Coventry City Council improves on-contract spend with Proactis

Profile

Sector:
Public Sector

Suppliers on-boarded:
30

Operates in:
United Kingdom

Customer since:
2013

Objectives

  • Increase access to approved supplier catalogues.
  • Speed up order processing time.
  • More accurate management information and increase contract compliance.
  • Introduction of e-invoicing.

How Proactis helped

  • Established secure access to a ‘one-stop-shop’ for Council employees to suppliers’ websites and catalogues for Corporate contracts e.g. stationery, workwear and cleaning materials.
  • Approved suppliers are consolidated into one system
  • Seamless integration with the Council's Unit4 ERP system.

Benefits

  • Improved on-contract spend.
  • Improved controls over restricted categories in line with Corporate policies
  • Streamlined order process, saving time and ensuring that Council staff are buying from approved suppliers, at agreed prices.
  • Timely and accurate management information to support category management.
The one-stop-shop approach introduced with Proactis has become an integral part of our Purchasing system, ensuring that we have more control of our spend.

Procurement Systems and Contracts Manager, Coventry City Council
 

Profile

Coventry City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Coventry in England and serves a population of over 350,000 residents

The Council employs over 5,000 employees, with 22 members in the strategic Procurement team, including 6 within the Systems team and 7.64 FTE in the Accounts Payable team. Procurement is mostly carried out centrally with only a handful of departments managing their own tendering processes.
Coventry City Council improves on-contract spend with Proactis

Objectives

The Council was looking to manage its spend more effectively and drive extra value with a solution that could also integrate seamlessly into their Unit4 ERP. There was previously limited access to catalogues for employees, resulting in staff members not easily being able to  find what they needed, and purchasing  from un-approved suppliers. “This was very time intensive, and there was poor visibility of what was being purchased,” stated Jan Harding, Procurement Systems and Contracts Manager at the Council.

This was particularly the case for low value, high volume goods such as cleaning materials  and stationery. "We needed to introduce access to approved supplier catalogues, and speed up order processing time," added Jan. Proactis Marketplace was implemented for Council staff.
Speed up order processing time and introduce eInvoicing

How Proactis helped

With the introduction of Proactis Marketplace, the Council was able to consolidate approved suppliers in one area for employees to easily access and select the products they needed.

“This saves our central Procurement team so much time as they no longer have to pre-check prices or whether employees are using approved suppliers,” said Jan. Thanks to seamless integration with the Council's Unit4 ERP system, the purchasing process has been streamlined, and the ‘one-stop-shop’ is now an integral part of the Council’s procurement system. “This makes life so much easier for our users when they need to purchase items.”

Nearly 3,000 orders are placed annually through Proactis with Council staff having easy access to approved catalogues.
Seamless integration with the Council's Unit4 ERP system.

Benefits

Council staff now have easy access to approved catalogues, helping the Procurement team to increase on-contract spend while enabling employees to quickly and easily access what they need to carry out their jobs. “Not only does this save time purchasing goods and services, but it also reduces maverick spend and enables our teams to concentrate on more value-adding activities.”

The order process is streamlined and saves the Council time and money. Staff can source items from the best-value approved suppliers, improving on-contract spend. “Buyers can easily move from our Unit4 system to the Proactis marketplace, via the single, user-friendly interface, select goods and services, and also ensure that the item is ordered, received and paid for,” added Jan. The process is also now more auditable and compliant with complete and accurate management information on all purchases, helping to increase spend visibility and improve contract management.

The system also gives the Council’s Procurement team a clear view of what has been ordered. “We can now report on our spend as the system provides timely and accurate management information to support our category management,” concluded Jan.
• Streamlined order process, saving time and ensuring that Council staff are buying from approved suppliers, at agreed prices.
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