March 2014

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The magazine for LUPC Members and suppliers
MarCh 2014
Prepare
for change
Impact of the
new EU Directive
arE yoU rEaDy?:
an in-depth look
at the new
EU Directive
CaSE STUDy:
a supplier’s view
on using LUPC’s
Estates
Maintenance
Services agreement
THE ETHICS oF IT:
The challenges
of managing
sustainable IT
supply chains
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:26 Page 2
CONTENTS
Director’s report
3
News
4-5
Commodity updates
6-8
Features
■
■
■
■
■
Case study: a new approach to estates maintenance
are you ready for the new EU Directive?
Using procurement to support local economies
Socially responsible IT purchasing
The revolution in student accommodation
Member interview: Mitch Dalgleish, head of Procurement at the University of Westminster
9
10 -11
12
13
14
Focus on: how ethical are IT supply chains?
CoNTaCT DETaILS
andy Davies Director
Tel: 020 7863 1691
Email: [email protected]
Suzanne Stokes Interim Business Partner
Tel: 0207 664 4838
Email: [email protected]
Laura Compton head of Membership
Tel: 020 7863 1692
Email: [email protected]
Joyce Kadri Contracts Oﬃcer
Tel: 020 7863 1696
Email: [email protected]
Darran Whatley Senior Contracts Manager
Tel: 020 7863 1693
Email: [email protected]
Vanessa Gray administrator and
Membership Oﬃcer
Tel: 020 7863 1695
Email: [email protected]
General consortium direction and management.
Membership; marketing agreements and services;
training; events; LUPC website; contacts database;
publications.
Laboratory consumables; laboratory equipment; audio
visual; photocopying; paper; oﬃce supplies; furniture;
energy; car hire; hotels; travel; debt collection; airline
route deals; solar panels.
Mike Kilner Senior Contracts Manager
Tel: 020 7863 1694
Email: [email protected]
Computing; computing hardware (UCISa); insurance;
white goods; telecommunications; postal and mail
services; electronics; national IUPC gases;
national printers.
Clemmie Smith Senior Contracts Manager
Tel: 020 7863 1697
Email: [email protected]
Legal services; library books, serials and periodicals,
specialist arts; temporary staﬀ; occupational health.
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London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
18
19
For estates-related queries, please contact Sheena
Lanagan, Interim Contracts Manager,
[email protected] 020 7664 4837.
Fire extinguishers/ﬁre-ﬁghting products; portable
appliance testing; signs and signage; ICT furniture; hand
dryers; cash and valuables in transit; childcare vouchers;
salary sacriﬁce; advertising.
accounts, general enquiries and administration.
Harry Singh Saurai Procurement analyst
Tel: 020 7863 1652
Email: [email protected]
Collection, analysis and reporting of Member and
supplier data.
Main oﬃce LUPC Tel: 020 7863 1690 Fax: 020 7863 1699
Email: [email protected]
LUPC, Mezzanine 2, University of London Union, Malet Street,
London WC1E 7hY
Please send your comments and suggestions
on how to improve this magazine, and any
article ideas to [email protected]
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DIrECTOr’S rEPOrT
Welcome to the ﬁrst issue of Linked in 2014!
We’re busy getting ready for our
2014 Conference that will take place
at the Institute of Education here in
Bloomsbury on 1 april. along with
keynote speaker Professor Sir Ian
andy Davies
Diamond, champion of university
LUPC Director
eﬃciency, we’re looking forward to
hearing from guest speaker Selvan
Govender, who runs the largest university purchasing consortium
in southern africa. The conference is free for LUPC Members, you
can read more about it on page 15 – we’ll see you there.
Our ﬁrst workshop designed especially for estates professionals
was a great curtain-raiser for the Conference. about 40 Members
came on 29 January to talk all matters estates with suppliers to
our highly-acclaimed estates maintenance agreement, which
you can read more about on page 9. It was a lively event and
so popular that I think we might well have another one of
these soon.
I’m very proud of our track record of working with small- and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially as so many Members
are conscious of their socio-economic footprint. So that we can
keep ﬁnding better ways to ensure SMEs have an even playing
ﬁeld, we value our relationships with outfits like Supply Cross
river – see page 12 to ﬁnd out what they do. Buying bigger
doesn’t mean we have to shut out those lean, sometimes more
innovative, often more customer-focused, SMEs.
Talking of sustainability, we’re conscious that our IT agreements
are big enough to have a powerful inﬂuence in the market,
particularly the National Desktop and Notebook agreement,
which we lead for the UK hE sector and is worth over £400m
over its life. So we’re working with Electronics Watch (see page
13) to see how we can collaborate with other IT buyers to
improve workers’ conditions on component manufacture and
assembly lines.
andy Davies
March 2014
The DTP Group, your complete
IT products, solutions and
services specialist.
HP Autonomy practice delivering big data analytics
Server, Storage, Networking and Cloud Solutions
PCs, Laptops, Thin Clients and Tablet Devices
Managed Print Services
Competitively-priced IT product supply
DTP is one of HP’s largest resellers into higher educaon and is one of only eight resellers who hold HP
Planum Partner status. We are an approved reseller for Naonal Desktop and Notebook Agreement
(NDNA), Naonal Educaonal Printer Agreement (NEPA), NEUPC’s Naonal Networking Agreement
(NNA), and the Naonal Server and Storage Agreement (NSSA).
DTP has been announced as a supplier on NEUPC’s new Naonal
Networking Agreement (NNA), supplying networking products and
soluons which include Cisco, HP and Meraki.
Solving IT together
I am pleased to say that whilst
building our relaonship, DTP
has been good at responding to
requests for change and has been
flexible in their approach to support,
geng the service right for our
students.
Chris Sharples,
Head of Client Services at
The University of Manchester.
Telephone: 0113 276 0210 Email: [email protected]
Web: www.dtpgroup.co.uk/educaon
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
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NEWS
New hEPa resources
The higher Education Procurement academy (hEPa), the sectorled initiative open to all LUPC’s membership, launches two new
resources for procurement professionals this Spring.
The new Procurement Journey, which complements the resources
and documentation already available on the hEPa website, will
give procurement professionals and departmental buyers access
to a comprehensive 'how to' guide to procurement, including a
wealth of useful materials, standardised documentation, up-todate legislation information, and references to appropriate
external advice websites.
