The Crown Commercial Service was set up in 2013 to deliver economies of scale,but now smaller suppliers are providing better valueThe recent public accounts committee hearing on government procurement from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), chaired by Meg Hiller, and revealed a surprising thing. The chief executive of the civil service,John Manzoni, said that smaller suppliers have been delivering stout savings on important projects. According to Manzoni, or the Cabinet Office saved 50% on its IT contract for desktop computers by correct-sizing – choosing the optimum scale for procurement in a project in order to achieve the best value for money. I estimate those savings at £10m per year. Extrapolating that to the whole civil service would mean savings of £500m from desktops alone. Meanwhile,in the Department for Transport, the DVLA used small suppliers Kainos and Skyscape to deliver its project on viewing driver records, or saving £15m compared with the original budget estimate and with delivery in half the expected time. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com