at Braintree to assist in turning on XMA catalologue
Equanet/PC World punch out available week commencing 20/7/09
Vodafone – catalogue development on hold as ECC already have the facility and Southend do not have a requirement – Castle Point reviewing. Thurrock reviewing mobile phones – but have mainly T Mobile handsets currently. Chelmsford use O2.
XMA
EG to follow up Jo on the Chelmsford print auto reorder system
EG to assist Will at Braintree to turn on the catalogue
Maldon trialling the remanufactured toner cartridges on two machines
Pest Control
It was agreed that authorities do not have spare capacity in this area – most end up having to subcontract in addition to inhouse service provision.
TNT
It was decided that this would be an agenda item at the next system ops to review service – each authority to update
Insurance
It would be most useful if authorities could provide an update on their insurance arrangements – on the Community of Practice forum or by email to EG – Braintree are commencing a tender exercise and it would be helpful to know current arrangements. Maldon currently out to tender for insurance for their own requirements – and confirmed that Zurich will now tender via a broker . Castle Point have a managed insurance service provided by Basildon.
All other actions have been resolved or are covered in the following minutes: / EG
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2. / Marketplace update:
2.1 EGS Update:
1: EGS did a release early June on account code validation that did cause a few problems to certain organisations, this was released late on Friday and therefore communication was poor on providing administrators with the update information, they have put in place an improved communication to ensure this does not happen again
2: Scanning / OCR managed service went into production weekend 3rd July and Essex CC are the first customer and should be going live on Monday (13th) with a pilot
3: Tendring, Rochford, Braintree, Maldon, Epping and Colchester have renewed for the next 3 years, Basildon have extended for 6 months while they complete some internal business reviews
4: EGS have won a new local authority Nuneaton & Bedford which is Borough Council in the Midlands, they are implementing the P2P with Invoice Matching & Workflow and are an Agresso Financials user, EGS will be interfacing commitment and approved invoices
5: Development of 2.6 is on track and 50% complete development should be completed by end of August
2.2 Supplier Portal
- Ken Dougan has left BiP and John McGhie is now our account manager. There were some complaints about the helpdesk being different personnel and service suffering. CL and EG to get in touch with BiP to get service back on track and remind them about the portal required for Greenfields.
- It was decided that it is time to standardize / integrate the 3 Essex portals (BiP/Proaxsis/Bravo) to make it easier for suppliers to access Essex contracts - EG to facilitate
- Braintree considering trialling the Vault system – EG to provide reference details
- Basildon advised of an issue with old notices still remaining on the system with status N/A – which is confusing for suppliers and has resulted in complaints. EG to take up with BiP
- PAE members are requested to advise us of any other portal issues by the end of July so that we can present all current issues when we meet BiP next
EG has collected the collaborative contract information from PAE members and supplied to EERA for inclusion in their new framework / collaborative contract database. EG currently testing and system should be available by end of the month. Currently only OGC and PAE contracts are listed on the database
2.4 Community of Practice website
EG to email all members of the site to advise how to subscribe to alerts – this might increase usage. All members are encouraged to use the site for sharing information. / CL / EG
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3. / Recruitment Advertising
Chelmsford:
- They use TMP for adhoc recruitment advertising and statutory notices
- They have found that Essex Chronicle rates are more reasonable through TMP than direct
- They have reservations around the suitable of the Capita contract due suitability of the talent pool to district council requirements – and continue to watch ECC Capita progress. However it was confirmed that Capita can be used for temp and/or perm and can be adopted at any time
- Basically they require a contract with an agency at reasonable rates (if rates were proven to be better could perhaps consider going direct to the paper)
- Use Peter Lockyer for recruitment advertising and place statutory notices direct with the papers with 10% discount
- Epping use the TMP contract for recruitment advertising – and use recruitment agencies if the adverts do not work
- They are committed to the benefits of working with the HR Partnership – and benefit greatly from their initiatives. They would like the rebate part of the contract to remain if possible.
- They have been reviewing the Capita contract and might start using it for temps – timescales will not work out for the permanent recruitment.
- Concern regarding the suitability of the talent pool to district requirements
- Would like to know regarding commissioning – who will be responsible for implementation? lead authority will place contract (EG confirmed ECC best placed due to 60% stake in the value of the contract – Hub also could take the role and would share rebate with HR partnership if full tender process selected) then implementation would be a shared approach between HRP/PAE/HUB/ECC as most PAE members will be involved.
