July 2008
Buckinghamshire selects EGS
Buckinghamshire County Council is the latest major local authority to subscribe to the IDeA:marketplace, EGS's on demand e-procurement platform for the public sector. This brings the number of local authorities using EGS for e-procurement to over 100.
The EGS solution will integrate with the County Council's SAP ERP system and is expected to go live later this year.
Buckinghamshire County Council believes the marketplace will prove a highly cost-effective way to maintain content for its online supplier catalogues.
The council's buyers will be able to 'punch out' from within the SAP system and access goods and services from hundreds - and potentially thousands - of local and national suppliers of all sizes.
EGS ensures seamless connectivity to all suppliers by either: making direct connections to their e-commerce web sites; hosting their online catalogues; or by 'e-enabling' smaller or occasional suppliers to allow online purchasing by email or SMS.
"We look forward to working with EGS and anticipate that updated marketplace content will help us to ensure the widest choice and best value for our budget holders," says Paul Raimbach, Procurement Consultancy Development Manager at Buckinghamshire County Council.
For media enquiries please contact media@egsgroup.com
June 2008
EGS reveals Return on Investment achieved by customers
How much do public sector organisations really save by using an e-commerce marketplace?
It's correct to be wary or even cynical when IT companies brag about the massive efficiencies they can offer their clients - if they don't supply any proof.
However, EGS has hard facts because over the past 12 months, many of our customers have told us exactly what they've been saving.
Findings include the following:
To receive more examples with the names of organisations, plus EGS's own ROI calculations, pease email Adrian Gibson at adrian.gibson@egsgroup.com or call 020 7539 2828.
We can also supply a collection of customer testimonials. Please contact us to receive your copy.
June 2008
Customers praise savings, cost control and other key features of EGS marketplace
What does your organisation want to gain from connecting to an e-commerce marketplace? EGS's customers have been clear about what they value most. Over the past 12 months, we've been collecting their views and comments on a range of key features and benefits delivered by our public sector marketplaces.
We're grateful to customers for their help. And we've collected more than 30 of their comments for other interested organisations to read.
Our customers offer insights into their experiences in these important areas:
A selection of testimonials are published here:
To receive more customer testimonials with the names of organisations, please email Adrian Gibson at adrian.gibson@egsgroup.com or call 020 7539 2828.
May 2008
Dorset Police Deploys EGS Bluelight Marketplace for eProcurement, Becomes First Customer to Deploy Real-Time Commitment Accounting
Police Force Plans to Achieve £350,000 Annual Savings on 25,000 Purchases and Provide a Secure Procure-to-Pay Solution Across the Entire Organisation
EGS, the UK's largest and fastest growing eCommerce provider for the public sector and its suppliers, today announced that Dorset Police has deployed the EGS eProcurement and electronic trading environment for Emergency Services, known as the Bluelight Marketplace, to streamline efficiencies in its procurement processes. Dorset Police has also become the first EGS customer to deploy Real-Time Commitment Accounting. Over the coming year, Dorset Police also plans to add EGS' eInvoicing solution, creating a completely electronic, automated purchase-to-pay lifecycle.
Dorset Police spends £30 million on purchases every year, processing 25,000 orders annually. Dorset Police wanted to implement an automated purchase-to-pay system that would reduce maverick spending, enable better supplier controls, create greater efficiencies for the procurement process, and facilitate Shared Services and collaborative working initiatives with other police forces. In particular, Dorset Police wanted the ability to check that funds were available for allocated purchases before orders were completed, which meant implementing a Real-Time Commitment Accounting system that would seamlessly integrate with its existing Oracle-based financial system.
Dorset Police's involvement in this is part of a South West & Wales Regional Force project, lead by Dorset Police Assistant Chief Officer, John Jones, and working closely with Devon & Cornwall Police.
"We have large regional contracts with a number of suppliers, and we also work closely with Dorset County Council," said Shona Campbell, Contracts Officer and Project Manager for Dorset Police. "We wanted to automate our whole purchase to pay process through e-procurement and e-invoicing, and in particular wanted to build Real-Time Commitment Accounting into this process. We needed a system that would automatically verify that the person ordering goods has the authority for those budget codes, that there are funds allocated to those specific budget codes, and that the companies we are ordering from are in fact active suppliers with us. EGS already had a proven track record of delivering eProcurement and eInvoicing solutions, and were able to build an interface into our financial system so that we can seamlessly automate real-time budget checks. We also consulted other EGS reference sites who were taking a similar approach to Commitment Accounting. Overall, we expect the system to deliver a return on investment within six to twelve months, depending on how quickly it becomes fully deployed."
Dorset Police initially implemented the EGS Bluelight Marketplace without the Commitment Accounting feature while the interface was being built, in order to get staff familiar with using the system. Now fully live and operational, Campbell and her team will be deploying the EGS system to the entire force over the coming months, and will be implementing EGS' eInvoicing system later this year to create a paperless system.
"The manual procurement process was costing us about £28 per transaction to process, and we process around 25,000 purchase orders per year," added Campbell. "With the EGS Bluelight Marketplace, we expect to reduce this cost by at least 50 per cent, if not more, resulting in non-cashable annual savings of around £350,000 per year. These savings will increase even further once we deploy EGS' eInvoicing system. Moving forward, we plan to set up an internal stores for internal customers within the force. The internal stores will be listed as a local supplier within the EGS system and will include an internal catalogue of items, such as uniforms, to make it easier for personnel to order goods. At the moment we spend a considerable amount of time on paper and processes. The internal stores will make it easy to see what's available and will simplify the internal ordering process. We believe we will be one of the first police forces in the country to do this, and it will enable officers to process orders at any time, regardless of whether they're working on a day or night shift."
EGS's Bluelight Marketplace specialises in supporting the electronic trading requirements of the Police and Emergency Services. The Bluelight Marketplace provides Police Forces across the country with online access to national and regionally negotiated contracts and to specialised suppliers of goods and services. Through full and seamless interconnectivity with the IDeA:marketplace and other exchanges, Police Forces also have wide access to general national and regional framework contracts. This means Forces can collaborate nationally, regionally, and with, for example, neighbouring local authorities.
"Implementing eProcurement and technology requires a cultural change that has to be carefully managed," said Campbell. "With EGS, we've found a market leading system that's both easy to use, easy to manage and provides us with a more controlled, efficient and automated purchase to pay system which removes cumbersome processes, verifies authorisation, and reduces off contract spending. It also means we can consolidate the number of suppliers and work with other forces to collaborate on best practice."
To receive more customer testimonials with the names of organisations, please email Adrian Gibson at adrian.gibson@egsgroup.com or call 020 7539 2828.
We can also supply a collection of customer testimonials. Please contact us to receive your copy.
For media enquiries please contact media@egsgroup.com