This newsletter provides information about procurement activities and best practices across colleges in England and Wales. It highlights case studies of colleges that have saved money through effective procurement. It also announces training opportunities, workshops, and new guidance resources related to procurement. The newsletter encourages colleges to make use of these resources and services from the AoC Procurement Development Team to help improve procurement and achieve savings.

1. Content
• Introduction
• Case studies
• Announcements
• Training
• Top tips and quick wins
• Contacts
Procurement Newsletter
Autumn 2010

2. Welcome to the Autumn edition of the AoC Procurement Newsletter which
provides you with an insight into the excellent procurement work that’s taking
place in our Colleges across England and Wales.
Following the Spending Review announcements in October it’s now even
clearer that we have to make our money go further and get more for less across
the further education sector. We believe that one way to combat these issues is
to procure more effectively across your Colleges and get best value whenever
possible.
This newsletter is designed to direct you to good practice case studies and
examples of how you can save money to use on frontline service delivery. We
hope you’re able to use some of the information we have provided to make
a real difference in your College. If you would like to discuss procurement in
more detail please don’t hesitate to email us at procurement_team@aoc.co.uk or
contact our new helpdesk number on 0808 178 1669.
Introduction

3. We can help your College
save money
The AoC Procurement Development Team offers
many services to Colleges, including helping
you to achieve savings and efficiencies through
better procurement and process improvement.
Here are some of the ways our team can help
you save:
• Support to maximise the effectiveness of the
College procurement function
Assisting with audit and review of current
activity and preparation of procurement policy,
strategy and action plans, plus spend analysis
reports. Thirty Colleges who have implement-
ed report recommendations have saved £2.5
million between them.
• Free training programme
Training designed to equip College staff with
the skills and knowledge to deliver efficient
and compliant procurement. A wide range of
topics are on offer including contract law and
EU regulations.
• Signposting value for money deals
By working with, and benchmarking consortia
such as Crescent Purchasing Consortium and
Here’s what people are saying about us:
“The AoC Procurement Development Team has laid down the foundations for effective procurement across the
sector. They provide support and guidance which has helped those directly involved in procurement to share
knowledge and resources. This has allowed the sector to develop and establish a robust and skilled procurement
capacity, which has delivered real savings and efficiencies, and by doing so is now a valued and recognised function
of the College”. Angie Pilgrim, West Nottinghamshire College, Procurement Manager.
“Blackpool and The Fylde College has worked extensively with the AoC Procurement Development Team on various
initiatives which include leading collaborative procurements, developing best practice and increasing efficiencies.
They are a valuable sector resource that help maximise best value from our procurement activities”.
Pat Condon, Procurement and Legal Services Manager, Blackpool and The Fylde College.
Buying Solutions the team can suggest suppli-
ers who can offer savings to your College.
Savings realised by Colleges from adopting
recommendations following benchmarking
amount to over £900,000. The average savings
identified from the benchmarking programme
are over 19%.
• Assistance with tenders
We will advise your College when carrying out
complex tenders to help reduce the
likelihood of legal challenges and obtain value
for money.
• Collaboration
The team encourage and support regional pro-
curement collaborations in order to realise the
benefits of economies of scale and process cost
reduction.
• Where to find information
Visit www.felp.ac.uk; for detailed guidance
and advice on procurement or go to www.aoc.
co.uk.

4. Case studies
Manchester College turns up the heat on exam boards
Reduce your printer costs and help the environment
Over the last few months the Aoc Procurement
Development Team has teamed up with Dr
Tim Strickland from FE Sussex in delivering a
number of workshops aimed at helping Colleges
make savings with exam boards. It’s clear to
see that Colleges up and down the country are
starting to take this issue seriously and develop
their own strategy for approaching exam boards
about potential savings.
We recently caught up with Andrew Harrison,
Vice Principal at Manchester College, who’s
College has been busy preparing itself for
such an approach, he explains, “We analysed
our exam expenditure from the start of the
calendar year and realised that we had spent
approximately £3m with our five largest
examining bodies...for full article visit our
website
A good energy management policy in your
College can really help reduce costs and your
impact on the environment. Thinking about
your College’s approach to energy can easily
be bypassed but some Colleges are starting to
develop strategic approaches to energy and
understanding the benefits this can bring.
West Nottinghamshire College has been looking
at energy use across its campuses to try and
reduce wastage, including turning off monitors
left on over night. A simple start but it’s got
the ball rolling. They have now launched
sustainability and environmental pages on the
College intranet which help to inform colleagues
and students of the latest initiatives, plus an
online energy survey has given people the
chance to give their views and opinions...for full
article visit our website.