The Journey is easy to use and has been professionally reviewed
to oﬀer a consistent approach to the procurement process across
the sector.
hEPa is also launching an online Competency Toolkit. The Toolkit,
which builds on the existing document-based resources already
available on the hEPa website, will help procurement
professionals in undertaking role management and professional
development across three areas; Competency Framework; Job
Description Competency Deﬁnition; and Sample Institutional Job
Descriptions.
The online toolkit is easier to use and can help review roles and
identify areas for individual development, particularly across areas
oﬀered by hEPa’s current training programme.
To access these new resources visit
www.hepa.ac.uk, or for further
information contact
[email protected]
New EU Directive
New Public Procurement Directives were approved by the
European Parliament on 15 January this year. The new
legislation overhauls the current EU public procurement rules
and introduces a number of new features and requirements.
For the ﬁrst time, the rules set common EU standards on
concession contracts to boost fair competition and ensure best
value for money by introducing new award criteria that place
more emphasis on environmental considerations, social aspects
and innovation.
For example, through the new criterion of the "most
economically advantageous tender" (MEaT) in the award
procedure, public authorities will be able to put more
emphasis on quality, environmental considerations, social
aspects or innovation while still taking into account the price
and life-cycle-costs.
The new Directive will also make it easier for small and
medium-sized ﬁrms to bid and include tougher provisions on
subcontracting.
Member states will have 24 months to implement the
provisions of the new rules into national law, with the UK
aiming to be an early adopter.
read an in-depth review of what the Directive means for you
on pages 10-11.
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London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
Temporary Staﬀ
agreement
LUPC has awarded a new framework agreement for Temporary
Staﬀ. The agreement runs from March 2014 until March 2017,
with an optional one-year extension, and provides a choice of
temporary recruitment solutions to LUPC Members.
The newly re-tendered agreement includes seven lots in total,
covering: General clerical and administrative staﬀ; Professional
staﬀ (including hr, Finance and Procurement); IT staﬀ;
Operational staﬀ (including cooks, cleaners and security staﬀ);
retail staﬀ (including front-of-house staﬀ); One-stop-shop and
payroll service; and administration of a direct temping system.
This ﬁnal lot is brand new and focuses on the administration of
institutions’ in-house temporary talent pool, maximising
Members’ own resources and reducing the fees paid to the
temporary agency.
The new framework features competitive rates for temporary to
permanent transfer and introduction to permanent staﬀ, and will
allow Members ﬂexibility to establish a panel of providers from
the specialist lots. Equally, Members can appoint a single provider
from the ‘One-stop-shop’ lot to provide value for money service
covering a range of temporary staﬃng disciplines.
The ﬁve specialist lots oﬀer specialist providers, each selected
for their combination of highly competitive rates and standards
of service. Call-oﬀ can be made either via direct award, or
mini-competition, giving Members the chance to tailor their
requirements and suppliers the additional opportunity to oﬀer
a more competitive bid than at framework level.
For full information about the agreement and suppliers, visit
www.gem.ac.uk or contact Clemmie Smith,
[email protected], 020 7863 1697
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NEWS
NEw AgREEMENTS
Occupational Health
agreement
LUPC is pleased to announce the award
of a new framework agreement for
Occupational Health Services. This new
agreement runs for three years, with an
optional one-year extension, and includes
ﬁve lots covering occupational health
services for staﬀ and students on a
regional and national basis.
The new framework, tendered with
Members to meet their speciﬁc
requirements, oﬀers competitive pricing,
with a range of ﬁxed prices at framework
level for activities ranging from post-oﬀer
health assessments and occupational
health referrals, to immunisations and
wellbeing events, as well as ﬁxed retainer
rates for onsite delivery.
Providers also have the opportunity to
improve their pricing at mini-competition
and, as they will still be competing for
Members’ business at this stage, will be
incentivised to oﬀer competitive bids.
The agreement also oﬀers ﬂexibility for
Members to pick the services they require.
For example, some might contract solely for
post-oﬀer health assessments and referrals
for staﬀ, whilst others may appoint a provider
to deliver a much wider set of services,
covering assessments and referrals for staﬀ
and students, as well as travel advice and risk
assessments, health surveillance, counselling
and specialist referrals.
Full information about this agreement is
available on GeM, visit www.gem.ac.uk.
If you require any additional assistance
please contact Clemmie Smith, Senior
Contracts Manager, on 020 7863 1697,
[email protected].
Student internship
Temporary Staﬀ
Start date: 17/03/2014
End date : 16/03/2017
Occupational Health Services
Start date: 21/01/2014
End date : 20/01/2017
Cleaning Chemicals & Janitorial Supplies
Start date: 27/01/2014
End date : 31/12/2015
Soft Furnishings
Start date: 28/01/2014
End date : 01/12/2016
Networking
Start date: 20/12/2013
End date : 19/12/2015
Promotional Products
Start date: 01/03/2014
End date : 28/02/2018
For full information on all agreements,
visit www.gem.ac.uk
NEw MEMBERS
• Hackney Community College
• City of westminster College
• University Engineering Academy South
Bank
• westminster Adult Education Service
LUPC welcomed a new student intern to the team this month. Postgraduate student
James Ryan is currently studying MSc Development Studies at LUPC Member the School
of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He will be with us initially for three months,
assisting the team with a range of administrative and support projects.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
This is the ﬁrst paid student intern that LUPC has employed, and is part of LUPC’s
developing strategy to improve our sustainability and socio-economic impact across
our operations.
LUPC Director Andy Davies says: “LUPC committed to taking on a student intern in last
year’s ‘Widening our Reach’ strategy, so we’re now excited to welcome James to the
team. Not only will he support the existing team in doing more for Members, we’re also
glad that given our location at the heart of London’s academic quarter, we can help
support our local economy and, in particular, a student from one of our Members.”
LUPC recruited its intern via the University of London Careers Group, which
co-ordinates a range of internships for London students across a variety of companies.
Tuesday 1 April 2014
LUPC’s Conference and Exhibition
Institute of Education
Free for all Members to attend
Read more on page 15.
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
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COMMODITY UPDaTES
ESTaTES
Cleaning & Security Services
Glasgow Caledonian University awarded a contract to Interserve under
Lot 3 for their London site starting in November 2013 and ﬁnishing
March 2015. Quarterly review meetings under the new framework
carried out with CIS on 17 December. a Commodity Group meeting was
held on 10 January.
