We've been working with the Commercial and Procurement Team and Sustainable UCL to ensure the goods and services we procure continue to meet UCL’s requirements, while delivering better value for money
Set up in 2018, the Procurement Project aimed to deliver increased value for money for goods and services purchased across UCL’s extensive third party spend of £600m, as well as ensure that the critical requirements of quality, supply, sustainability and risk management are effectively managed. The project was led by the Commercial and Procurement Team and governed by the TOPS Procurement Project Board and TOPS Executive Board.
Throughout the project we have been analysing UCL’s spend in terms of ‘What we are buying’, ‘Who we are buying for’ and ‘Who we are buying from’, as well as been collaborating with stakeholders across UCL and with our primary suppliers to identify opportunities to reduce this spend and improve current processes.
Working with these stakeholders we were able to use this data to identify a number of projects across the university through which we expect to deliver significant financial benefits to the organisation.
Delivery and transition to BAU
By early 2020 just over £1.5M of savings had been realised – through transactional benefits as a result of new or negotiated contracts, improved supplier frameworks and catalogues, and through a reduction in demand. At this time UCL began its Sustainable UCL initiative which led to the identification of additional demand savings in areas such as mobile phones, travel and printing.
Following the outbreak of coronavirus, and in anticipation of lost revenue, the need for additional spend, and the unknown impact that covid-19 would have on student intake, the commercial and procurement team were asked to support in realising further savings.
Focusing on four key categories of spend - Corporate Services, Estates, ISD and STEM - we are now reviewing over 50 identified savings initiatives. The team are developing plans for each category to support the next planning round at UCL and will continue to deliver savings identified in the procurement business case. You can find out more about the ongoing projects on the NonPay Savings Programme SharePoint site.
Find out more on the NonPay Savings Programme SharePoint site