5. Over voltage creates cost and carbon challenge
Case studies
Most Colleges in the UK are paying too much
for their energy bills because of over voltage
on the electricity grid. There’s a solution
available to combat this problem called Voltage
Power Optimisation (VPO) technology, which
simultaneously helps to reduce your energy bills
and carbon footprint.
So far, over 30 different further education
institutions have installed VPO technology,
saving an average of just under ten per cent
on their annual electricity bills. Following
installation of this technology you usually see a
return on investment from between one to five
years... for full article visit our website
The Federation of Gloucestershire Colleges has
been busy working on a highly successful waste
collaboration project which has produced an
impressive annual saving of over £75,000. We
caught up with Karen Hulatt, Finance Office
Manager at Gloucestershire College, who
headed up the collaboration.
“Our group has been looking at doing a tender
for waste disposal services due to various
reasons, including imminent contract renewal
dates and dissatisfaction with current suppliers.
It made sense to approach this from a regional
perspective as there currently isn’t a framework
available on any consortia.” During the initial
stages of the collaboration it became clear that
the different requirements for each College
would make it more complex than first thought,
so it was important to be clear about what was
needed from the outset, Karen explains...for full
article visit our website.
Gloucestershire Colleges ‘waste’ no time in collaborating

6. Shared Services
The Pocket Guide to Shared Services
Little Book of Big Savings
Announcements
The AoC Procurement Development Team has
been raising awareness of shared services across
the further education sector, and highlighting
the benefits that these can bring.
The Government is keen to see the benefits of
shared services realised within Colleges and
has allocated funding to support this objective.
Twenty one groups involving 102 Colleges are
to receive a share of a £2 million Efficiency and
Innovation Fund. This fund was established to
support Colleges to test shared service models
and collaborative working, with the main aims
being to:
• identify ways of improving service delivery
of both back office and frontline services
• determine where efficiency savings can be
made
• provide solutions to the problems and
barriers that collaborating groups often
encounter
The projects are set to begin now and will be
developed over the coming months. There are
Colleges from across England involved and the
projects focus on a wide variety of activities. The
common theme from the bids is the recognition
that collaboration and sharing can make a
significant impact on College efficiency in these
uncertain economic conditions.
The AoC will assist the project groups and
those who wish to follow their example, by
capturing lessons learned and assisting with
the dissemination of the good practice that is
developed.
We have recently published ‘The Pocket Guide to
Shared Services’ which includes ten tips on how
to successfully initiate innovative shared service
solutions in your College, with the ultimate goal
of saving money for your College to reinvest on
frontline services.
The ten tips provide information about the
different stages involved including, partnership
building, rationalising your internal processes,
understanding what to share, training your staff
and being innovative.
If you’d like a copy of the guide email
procurement_team@aoc.co.uk, or for more
information visit our shared services webpage.
We recently published ‘The Little Book of Big
Savings’ which provides ten top tips (plus two
bonus tips) to help your College make savings.
The top tips cover a range of subjects including
reducing telephony charges, MFD and printer
costs, food deals, energy savings and much
more.
If you’ve not received a copy please email
procurement_team@aoc.co.uk and we will send
one out.