Estates Maintenance
LUPC’s ﬁrst Estates Maintenance Workshop took place on 29 January
at the Institute of Education with over 40 Members attending. The
extension to the framework agreement was invoked, with an end date
of 31 august 2015. LSE’s mini-competition against Lot 2 (M&E) was
undergoing ﬁnal internal approval with a view to a contract start date
of 1 March. Other interested Members currently include royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew and University of East London.
audio Visual Equipment
LUPC met with SUPC and hEPCW on 15 January to discuss the tender
strategy, including numbers of suppliers required, selection process
and inviting NEUPC to join after their agreement expires (NWUPC
invited but will not be collaborating) and Members to be invited to
participate in the technical evaluation.
oﬃce Furniture
SUPC sent tender documents for comments and review, LUPC sent
views on issues such as core/non-core pricing, awarded supplier
numbers, e-procurement and ﬁnancial appraisal. The OJEU Notice was
planned for publication on 27 January, with bid return 17 March,
quality evaluation in april and contract start 1 august 2014.
Electrical Materials & associated Products
The recent review meeting was held in January and hosted by LED
manufacturer Projection Lighting. additional contract support terms
will be ﬁnalised for Members on LED products and these, together with
other matters arising from the meeting, will be circulated shortly.
Electronics
The next review meeting will be held in York on 6 March in the
presence of Onecall, rapid and rS.
Matthew Elliott has taken on the role of account Manager on behalf of
rS Components with Keith Johnson in support for escalations. Charlie
McClelland has taken over as Sales Manager for the agreement on
behalf of aspen Electronics.
Sport, Gym & Fitness Equipment
all suppliers have agreed to the ﬁnal extension period taking the
framework through until November 2014. Framework review meetings
have been held with ﬁve of the suppliers so far, with Life Fitness and
Precor still to be rearranged. Supplier feedback is positive on how the
framework has run until now and recognises that whilst it has worked
well, there can be a lot more done in terms of promotion of the
agreement on suppliers’ part. CPC will be looking to re-tender the
agreement in the summer and any input and/or feedback from LUPC
Members would be greatly appreciated.
Engineering (new project led by SUPC)
a framework agreement for Engineering Supplies commenced on
18 November 2013. an Engineering Equipment lot is in progress with a
projected start date of 1 May 2015.
ICT
National Desktop & Notebook agreement (NDNa)
Meetings or conference calls with hP, Dell and acer were held in
December and January, either to deal with the price management of
new builds or discussions on future reseller participation. The NDNa
benchmarking exercise was completed at the end of November as a
prelim to these discussions. The ﬁrst NDNa group meetings under the
new agreement took place between 25 and 27 February 2014 in
Manchester and included discussions with Samsung on the inclusion of
their Galaxy Tablet range more formally within the agreement, and a
6
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
review of each supplier’s present targets and objectives around
corporate responsibility. The merger between Viglen and XMa under a
Westcoast holdings parent company came to fruition in early January.
It is understood that the ﬁrms will carry on as separate entities for the
foreseeable future until an integration plan is in place and that when
contracts or bids come up, the two companies will continue to bid
separately for them. Together with regulatory body aDISa, WEEE
recycling partner CDL are due to present on the challenges and
solutions faced by institutions at april’s LUPC Conference.
National Education Printer agreement (NEPa)
Price reductions were seen in January against previous month’s pricing
on hP product. The ‘MPS out of the box’ special oﬀer continues to be
promoted and increased marketing activity has been seen from XMa,
Phoenix and DTP. The next set of review meetings are scheduled for
March 2014 at LUPC. These will be held in the presence of the
manufacturers. Misco are close to being approved for Brother.
Network Equipment
The new networking framework commenced on 20 December 2013.
Suppliers on the framework have not been ranked and NEUPC state
that institutions are required to run a further mini-competition for
each requirement. The ﬁrst supplier review meetings are scheduled for
July 2014. The notes from the meetings will be circulated amongst the
consortia Computing Managers and uploaded to GeM.
IT-related accessories & Parts (ITraP)
The agreements have been extended to 31 May 2015, which will leave
an option for extensions of up to a further 12 months. Lead contract
management for this framework remains with andrew Grover but will
change when the replacement for Neil robertson is appointed during
February 2014. Price benchmarking activity will be organised
subsequent to this, and details regarding the handover will be sent to
LUPC when these are conﬁrmed.
PCs with apple operating Systems
The most recent review meeting with apple took place on 4 December.
Matters arising included further discussions around the provision of an
extended warranty for iPad products, the streaming of hE technical
support calls into their enterprise team as a means to improve service
and plans for an apple eMarketplace solution.
National Server & Storage agreement (NSSa)
Lead contract management for this framework is currently with Paul
Mander at SUPC. This will change when the replacement for Neil
robertson is in place. Supplier reviews were scheduled to take place on
the 18/19 February 2014. a survey is currently out to assess the
performance of the manufacturers and their resellers. It was
announced on 24 January that subject to the satisfaction of regulatory
requirements, Lenovo and IBM had entered into a deﬁnitive agreement
in which Lenovo planned to acquire IBM's x86 server business for
US$2.3 billion. The agreement is built upon a longstanding collaboration
that began in 2005 when Lenovo acquired IBM's PC business, which
included the ThinkPad line of PCs. In the period since, the companies
have continued to collaborate in many areas, IBM will retain its System z
mainframes, Power Systems and Storage Systems and Lenovo and IBM
plan to enter into a strategic relationship which will include a global
OEM and reseller agreement for sales of IBM's entry-level and midrange disk storage systems. IBM will continue to provide maintenance
delivery on Lenovo's behalf for an extended period of time, so
customers should see little change in their maintenance support.
Telecommunications inc. landline and mobile (gps)
The last CCS aggregated procurement exercise for mobiles was
undertaken during December.
The sector’s National Telecomms Group (NTG) plan to meet on
27 March at LUPC.
SMS Text Messaging Service (JaNET)
The OJEU notice for the re-tendering of the Janet txt SMS service was
published on 5 November 2013. The procurement has now been
concluded and Janet is now in the process of issuing notices to the
bidders regarding the award.
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COMMODITY UPDaTES
The successful bidder will be announced on the 31 January 2014.
a new case study issued by PageOne detailing how an FE college
realised £7,000 per annum savings through use of the Janet txt
service can be found through the following UrL:
http://www.pageone.co.uk/downloads/case-studies/QMC-CS.pdf.
INSUraNCE
Further news is still awaited on the provision of benchmarking
information now that the iPortal is fully operational. This should be
progressed shortly.