- They use the TMP contract for both statutory and recruitment advertising
- Capita contract not considered appropriate
- They need a robust contract in place so that it can be recommended to devolved areas of business
- Small statutory spend – as they go direct to publications and newsquest
- Braintree feels district approach preferable to ECC lead
- Braintree spends £73k on recruitment advertising
- They use the TMP contract for about 50% of their recruitment advertising – the rest is placed on their website.
- They have experienced recent problems with TMP resulting from changing to a new contract manager
- They don’t intend to use Capita
- Choice of provider will come down to cost above all
- They use Tribal for recruitment advertising (£240k) - and have found them to be proactive but would have liked more involvements and recommendations from them during the course of the contract
- Tribal is on London Boroughs contract – SB to provide details
- They go direct to papers for public notices – spend £35k
- Senior level recruitment has been difficult – they have had to run mini tenders
- CL confirmed that it would be best for PAE members to tender this requirement together due to increased negotiating position and reduced duplication
- Due to timescales a full tender process would not be completed in time for the end of the year
- Recommendation is that the ESPO contract is explored and adopted as interim measure – during next year if the ESPO contract is not considered satisfactory the PAE could go out to tender. However Capita take up might also increase during 2010 resulting in less requirement for additional recruitment advertising across members.
- Braintree and Chelmsford to provide priced up TMP advertisements (for recruitment and Public Notice) for benchmarking with Riley and Tribal
- Hold discussions with Riley and Tribal once benchmarking complete – to establish service and capabilities – HUB / PAE / HR partnership and possibly Southend to attend meetings
- Review Tribal London Borough’s contract
4. / PC World / Equanet
Update regarding Equanet’s capabilities, the OGC contract and the marketplace punch out – presented by Peter Durman and Steve Reeves from Equanet:
- Equanet can provide audit services – they particularly recommend a green audit which can result in energy and cost savings
- Authorities can purchase their Dell /HP equipment through PC World – at Dell/HP agreed prices – and PC World can provide added services, such as tagging & setting up
- Next day delivery is standard – but you can also collect from stores if urgently required
- PC World is geared towards retail – whereas Equanet is B2B
- They deal with 2,500 price changes per day and have 60,000 products
- Punch out demo – manufacturer field in the basked was unspecified – Equanet left message with EGS to fix
- Each authority can decide which items they want access to on the punch out
5. / Sustainable Procurement Group
- The PAE Sustainable Procurement Group have started meeting – Robert Stone, Jarl Jansen, Dave Levy and Paul Hinsley – and are working towards producing a shared portal of information on the PAE website – with recommended best practice, tools and case studies
- Dave Levy would welcome feedback from members as to what assistance / information is required
- It was agreed that most Essex authorities are still working towards level 1. PH advised that all authorities are supposed to achieve level 3 by Dec 2009. PH to provide details of a self assessment tool – authorities are requested to advise PH what stage they are at (p7 of the attached sustainable training tool outlines the requirements for each stage)
- Paul Hinsley - ECC Sustainability Manager presentation:
- Additional information to be loaded to the PAE Sustainable procurement page
- PH agreed that the ECC sustainable procurement training CD could be circulated to all members
- The PAE group agreed that the supplier part of the sustainable requirements need a standard joined up approach across Essex. All members to provide information regarding any supplier events, particularly third sector events they have planned. Perhaps a joint event needs to be held to issue a standard message in this area. Discussion around whether sustainable issues could be dealt with through marketplace (considered too finance led) or the portals.
- Discussion around the conflict between the drive towards utilizing national contracts to reduce duplication and the requirements of sustainability. National contracts are not usually concerned with local supplier issues. Conflict also between the savings authorities are tasked to make and the requirements of sustainability which requires resource to implement.
- Recommendation to consult Defra’s quick wins -
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6. / Round the table:
Chelmsford
Just completing the cash collection and tyre services contracts – at Alcatel stage
Tendring
- Stationery update – Chelmsford using Lyreco MOD, Braintree benchmarking new Banner prices, Tendring looking at Lyreco but concerned about off core pricing, Chelmsford confirmed that off core are still cheaper, others confirmed that core items are better quality than Banner core, JT advised to speak with RS for more info. ECFRS reviewing Banner HMRC prices. Southend confirmed that they were with Lyreco for 3 years prior to current Supplies Team and would fully recommend products and service. DL advised that Supplies Team in financial difficulties so Southend are having to look at stationery again. Southend use Winstonmead for paper, Chelmsford uses Banner. Next meeting – agenda item – stationery update
- PAT testing? Epping consulted Constructionline for suppliers
- Contaminated land? Chelmsford did a tender for surveys and will share spec. JT trying to put this requirement through the procurement portal
- Monument cleaning – any requirement / guidance?