7. AoC Annual Conference and Exhibition – 16 - 18 November 2010
Buy together and save money
Our team will have a stand over all three days,
so please take the opportunity to come and
ask us questions relating to exam fees, shared
services, spend analysis, collaboration, tenders
or any other procurement related questions that
you may need answering.
We’re also running a workshop called Delivering
efficiency savings and service improvements
through innovative shared service solutions
which draws from extensive research and
practitioner know-how. Delegates will be able to
fast-track their knowledge on how best to
successfully initiate 'shared service solutions'
between Colleges and other partner
organisations. The session will include a self
diagnostic tool specifically designed to help
build your College’s in-house capacity to share
services.
For specific event information please visit www.
aocannualconference.co.uk.
If you’re looking to make greater savings, why
not pool your purchasing power by using
Buying Solutions’ Aggregation Portal?
Aggregation is a key enabler of greater savings,
and the new aggregation portal provides public
sector organisations with the opportunity to join
up with others looking to procure similar goods
and services, facilitating greater savings for all
through economies of scale.
The whole public sector is being asked to do
more with less, and as part of the Government’s
Efficiency and Reform Group, Buying Solutions
is able to offer expertise, experience and
practical help to deliver greater savings for your
organisation.
If you’re looking to procure a product or service,
why not consider pooling demand with other
organisations? Visit the Buying Solutions portal
where you can state your requirement, and a
member of the aggregation team will be in touch.
For more information, please contact the
customer service desk on 0345 410 2222 or info@
buyingsolutions.gsi.gov.uk
Announcements
Save with Buying Solutions’ eAuctions calendar
Following on from recent aggregated eAuction
successes which have delivered up to 42%
savings, Buying Solutions has published a
calendar of eAuctions up to March 2011.
The recent eAuctions have delivered average
savings of 25% against pre-auction prices.
Successes include an impressive 42% saving for a
group of Merseyside Councils on office supplies
- equivalent to over £3.5 million, and a 36%
saving for six central Government departments
who aggregated their requirements for
Government Carbon Offsetting Facility (GCOF).
The eAuction programme can help to deliver
savings for your College by getting suppliers to
bid online for your business, driving costs down
in a matter of hours. What’s more, by bringing
your spend together with other public sector
organisations Buying Solutions can help you
realise further benefits of economies of scale.
Buying Solutions’ experienced category teams
will work closely with you and the suppliers
throughout the process to ensure that your
requirements deliver best value for money and
make full use of existing framework agreements.
Please view the full calendar up to March 2011
to find out what eAuctions are coming up. If
you’re interested in joining an eAuction please
complete the Expression of Interest form.
For more information, please contact the
customer service desk on 0345 410 2222 or info@
buyingsolutions.gsi.gov.uk.

8. Announcements
User friendly guidance for procurement
New look procurement guidance website – we need your input
If you’re responsible for procurement in your
College then you need to know about the key
processes, why they are important and how to
carry them out. Procurement is not just about
buying - it’s a complete cycle that starts with
identifying a need, through to the disposal of
goods, the completion of a service or the end of a
contract.
We have developed a toolkit called ‘An
Introduction to Procurement in FE Colleges 2010’
to help you with the different stages involved in
procurement. The toolkit includes a wealth
of information, and has a number of ‘how to
guides’ which give in-depth information on
specific topics including European procurement
law, contract management, procurement
strategy, as well as providing an example
contract template and many other topics.
You can access the toolkit at http://www.felp.
ac.uk/ch333/introductiontoprocurement2010.
html. If you have any questions regarding the
toolkit please email the team at procurement_
team@aoc.co.uk.
I’m sure many of you will have visited our
website called FELP (www.felp.ac.uk) which
hosts a vast library of procurement guidance,
case studies, ‘how to guides’, Government
guidance, discussion forums, and much more.
Well, over the last few months we’ve been
working hard to improve the site and make it
more user friendly with the most up-to-date
information.
We’re excited to announce that the new look
website will be ready in the new year, but before
the official launch we’d like to know what you
think of it. In February we’ll be running tester
sessions where you’ll get the chance to navigate
the site and feedback about what you like and
what you don’t. If you’d like to take part please
email procurement_team@aoc.co.uk.

9. Training and procurement efficiency forums
How to Promote Procurement in your College (Remote Training)
Exam Fees workshop, 10 December at Walsall College
Contract Management
Contract Law Introduction
These session are aimed at staff that are new to procurement in their college or are already in a
procurement role and want to understand the importance of procurement to your college and promote
the benefits of good procurement practice. This is a remote training session and the next date for this
session is :
• 15th November
• 19th November
• 26th November
Due to growing interest and after the success of the previous sessions in Manchester & London, the
AoC FE Procurement Team are holding an additional workshop which will cover the procurement of
awarding body services to ensure best value for your College.
The session, led by Dr. Tim Strickland, will offer practical guidance based on his experience with FE
Sussex where he has implemented a number of strategies resulting in significant benefits for member
Colleges.
The event will be held at 9.30am on the 10th December at Walsall College, Wisemore Campus. It will
finish at 1pm with lunch to follow.
This training provides practical support in extracting value for money from the supply chain. Items
under discussion include achieving successful contract handover, management that delivers supplier
performance, delivering added value through the life of a contract and managing risk and contract
changes. The dates for this training are:
• 23 Nov 2010 at Wiltshire College Lackham
• 29 Nov 2010 at Centre Point London
• 01 Dec 2010 at Stratford upon Avon
College
This training is designed to create a better
understanding of contract law including a review of some of the important contract terms. It is aimed at
those with no prior knowledge of contract law. The dates for this training are:
• 25 Nov 2010 at New College
Nottingham
• 03 Dec 2010 at Centre Point London
The procurement team is offering a range of training on various topics, this includes:

