AGREEMENTS environment with high running costs – every call made was billed as an external one. BT also no longer had staff that could fix the old equipment, which created a significant risk to the business. It was clear to Gavin Harris, head of ICT at Nottingham Fire and Rescue Services, that they needed to simplify and update their voice infrastructure system. By using the G-Cloud framework they chose IT services company risual to help them develop a new high-performance telecommunications network. This provided the opportunity to take advantage of new communications technology and remove costly legacy telephone systems. A unified communications solution, using Microsoft Skype for Business, was chosen as it provided: reduced maintenance and line rental costs; excellent connectivity for multi‑device and channel communications, including text‑based chat, video and audio calls; integration with old technology at fire stations to ensure an easy transition; and a mechanism for distributing calls from publicly facing numbers to relevant departments and groups. The new system also features: the integration of Skype for Business with fire station PA systems, so staff at headquarters can ‘call’ an entire station to ensure emergency messages are heard by everyone; increased security as centralised staff can operate every site’s gate system and speak to visitors to verify their identity, which also reduces overheads; call re‑routing at peak times to allow staff to answer phones for other departments; and the ability for headquarters to pick up the call if no one is available to answer, knowing which station is being dialled ensuring quicker response times Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service is seeing a huge reduction in costs thanks to the new system. They have also seen an increase in staff productivity and flexibility, as staff can now answer each other’s calls, and are no longer reliant on a site administrator at every location to respond to calls 24/7. Gavin Harris commented: “People are getting to grips with instant messaging and the rewards are being reaped already. We will save thousands and thousands of pounds in call costs. We will get more productivity from our workforce and the solution allows us to centralise the workforce and work a lot slicker. The G-Cloud framework made the procurement process very quick and easy, and ensured we were getting good value.”
ensure requirements were fit for purpose, CCS developed the procurement documentation and ran the procurement process from start to finish including evaluation. The common requirements of seven customers, with a total contract value of £35.8 million, were brought together. An indicative saving of 12 per cent compared to standard framework pricing was achieved for the customers – the equivalent of £4.3 million (based on the anticipated contract volumes). SPEND ANALYSIS FOR NHS TRUST Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust used the CCS Spend Analysis and Recovery Services agreement (RM1037) to identify outstanding credit notes that had not been processed and to help them make significant savings. Having chosen to directly award the contract to Meridian due to the promise of minimal staff disruption, a six figure sum was identified as recoverable from unprocessed credit notes, with 80 per cent of this value recovered within six weeks. Neil Morton, lead accountant for Nottingham
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University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “By using the agreement the direct award process was straightforward and allowed us to get the project underway quickly. Meridian set a sensible expectation of likely recovery values and timescales. “The project was managed in a clearly structured way and the account manager was ever mindful of having minimal impact on internal staff time. Recoveries and timescales were exactly in line with the expectations set and we were pleased that the project confirmed our internal processes and procedures are robust. We would highly recommend a spend recovery audit to any NHS trust.” In addition to this, Worcestershire County Council used the Spend Analysis and Recovery Services agreement to help them recover over £180,000. Like all other councils, Worcestershire is operating in a difficult climate with reducing budgets and increased demand for many of its services. Having undertaken a spend recovery audit of their accounts payable some years ago, the council felt E
By using the G-Cloud framework, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service chose IT services company risual to help them develop a new high-performance telecommunications network
VEHICLE HIRE Using the Vehicle Hire framework (RM1062), a national further competition was developed to create a standardised set of customer requirements to achieve increased savings for customers and a more simplified tender process for suppliers. The procurement took both price and non-price factors into account and the further competition was concluded with sealed bids. Having engaged extensively with customers and suppliers to
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