- Out to tender for a cash receipting system
- Just completing their cash collection tender
- Looking into playground refurbishment
- Looking into vending machines – JJ advised end of year new OGC contract will be available
- They have switched to XMA for toners
- They are benchmarking Lyreco and Banner – conducting user trials (couple of Lryeco items have not been accepted by user group) – concern as currently use local suppliers for stationery
- Using framework for playground equipment
- Castle Point and Basildon have collaborated on festive lights
- Housing maintenance – looking at London Housing Consortium and suppliers on PAE portal
- RS did equality presentation and Castle Point are looking to adopt the West Midlands Forum Equality Standard
- Moving towards centralization of procurement
- Looking into gym equipment
- Adopting XMA for toners
- Reviewing stationery – dealing with ‘new business’ at Lyreco – Dawn to give customer service contact instead
- Implementing SAP – would like any contacts / info from SAP authorities
- XMA for toners
- Looking into waste – could lead to frameworks
- Insurance – currently on hold
- Security Services – cancelled OJEU – Epping, Chelmsford and ECC interested
- PPE – alcatel period – ready to let to CSS mid August
- Washrooms – clarifications – hope to let July 09
- Civil Engineering Works for Uttlesford – PQQ under evaluation
- Signage – PQQs evaluated – awaiting final specification
- Gas Boilers – PQQs being evaluated
- Electrical rewiring – PQQs being evaluated – awaiting final specification
- Tyres – will look at the Chelmsford contract
- Hire of Commercial Vehicles to 7.5 T has just recently been let
- TNT – experiencing real issues – will discuss with Tendring
- Out to tender for swimming pool, pier head and some new schools
- OJEU out for catering services
- Looking at bailiffs
- Planning a meet the buyer event before Christmas
- Waiting for the cash collection contract to be available
- Looking into stray dogs and out of hours kenneling
- Tendering for insurance services
- Switchboard lease expires end of this year – would welcome any guidance / info
- Happy with Lyreco service
- Trialling XMA remanufactured toner cartridges
- Currently buy paper from Banner – but looking at a local supplier
- TNT – need to report on the service as up for annual review – ECC, Tendring, Epping stayed with Royal Mail
- Recent re-organisation - we welcome Ade to the PAE
- Their cleaning contract is due for renewal next month – RS has provided info – they plan to extend to end of the year
- Their mobile phones with T mobile are off contract – Eping advised of coverage problems they had with T Mobile
- Graffiti removal – Esther at Southend putting out PQQ
- Looking into door security – DL advised to look at OGC facilities contracts for this requirement
- Intran – 5 PAE authorities have signed up for the INTRAN training at ECC over next couple of months
7. / Any Other Business
Essex Procurement Review – revised report due end of July – Eddie Gibson from EERA to present to the board mid September
Spend analysis – Still no analysis has been commissioned for 08/09 spend – SPS advised that authorities have been in touch asking for the service (no one at the meeting has contacted them directly) – SPS can offer £600 per authority if authorities want to deal direct (SPS total PAE quote is £13k). ECC have decided to standardize on Spendtrak/PI – PAE to try to negotiate better terms so that we can obtain PAE wide spend data (which will be required for PAE projects)- ECC to assist with additional negotiation. PAE authorities might need to pay for the spend analysis themselves this year as ECC may not have a budget to cover this requirement. ECFRS have engaged Spikes (national initiative across all fire authorities) so would not have budget for any additional spend analysis with the PAE.
Training – SPS have offered spend analysis and supplier management courses – we agreed to plan a location and date for the supplier course and see how many are interested
Energy – OGC contract for Energy Agency should be in place early next year – JJ and CL involved in the specification – invoice validation part of the service would be the most useful part for smaller authorities. Braintree and Colchester using Smith Bellarby until March 2010 for invoice and tariff checking – should saving 4%. Chelmsford are interested in exploring the flexible energy contract – basket 2 of the OGC contract – if anyone has experience / knowledge please contact Chris Lay / CL / EG
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8. / Future Meetings
Volunteer required to host the September PAE meeting – week commencing 14th September / ALL