This year’s National Conference for Insurance Managers in hE is to be
held at the 4* Weetwood hall Conference Centre and hotel, Leeds on
5 and 6 June 2014. a ﬁnal programme is in production and should be
available during February. The next LUPC risk and Insurance Seminar is
planned for 27 March. Further details will be released as soon as they
are available.
LaBoraTory
Laboratory Consumables & Chemicals
LUPC provided information for the 3 December Tender Working Group.
Issues included the tender strategy for the new agreement. On the
current agreement LUPC Members’ spend split for core / non-core is
20% core and 80% non-core. Tendering Working Group rejected LUPC’s
proposed cost-plus approach and elected to remain with the core
/non-core approach. after discussion with the SUPC agreement
Manager it was agreed that a group of institutions or a consortium
could run their own core list process. Tender returns are due back on
21 March,with award during June and agreement start 1 august.
Laboratory Gases
The next national review meetings were scheduled for 29 January in
London in the presence of the four suppliers. Minutes and presentations
will be added to the IUPC site and then circulated to the MPC list and
Laboratory Group. a national survey was launched at the start of the
month and this has gathered over 30 replies at time of writing.
The constraint on helium supply is now easing with suppliers taking
new business. The new Qatar II source is currently providing regular
product to the global market and, with all other existing sources
producing to expectation, the balance between demand and
availability is for the ﬁrst time in over two years providing conditions
which can now allow BOC and the other suppliers to lift restrictions
and oﬀer our IUPC customers supply ﬂexibility once again. helium
pricing remains an issue following the previously informed US
Government (BLM) auction in late 2013, the general rise in energy
prices and additional logistics costs arising from a greater reliance on
the Qatar II source within the supply chain. air Liquide proposed a
13% increase for IUPC Gases customers in late 2013, which was
countered with an accepted proposal based on a 6% increase in
January with the remainder deferred until further arguments were
presented at the review meetings on 29 January. BOC has not at this
time given its helium proposal to the group. all other pricing remains
ﬁxed until October 2014.
The agreement schedules have been updated to conﬁrm that the IUPC
Gases agreement may also be used for the installation of liquid gas
storage vessels if agreed in writing between Members and the supplier.
LIBrary
Books
Serials
Members continue to migrate spend under the LUPC framework to
the top-ranked supplier, LM Information. This supplier gained a 20%
share of LUPC Member spend in 2012/13 and a number of Members
have expressed their intention to move more subscriptions over in
2013/14, with an average saving of 3.25% available compared to their
incumbent supplier.
In January LUPC met with one of the top ﬁve publishers supplying
books and serials to Members, to discuss potential opportunities
through closer working relationships. Currently, the key relationships
are between LUPC/Members and the subscription agents (e.g. LM,
Swets and EBSCO), who then have their own arrangements with the
publishers. JISC Collections also has some deals with key publishers on
behalf of hEIs, but there may be opportunities for LUPC to complement
these with some further arrangements/relationships. LUPC will be
pursuing this with input from the Library Commodity Group and will
communicate the outcomes in due course.
Library Specialst arts
The Library Commodity Group agreed that, as this framework has
such low spend (£146k by LUPC Members in 2012/13) and as it is used
only by a small group of our Members, it will not be re-tendered by
LUPC. This means it will conclude on 31 august 2014. all but one
LUPC Member using the existing framework are spending under the
OJEU threshold.
oFFICE
oﬃce Supplies
a second and ﬁnal extension has been invoked. a review meeting with
the Commodity Group was held on 3 December, when a draft re-tender
timetable was established. LUPC discussed the re-tender strategy with
legal advisers. a NWPCSS supplier presentation meeting will be held on
13 March at Birkbeck.
Postal Services
The Postal Group continues to try and expand representation from an
operational perspective going forward, in line with other national
working groups. a nominee is still required from the LUPC
membership. Interested Members, please get in touch with Mike
Kilner, [email protected].
Jennifer Murray has been conﬁrmed as the successor to Cheryl
Gibbons at the NEUPC. The next National Post Group has also been
arranged for 24 april and will discuss ﬁnal plans for the next agreement
based on a converged tender covering airmail, parcels, hybrid and any
other services that are required under the next framework agreement.
Following recent matters arising in connection with dangerous goods
being sent to and from overseas destinations and the complexities
around IaTa regulations, DhL’s hE account Manager will, with their
Marketing team, assist in formulating an eﬀective user guide for users
of the agreement. It has been noted that a largely online based tool
will probably be a better way forward than one designed around a
printed solution.
an IT issue at royal Mail’s heathrow site, that only came to light in late
January, means that rM has processed and despatched mail as normal
but the data has not ﬂowed through to their billing platform.
Consequently, rM has not invoiced some customers for international
mail sent from 5 November and a certain level of charging may be
back-dated for some.
Members of the Library Commodity Group have been updated on
supply issues with Dawsons, who have oﬀered to run an event for LUPC
Members after the next Library Commodity Group meeting on
14 February to explain further and take questions from institutions.
SUPC has also been alerted to these issues raised by LUPC Members
and will act as an escalation point, if needed, in their role as framework
owner/lead.
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
7
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COMMODITY UPDaTES
ProFESSIoNaL SErVICES
oTHEr aCTIVITIES
Supplier review meetings were held in December, at which ﬁrms were
updated on the strategy agreed at the last Executive Committee
meeting to re-tender the LUPC framework under a ‘one-stop-shop’
model, focused primarily on the non-hE institutions, though open to all
LUPC Members. Discussions have also been held with aPUC to inform
them of the strategy to promote the national framework agreement for
Legal Services to hE and FE Members of LUPC from august 2014 and to
make plans for doing this.
The new LUPC website was launched on 6 January, including better
integration with GeM; improved navigation; better usage on tablets
and smartphones; and an updated look and feel.
Legal Services
In addition, the ﬁrst meeting of the new Tender Working Party for Legal
Services was held on 17 January, with representation from Institute of
Cancer research, British Library and British Council. a separate
pre-meeting was held with David addington (National Portrait Gallery)
and anthony Latham and it was agreed that anthony (Science Museum
Group) would also participate in the Tender Working Party, in
representation of GLaM Members. The tender process is likely to be
undertaken in accordance with the legislation applicable to Part B
services under the current regulations (still an option available to us
until the new regulations are passed in English law, and the approach
used by aPUC on their framework). The new agreement is scheduled
for commencement on 1 august 2014.
Temporary agency Staﬀ
The tender for the new LUPC Temporary Staﬀ framework is now at
tender evaluation stage and is on course to be awarded ready for a
start date of 1 March 2014 (when the existing agreement expires).