10. Training and procurement efficiency forums
If you would like to attend any of the training in this briefing please e-mail your: name, job title, college
name and contact number to procurement_team@aoc.co.uk
Places on these workshops are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.
For presentation slides from previous training sessions please follow this link: http://www.aoc.co.uk/
en/aoc-procurement-team/procurement-resources-and-training.cfm
Visit our procurement resources and training page for information and prsentation from previous
sessions
Contract Law Advanced
North Western Purchasing Consortium (NWUPC) Ltd Training funded by the AoC Procurement Team
How to reserve a place
This training is intended to go beyond the basic essentials of a contract and look more closely at some
of the pitfalls in terms of contract formation and contract terms. It will also cover legal updates in areas
such as sale of goods, supply of services, negligence and competition law. The dates for this training are:
• 07 Dec 2010 at Centre Point London
• 09 Dec 2010 at New College Nottingham
Further training sessions
From January 2011 through to March 2010 we will be offering further training on a range of topics.
The dates will be confirmed in the next couple of months, so please look out for these. The topics to be
covered include:
• Awarding Tenders: A Practical Guide
• Negotiation Skills
• Post Tender Problems - Managing Contract Disputes
The AoC Procurement team have also provided NWUPC Ltd funding to undertake training. Training
is offered on a variety of topics as outlined below, if you would like further information please email
procurement_team@aoc.co.uk
• Introducing Project Management – 24 Nov 2010 at the Innovation Centre, Salford
• Advanced Procurement Skills – 14 Dec 2010 at Liverpool University

11. Top tips and quick wins
Beware ‘free’ offers may not be all that they
seem
One of our Colleges recently received a flyer
from a company advertising ‘free’ software,
subsequently a staff member innocently signed
the slip and sent this back but never used the
software. The College’s Procurement Manager
is now looking at an invoice charge of £500 due
to not cancelling the subscription. The College
has since warned staff to be aware of such ‘free’
offers. A friendly warning worth thinking about.
Sharing financial info makes for a
smoother procurement ride
Cambridge Regional College allows full access
to their finance system for all their procurement
team, which helps to provide an overall picture
of expenditure across the College leading to
more strategic procurement. Management
information reports help the team to identify
specific areas of spend and allocate savings to
specific budgets. Supplier payment history also
allows the team with benchmarking exercises
and any supplier disputes.
Water course surveys bring in the £££s
We recently told you about the trend of Colleges
taking up the option of water course surveys on
their campuses but until now we’ve not had any
cash savings to report. This has now changed
and we’re happy to say that an excellent saving
has been made by Bourneville College. The
College has recently completed a survey for one
of their campuses and has reported immediate
savings of £40,000 which could potentially rise to
a staggering £80,000. It just goes to show water
course surveys are definitely worth looking at if
you want to make a big saving.
Campus cash machine is the height of
convenience
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College Bristol has
installed a bank machine on their campus which
has proven to be a big hit with both students
and staff. Finance staff from the College are able
to manage loading the cash in and out of the
machine, so it doesn’t require any day to day
involvement from a bank or building society.
The College doesn’t make a profit from the
machine, but sees it as a great way to improve
their students’ experience.
Lodging cards with suppliers
A number of Colleges are lodging credit cards
with suppliers to help make the purchasing
process easier. South Worcestershire College has
recently done this with Lyreco and found it very
easy to set up, and the card runs alongside their
online ordering system. Similarly, Worcestershire
College of Technology, has also lodged their
credit card with Lyreco via one simple phone
call. For more information about companies
that allow you to lodge credit cards, email
procurement_team@aoc.co.uk.

12. Association of Colleges
Procurement
2-5 Stedham Place
London
WC1A 1HU
Contact
Procurement Team Helpdesk Number, 0808 178
1669
Ray Poxon
Senior FE Procurement Manager
07917 266 082
Carl Johnson
FE Procurement Manager
07767 323 191
Martin Toomey
FE Procurement Manager
07818 533 393
Beverly Aboagye
FE Procurement Manager
07584 528507
Roger Coles
FE Procurement Manager
07920 720651
James Durcan
FE Procurement Analyst & Customer Advisor
07917 426 077
Lesley Templeman
Programme Support Officer
07827 277 096
Simran Sobhraj
London Region and Procurement Administrator
020 703 49966
General enquires: procurement_team@aoc.co.uk
EMM queries: emmfe@aoc.co.uk
AoC procurement pages: www.aoc.co.uk
FELP website: www.felp.ac.uk