OJEU compliant procurement for IT support and infrastructure services
Forming part of the MOD and established in 1908 (as Territorial Associations) the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCAs) were designed to provide support to the Territorial Force in every county. Over 100 years later, the RFCA dependency has grown to encompass reserves and cadets of all three services. The Council of RFCAs (CRFCA) was constituted by the 13 individual RFCAs in order to provide a central coordination and a focus to enable the Associations to fulfil the requirements of their customers within resources.
CRFCA had been working with the same provider for many years but had identified opportunities to optimise service delivery and needed to market-test the current model.
It was decided that they would run an OJEU compliant procurement process to improve service levels but also ensure best value in the current market.
Working closely with key stakeholders to understand internal processes and service requirements, eXceeding’s consultants managed the entire process, from requirements gathering and documentation creation to award and contract signature.
The transition was smooth and the client was quickly benefitting from new innovative ways of providing the service, updating CRFCA’s working practices, whilst ensuring improved supplier performance and best value moving forwards.
It was identified that there were 3 key challenges, that needed to be considered:
Category knowledge
CRFCA needed to understand the technical requirements to source the best supplier
Compliance and data protection
Due to the confidential nature of the information being handled.
Internal resources
CRFCA needed additional skills and capacity to handle a complex and business critical procurement process.
eXceeding managed a fully compliant OJEU procurement, including the following key steps:
By transitioning CRFCA to a new provider, we helped to ensure that they were getting the best possible service but also the most up-to-date technology.
The chosen provider demonstrated innovative new ways of delivering the same services, which has resulted in efficiencies both in terms of time and value for money.
eXceeding’s team demonstrated a high level of understanding of both the complexities surrounding OJEU compliance and the sector expertise required to negotiate business critical outsourced IT contracts. They worked closely with our team to help us to identify new ways of working with our IT service providers and the best value solution for our needs.
Through engaging eXceeding, they were able to benefit from significant cost savings across their IT and WAN outsourcing providers.
The NEU wanted to ensure that their replacement WAN was procured in a transparent, fair and auditable process, ensuring best value for the organisation and its members.
eXceeding was engaged by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to handle complex exit negotiations, as well as providing an experienced, onsite team to manage the transition to the new IT service provider.