Tender responses were received from 19 of the 20 shortlisted bidders,
with between four and seven bidders in each lot.
Website
LUPC Conference 2014
all 51 stands at LUPC’s Conference & Exhibition are now booked, a
waiting list has been set up.
Selvan Govender, CEO of South african hE purchasing consortium
Purco Sa, will be our second keynote speaker. Full programme
now conﬁrmed.
Spend Surgeries
Categorisation of Members spend data for 2012-13 has been
completed and logins for the new spend analysis software for
Members will be issued soon. Scope 3 carbon emissions reports will be
completed and sent to Members in February, when work will begin on
2012-13 Spend and Savings reports.
(Correct as of 31 January 2014)
Full details of all agreements open to LUPC Members are available at
www.lupc.ac.uk
The full list of framework lots is as follows:
Lot 1: General clerical and administrative staﬀ
Lot 2: Professional staﬀ (including hr, Finance, Procurement)
Lot 3: IT staﬀ
Lot 4: Operational staﬀ (including cooks, cleaners, security staﬀ)
Lot 5: retail staﬀ (including front-of-house staﬀ)
Lot 6: One-stop-shop and payroll service
Lot 7: administration of direct temping system.
occupational Health
Following the conclusion of the standstill period on 23 December,
LUPC’s new framework agreement for Occupational health
commenced on 21 January. Full details are now on GeM. a number of
launch activities are now being undertaken, including: announcements
to LUPC Members (and, in the case of Lot 5, to Members of SUPC,
NEUPC and NWUPC); sharing of the Buyer’s Guide via GeM; meetings
with interested institutions; planning of a launch event (to be run
jointly with the upcoming Temporary Staﬀ framework); and press
releases to relevant media. Implementation meetings were scheduled
with the framework providers for early February.
TraVEL
Business Travel
The Tender Working Group met on 10 December and agreed on
the future agreement scope. The next meeting was arranged for
18 February. The basic tender support terms of reference have
been drafted and process started. LUPC also met with Barrington’s
International about airlines route Deals phases 1 and 2.
Taxi Services
This agreement commenced on 1 December and was awarded to ﬁve
suppliers across three lots.
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8
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:26 Page 9
CaSE STUDY
a new approach to estates maintenance
Jon Burr, Business Development
Co-ordinator at Sykes & Son, discusses
his company’s contract with
Barnet & Southgate College through
LUPC’s Estates Maintenance agreement.
Sykes & Son entered a three-year contract
for planned and reactive maintenance
across three college campuses of Barnet &
Southgate College in late 2012.
One challenge has been to transfer the
redCare service to monitor the alarm
systems; this has been a diﬃcult transition
due to there being numerous contracts in
place with diﬀerent companies. We had to
consolidate all of the information together,
which then required permissions from the
College to instigate the
changeover. Working
with the Estates team
we engaged our
specialist contractor to
assist them and us in
making the transfers
as easy as possible.
by focusing on open lines of
communication, regular interaction and
going above and beyond to ensure client
satisfaction. Our Director attended the ﬁrst
contract meeting to demonstrate the
commitment of the entire Sykes team in
delivering the contract to the highest of
standards and regularly attends meetings
to keep continuity.
Our philosophy is to build relationships
with all of our clients and, in this instance,
we were very mindful
that the new contract
came very quickly after
the joining of the two
colleges. We have been
keen to demonstrate
that we are here to work
together and deliver a
solution that will give
the College ﬂexibility
and free up staﬀ to
concentrate on other
aspects of the College’s estate
management.
“We are here to work
together and free up
staﬀ to concentrate
on other aspects of
the College’s estate
management.”
The contract as a
whole is an innovative
approach to service
delivery; it provides a single point of
contact and single invoicing source for the
College, saving on time and costs of
administration. There have inevitably been
crossovers where existing contracts were
running at the same time as our contract
had started, but we have worked with the
Estates team and have mobilised and
entered into steady-state with the
minimum of issues or fuss.
We have entered into dialogue and built
relationships very quickly, and have made
our team available to assist wherever
possible, especially at Southgate where the
Estates Oﬃcer was new to the role and
from a non-technical background. We
assisted her with technical matters and
helped her to acclimatise to the job.
Indeed, we always believe in working
together and building strong relationships
Sykes were established in 1759 and remain
London’s oldest independent building
contractor. We have a number of clients to
whom we provide the full scope of works,
from routine maintenance and repairs
through to major design and build
projects. as an approved supplier to the
LUPC Estates Maintenance Services
agreement - for Lot 1 ‘Fabric Maintenance’
and Lot 6 ‘Fabric and M&E Maintenance
‘One-Stop-Shop’ - we have completed
projects for clients such as Institute of
Education, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of
Music & Drama and London School of
hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
The buyer’s view
“This is the ﬁrst time that Barnet
and Southgate College has used a
framework maintenance contract
across a multi-site. The merged College
inherited some legacy contracts which
required integrating with the contract
award to Sykes & Son. another
challenge was due mainly in part to
the non-familiarisation of all the
services by new/relocated members
of staﬀ.
Going forward, the College envisages
appropriate cascading/knowledge
transfer of the services on oﬀer by
Sykes & Son to appropriate members
of staﬀ, thereby enabling maximum
beneﬁt to be gained from the LUPC
Fabric & M&E maintenance contract.”
Karim Meghani, Procurement Manager,
Barnet & Southgate College.
LUPC’s multi-supplier Estates Maintenance
Services agreement includes six lots: Fabric
Maintenance; M&E Maintenance; Lift
Maintenance; Asbestos Management;
Water Management; Fabric and M&E
‘One-Stop-Shop’. For more information
visit www.lupc.ac.uk or contact Sheena
Lanagan, [email protected];
020 7664 4837.
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
9
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:27 Page 10
FEaTUrES
are you EU ready?
Martin Vincent gives us a sneak peak at the new EU Directive.
On the 15 January 2014 a new procurement
Directive, replacing what is known as the
“classic” procurement directive (18/2004),
was approved by the European Parliament.
The ﬁnal step will be for the Parliament to
negotiate the necessary regulation with the
Council in the coming few weeks, after
which date the UK will have 24 months to
implement the changes into national law.
This article highlights some of the changes
to the current regime that purchasers from
across LUPC’s membership can expect.
