Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

Assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of porters and cleaners

Benchmarking is increasingly used in the quest for efficiency and most universities have used the Procurement Maturity Assessment, developed by SUMS Consulting and the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortia. SUMS has now developed another maturity model that allows easy self assessment and indicates a way forward and has applied it to portering and cleaning services.
Laura Watson of Durham University

Procurement as an institutional priority

Universities were encouraged by the Diamond report to see procurement as an institutional priority. But how can this be achieved in principle and what have universities done on the ground? Laura Watson, deputy director of procurement at Durham University, talks with John Lakin of Procurement UK about what has been achieved at her university.

Three posts on efficiency from leading speakers at last week’s conference

The 4th annual efficiency conference was held on Wednesday 25 March, with more than 20 speakers from across the higher education sector. Here are three blogposts written for Efficiency Exchange by three of the star speakers from the Universities UK event.

Introducing the Higher Education Procurement Academy

The Higher Education Procurement Academy aims to be a centre of excellence for advanced procurement capability and professional development, built by the sector, for the sector.
Working together

Report reveals impact of collaborative procurement in England

Procurement England Ltd marks a successful year with the publication its first annual report, which highlights its progress in strengthening collaborative procurement in higher education. Marion Lois Hutchins introduces the report.

University procurement: ‘Never miss an opportunity to promote what you do’

Alison Holmes, director of procurement at Durham University, talks about the important role of procurement in a higher education institution and why it should be seen as a strategic function.

G-Cloud: universities can use new online marketplace

G-Cloud is a UK Government initiative to encourage the adoption of Cloud Services across the whole of the Public Sector as well as the higher education sector. It aims to simplify how the Public Sector buys and delivers services by creating a marketplace of pay-as-you-go commodity services that can be easily scaled up or down, based on the changing needs of an organisation and its users.

Universities – the ‘intelligent customers’ of the future

Higher education institutions should develop their own approach to becoming ‘intelligent customers’ of suppliers, which will involve investment in new skills, changes in culture...

Efficiency Exchange update 28 January 2014

A round-up of news and comment on smarter working in universities. Now weekly!

Understanding PEL’s role in supporting procurement in the HE sector

In an already crowded HE sector, can another sector body, Procurement England Limited (PEL), really add value? In an interview, Rex Knight, chair of the PEL Board, says yes and explains how.