The Challenge
Cheshire and Merseyside CSU (CMCSU) procurement service provides a full procurement offering to Clinical Commissioning Support Groups and healthcare providers throughout Cheshire and Merseyside, and is the approved National Commissioning Board provider for the North West, working in partnership with colleagues in Greater Manchester. Services include policy development, strategic planning, commercial advice and guidance, health market analysis, specifi cation development, procurement negotiation, contract development and risk management.
The CMCSU procurement function recently undertook a joint commitment with Greater Manchester CSU to adopt standardised procurement processes and collaborate in “at scale procurements” across the North West to secure improved healthcare and increased patient choice.
As part of this work, both organisations wanted shared access to a web-based portal that was fully capable of supporting their collaborative procurement activities, as well as their own pre and post procurement requirements – from advert to award. After shortlisting and evaluating fi ve eSourcing systems against various cost, technical, service and quality criteria, the Delta eSourcing suite was selected as the preferred solution to meet these challenges.
The Solution
- Secure, EU-compliant web-based eSourcing solution, complete with easy to use Tender
- and Supplier Manager tools and automated management of procurement process
- Fully branded Healthcare Portal, hosting the latest procurement opportunities
- Instant supplier access to contract opportunities and awards
- Complete audit trail of procurement activity, which can be accessed easily and
- exported into management reports
- Full reporting capability
Project Benefi ts
- A better, more time-effi cient and cost-effective tender process
- Timely provision of contract and procurement information to the provider community
- Improved collaboration and supplier engagement
- Online evaluation and moderation
- Reduction in paperwork and administration costs associated with tendering
- Management visibility of all procurement and team activity
- Development of standardised procurement documents and templates
- Electronic Document Library
The Results
“The Delta eSourcing suite has provided us with a vehicle to better engage the marketplace and fulfil our clients’ procurement requirements. Although we are in the very early days of adoption, the system has been well received by our Procurement Managers and moderators and reduced the volume of paperwork and administration associated with tender exercises. The training and helpdesk support supplied by BiP Solutions has also been invaluable in expediting our knowledge and familiarisation with the new system and reducing the volume of supplierrelated queries during the course of each tender exercise.”
Peter Norman
Head of Procurement – Merseyside, Cheshire and Merseyside Commissioning Support Unit