Contracts
Deﬁnition of procurement
This will catch more activity – for example,
more development agreement – as the new
Directive states that the resultant works do
not have to be intended for a public
purpose. “Disaggregation” is similarly dealt
with, with calculations related to the
thresholds now being related to an entirety
of works, supplies and/or services, even if
purchased through diﬀerent contracts,
constituting a single procurement if the
contracts are part of one single “project”.
International trade
EU member states may restrict the market
access of third country suppliers only by
means of measures provided for in the
regulation or relevant EU law, and only after
a Commission investigation has found a
"lack of substantial reciprocity" by the third
country concerned.
“Public Law”
as many know, higher education institutions
are caught by the current regulations
10
because they are classed as “bodies
governed by public law”. This deﬁnition has
been amended. It is now clariﬁed as "a body
which operates in normal market conditions,
aims to make a proﬁt, and bears the losses
resulting from the exercise of its activity”.
The end of the “Part B”?
The Directive no longer distinguishes
between Part a and Part B services. There is
a higher threshold for a subset of services
(looking a lot like Part B in disguise) that the
UK will have to devise a “lighter touch”
regime for.
“The Directive no
longer distinguishes
between Part A and
Part B services”
relations between public authorities
The Directive codiﬁes the Teckal case law on
"in-house" procurement and the hamburg
Waste exemption. It provides that a
contract awarded by a contracting authority
to another legal person shall fall outside the
scope of the Directive where the following
cumulative conditions are fulﬁlled:
• the contracting authority exercises over
the legal person concerned a control
which is similar to that which it exercises
over its own departments;
• at least 80% of the activities of that
entity are carried out for the controlling
contracting authority or for other legal
persons controlled by that contracting
authority; and
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
• there is no private participation in the
controlled legal person.
Where the collaborative venture is
contractually based, the conditions are that:
• there is a genuine co-operation between
the participating contracting authorities
aimed at carrying out jointly their public
service tasks;
• the same “80% rule” as for the
Teckal exemption;
• there is no “proﬁt” or “margin” between
the participants, other than those
corresponding to the reimbursement of
actual costs of the works, services or
supplies. This will include bans on
“management fees”; and
• again, no private participation is allowed.
The procedures
Member states may, subject to certain
conditions, allow the following procedures:
The competitive procedure
with negotiation
Likely to only be available in certain
circumstances. There are safeguards to
protect against discrimination and unfair
treatment during the procedure (for
example, in relation to disclosure of
information). In addition, contracting
authorities must specify the subject matter
of the contract, the award criteria and the
minimum requirements at the time of
publication. Every tenderer must be given
the possibility to submit a ﬁnal tender.
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:27 Page 11
FEaTUrES
The innovation partnership
In innovation partnerships, any economic
operator may submit a request to
participate in response to a contract notice
with a view to establishing a structured
partnership for the development of an
innovative product, service or works and
the subsequent purchase of the resulting
supplies, services or works. This is
provided that they correspond to the
agreed performance levels and costs.
The partnership shall be structured in
successive stages following the sequence
of steps in the research and innovation
process. This sounds like an expensive and
time-consuming process and is likely to be
reserved for larger, longer tem deals.
award
The criteria for the award of contracts will
be the most economically advantageous
tender or the lowest cost (rather than the
lowest price). Costs may be assessed on
the basis of the price only or using a
cost-eﬀectiveness approach, such as a
life-cycle costing approach.
The technical speciﬁcations may refer to all
factors directly linked to the production
process. The production process is also
listed as an award criteria. however, this
must only refer to aspects of the production
process which are closely related to the
goods or service purchased.
Contracting authorities may require that
works, supplies or services bear speciﬁc
labels certifying environmental, social or
other characteristics, provided that they
accept equivalent labels. The certiﬁcation
schemes for such labels must concern
characteristics linked to the subject-matter
of the contract and be set by oﬃcial bodies.
“Contracting authorities
will need to have a
reason not to divide
contracts into lots to
make them more
accessible to SMEs”
a contracting authority will also be able to
exclude economic operators from the
procedure if it identiﬁes infringements of
obligations in established EU law, in the
ﬁeld of social, labour or environmental law
or of international labour law provisions.
Modiﬁcation of contracts
There are new provisions relating to the
modiﬁcation of contracts during their term
to clarify the law in this area. Substantial
modiﬁcations (not allowed) include the
replacement of the contractual partner,
the introduction of new conditions, the
extension of the scope, and changes to the
economic balance of the contract in favour
of the contractor.
a modiﬁcation shall not be considered to
be substantial where its value does not
exceed the thresholds and where it is
below 15% of the price of the initial
contract (works) or 10% of the price of the
initial contract (services and supplies). This
is provided that the modiﬁcation does not
alter the overall nature of the contract or
is over the relevant threshold value in and
of itself.
Better access to the market for
SMEs and start-ups
Contracting authorities will accept
self-declarations as preliminary evidence
that candidates and tenderers are not
excluded, meet the selection criteria, and
meet the objective rules and criteria that
have been set out.
Contracting authorities will need
to have a reason not to divide contracts
into lots to make them more accessible
to SMEs.
authorities will also be limited to those
criteria "that are appropriate to ensure
that a candidate or tenderer has the ...
capacities and ... abilities to perform the
contract to be awarded". For example,
contracting authorities will not be allowed
to require economic operators to have a
minimum turnover exceeding two times
the estimated contract value.
Martin Vincent
is Partner at
Weightmans LLP,
one of the providers
to LUPC’s Legal
Services agreement.
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
11
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Buying local
FEaTUrES
David Mcalpine explains
how public sector procurement
can be used to support
local economies.
Over recent years there has been increasing interest around
building more resilient ‘local’ communities and economies,
particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This
stems partly from public opinion and reactions against the
increasing centralisation of government and globalisation of
business, and partly from a recognition of the practical beneﬁts
that can accrue to local communities by retaining as much
wealth and economic activity (jobs, contracts etc) as possible
within the local area.
at the same time there is growing evidence that many large,
public and private sector organisations do want to increase their
engagement with and use of local SMEs, where they have often
lacked the internal will, knowledge and resources to take up this
challenge in the past. In London, there is a major local
procurement initiative called Supply Cross river 2 which is
helping to make this happen.
The Supply Cross river programme is a local procurement
initiative that aims to help large organisations meet their local
procurement objectives. It was founded in 2009 by the Cross
river Partnership, which is hosted by Westminster City Council.
It now covers nine boroughs across London on both sides of the
river. It is 50% funded by the European regional Development
Fund and match funded by the participating councils.
The purpose of the programme is to divert more spending by
large employers and contractors working on major developments
into the local economy, in order to foster local business growth
and create jobs. It is designed to assist small and medium size
businesses to access opportunities in their local area and to
improve their chances of winning tenders through training
and events.
There are a number of mechanisms whereby public sector
bodies can embed the use of the local supply chain into
their procurement.
Many local authorities in London now include a local
procurement obligation, along with local employment, in their
Section 106 planning agreements, both during and after
construction. This is relevant to Linked readers in so far as they
may ﬁnd that local procurement obligations are included in their
s106 planning agreement when applying for planning permission.
It’s certainly possible to obtain local procurement beneﬁts from
contracts above the EU threshold. This approach involves
obtaining local procurement, among other beneﬁts, from ﬁrst
tier contractors. It is a common misunderstanding that the EU
rules prevent the use of social clauses being drafted into
contracts. In Buying Social: A guide to taking account of the social
12
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
considerations in public procurement, the EU explains that social
clauses can be included as social speciﬁcations and contract
performance conditions. Public bodies can decide, where
appropriate, to draft community beneﬁts into the technical
speciﬁcations complete with KPIs, including requirements to make
sub-contracts accessible to local businesses. This has been
successfully achieved by many local authorities most notably
Birmingham, Camden, Islington, Croydon, Southwark and Lambeth.
For example, projects to increase energy eﬃciency for social
housing, which are funded through the Energy Company Obligation,
attract high levels of local procurement from building contractors
bidding for such work, often ranging from 60-90%. There are other
ﬁnancial incentives such as the renewable heat Incentive, as well as
Green Deal, which apply to non-residential buildings.
The Public Services (Social Value) act (2012) in the UK adds a legal
obligation to consider the economic, social and environmental value
that a procurement of services might bring to the local area and
how these should be secured.
Supply Cross river 2 can advise public bodies on the best ways of
legitimately embedding local procurement into their contracts with
larger suppliers, frameworks etc. It also has a strong technical oﬀer
through the SME members in construction-related and low carbon
building retroﬁtting, as well as members covering a wide range of
other sectors.
David Mcalpine is head of Buyer Engagement for the Supply
Cross river 2 local procurement programme,
[email protected]; www.supplycrossriver.co.uk
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:27 Page 13
Socially responsible
IT purchasing
FEaTUrES
Jim Cranshaw from People & Planet discusses how a new organisation
can help buyers source more ethical ICT supply chains.
In 2010 a series of 14 suicides at Foxconn
factories in China drew the world's
attention to conditions for workers in the
electronics industry. almost all of these
deaths were workers no older than the
students at London’s universities. Producing
for well-known big brands that supply the
UK and European market, along with most
of the public sector, there were allegations
that workers were working in conditions
that included ritual humiliations in front of
colleagues, a complete denial of freedom
of association, and shifts that sometimes
lasted longer than 24 hours straight.
Universities, health sector organisations
and local governments are large-scale
consumers of electronics products such as
computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets
and other telecommunication equipment,
not forgetting printers, copiers and servers.
across Europe, €94 billion is spent on ICT
each year, and the UK is one of the larger
buyers, with €18 billion spent in the last
year for which we have statistics (see more
on page 19). In this context a new initiative,
Electronics Watch, aims to enable the
public sector to use the huge, but largely
untapped power of public purchasing to
improve conditions and lives in the
factories making electronics products for
our universities, cultural institutions and
other bodies.
Increasingly public sector organisations
across Europe have adopted socially
responsible public procurement policies.
This in itself is not enough, however. Even
after policies or standards are adopted and
required by purchasers, the next challenge
is to verify that those standards are in fact
being met.
Public purchasers are frequently unable to
manage conditions in their supply chains,
because they do not have the resources or
expertise to investigate and monitor
factories in other parts of the world.
Ultimately this means a risk to the public
institution, a policy that goes unfulﬁlled,
and particularly a risk to the lives and
livelihoods of people in the supply chains.
responding to this need, Electronics
Watch is a new organisation created to
monitor and reform the conditions of
workers in factories making electronics
products for the European public sector.
Funded by the European Commission,
and spearheaded by a coalition of 47
public sector organisations, NGOs, experts
and unions from across the world, the
initiative aims to provide the missing link
in public sector policy on socially
responsible procurement. They aim to act
as the 'eyes and ears' of public sector
organisations on the ground, in the regions
where their ICT products are made.
Electronics Watch brings together public
sector buyers and local monitoring
organisations. aﬃliated public sector
buyers will get up-to-date information
about their suppliers, monitoring of local
working conditions and structured ways of
starting to reform conditions for workers in
their electronics supply chains. Electronics
Watch will start monitoring operations in
2015, with a ﬁrst group of 60 public sector
buyers from across Europe.
an Informal advisory Group (IaG) has
been set up, and is divided into three
sub-groups as follows: Southern Partners
and Monitoring Organisations; Public
Sector Organisations; and NGOs, Experts
and Unions. all members of the groups are
encouraged to actively participate in
constructively scrutinising the formation
of the new consortium. We are receiving
ongoing interest for involvement as a
member of the IaG and are encouraging
applications from organisations who wish
to collaborate. Similarly, Electronics Watch
has created an opportunity for 25 public
sector organisations to aﬃliate as
Founding Members. Organisations across
Europe have already started joining.
This is an opportunity to shape the future
of sustainable and socially responsible
public procurement. We are committed
to a future where the human rights of
electronics workers are no longer
threatened and institutional consumers
can feel secure they are not contributing
towards the suﬀering of others. We hope
that some of the readers of Linked will join
us on our journey.
For more information contact Jim
Cranshaw, People & Planet, 01865 264180,
[email protected] or visit
electronicswatch.org
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
13
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Student digs meet design
FEaTUrES
The student accommodation sector is one
of the best performing asset classes in the
property world. Private student
accommodation providers are seeking to
maximise returns by raising students’
expectations.
The performance of student property over
the last few years, in spite of a rise in
university fees and living costs, has been
exceptional. according to James Pullan,
head of Student Property at Knight Frank,
student property “has outperformed every
other commercial property class.” James
believes that this is in part down to the
rise in student fees, which prompts
“a ‘ﬂight to quality’ by students.”
But despite a signiﬁcant uplift in the
number of people applying for tertiary
education, there is still a structural
undersupply of purpose-built student
accommodation in the UK. It is this
undersupply which makes the sector so
attractive to the nouveaux generation of
student accommodation providers, who
aim to please with their design-led
schemes. So, gone are the days of students
sleeping on broken mattresses or doing
their own redecorating; good interiors and
quality furnishing are now vital.
Landlords are ﬁnding that students
demand higher quality properties than
they have in the past and good furnishing
has become more important. Of all the
asset classes in the property sector, I
would say that student accommodation
14
has the greatest need for furnishing.
Students simply will not rent a property
that is unfurnished.
This is no surprise in a market where the
tenancies are shorter and the tenants are
poorer. and even if students were to buy
furniture, the thought of having to pay for
removal costs after they graduate is the
last thing on their mind. But it is the
quality of furniture that the new providers
are asking for which surprises.
Whereas in the past landlords were
content providing basic furniture, the
landlords that are approaching us now
want high quality furnishings. They see it
as a key diﬀerentiator that will enable
them to generate higher returns.
at PeelMount, we’re receiving an
increasing number of requests for designled furnishing. There is a bank of new
student accommodation providers who
consider design to be important. For
example, we are involved in a design-led
project up in Scotland called Tramworks
by Fresh Student Living, they are a growing
provider with three or four projects on
the go.
Most of the new players see design as a
key selling point, and accommodation is
becoming really trendy, ﬁnished almost like
a city apartment. and the providers are
changing the rents to go with it.
New design-led accommodation is equally
becoming a lifestyle choice for students,
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
McColl Productions Ltd; Tramworks development.
with many now choosing between private
student accommodation providers and
university halls of residence.
at the moment, the majority of ﬁrst year
students still live in university halls of
residence. For second and third year
students, however, there is certainly a
trend away from hMOs to purpose-built
private student accommodation. a lot of
the larger private blocks that we see will
have a gym, a games room; they might
even have a cinema and a bar. The
students that live there are getting a
campus experience and are quite happy to
spend more for quality accommodation
that has all of the facilities to go with it.
Many universities are struggling to invest
in student accommodation, opening the
door for increased private sector
involvement. But design-led, high-quality
student accommodation is now an
expectation as fees rise, and provides a
competitive edge to an institution’s overall
student experience.
Martin Bartlett is Managing Director
at PeelMount, a specialist universities
furnishing contractor that recently
merged with David Phillips. It is one of
the approved suppliers to the consortia
agreements for Soft Furnishings and
White Goods.
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:27 Page 15
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1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:27 Page 16
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London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
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1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:28 Page 18
MEMBEr INTErVIEW
Let’s talk…
This issue, we talk to Mitch Dalgleish, head of
Procurement at the University of Westminster
How long have you worked at the University of Westminster?
18 months.
How did you get into procurement?
In the late ‘80s I got a temporary job as a clerical oﬃcer in the
Purchasing section of the old housing Corporation. It was
supposed to be for three months but I ended up as Procurement
Manager and stayed there for about 10 years.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
Procurement processes are still a bit of a mystery to many
colleagues so there’s still quite a lot of advising to do. I’ve had
many lively discussions about why compliance in procurement is
so important. It sometimes feels like a bit of a crusade but I really
enjoy those discussions.
What’s the most diﬃcult aspect?
The above mentioned discussions! I often ﬁnd myself empathising
with customers when a prescriptive procurement mechanism
appears on the surface to be more of a hindrance than a help. But
the process of clarifying helps me to reaﬃrm the fact that I
actually believe in what I do.
If you weren’t in procurement, what would you be doing?
I would probably be sitting with my family on a beach-side
restaurant on the east coast of Korea eating seafood and kimchi
with some ice cold soju and at the same time I would be writing
the words and music to my latest West End musical. But I haven’t
really thought about it.
What’s the most interesting item or service you’ve had to buy?
When President George W. Bush visited the US Embassy in
London, I was asked to buy a sheet of bullet proof glass for
his room. On the same trip, Secretary of State Condoleezza rice
asked for a coﬀee maker for her room.
The University of Westminster is a member of LUPC – what do
you think have been the main beneﬁts of joining the
consortium?
We have made major savings through our use of LUPC’s
collaborative agreements. This has become increasingly
important with respect to targets set in the Diamond report. But
the general spirit of collaboration at the LUPC brings many other
beneﬁts as the Members work together on a united front to
resolve various issues. The value of this collaborative spirit cannot
be overstated. There are also great networking opportunities at
the LUPC conferences which are always extremely informative
and well-run. and they also put on an excellent Christmas Lunch.
18
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
What are the key challenges ahead for your institution?
I don’t think we are completely unique in the challenges we face.
We need to make ourselves even more attractive to students and
continue to provide them with excellent value for money.
Procurement has a major role to play in that respect. I am
particularly interested in how strategic procurement can not only
achieve value for money through expenditure, but also directly
assist the university in oﬀering value for money to students,
through its teaching.
What achievement are you most proud of?
Bringing up my two daughters.
Fancy being our next Member interview? Contact:
[email protected]
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:28 Page 19
FOCUS ON
how ethical are IT supply chains?
Electronics Watch, a new organisation created to monitor and reform the conditions of workers
in factories making electronics products for the European public sector, sets out the challenge.
State of the market
The public sector buys one in ﬁve computers in
Europe and the UK public sector was the largest IT
buyer in Europe in 2010, spending approximately
€18 billion per year.
75% of the multi-billion mobile communications
industry is in the hands of just ﬁve companies
(Motorola, SonyEricsson, Nokia, Samsung and LG).
Working conditions
It is estimated that 50% of the current labour force
in many electronics factories consists of contract
workers with less legal protection and security, and
at times even up to 90% of the workforce.
In the Philippines, Thailand and China working hours
can run to 12-hour working days with limited break
times, and weeks without a day oﬀ.
State of the market
Environment
In 2010, 18 workers, none older than 25, attempted
suicide at Foxconn factories.
In Europe, export of waste from electrical and
electronic equipment (WEEE) to developing
countries is banned according to European
legislation. Despite this regulation, 75% of European
e-waste is unaccounted for.
It may cost €10 to recycle a computer in Europe,
but it can be taken apart by Indian informal waste
workers for a just €1.50.
an estimated 10 to 20% of discarded computers in
hong Kong go to landﬁlls, potentially leaching toxic
chemicals into the environment.
For more information on improving your electronics supply chain contact Jim Cranshaw, People & Planet, 01865 264180,
[email protected] or visit electronicswatch.org
London Universities Purchasing Consortium March 2014
19
1557 LUPC LINKED March 14 4_Layout 1 18/03/2014 17:28 Page 20