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As part of our ongoing series of round table discussions Civil Service World, the newspaper for the senior civil service, is holding a discussion on successfully centralising travel procurement across government.
The Efficiency and Reform Group is currently working on a centralised category management strategy for travel spend across government. It will form a key part of the Cabinet Office's drive to produce savings across government, but there are challenges to overcome if this process is to produce the greatest possible efficiencies.
There is firstly the question of data. Recent 'deep dive' reviews have provided a clearer picture of travel spend across government but the picture is still not complete: departments must now find ways to continue gathering comprehensive data on their travel spend, which may include a variety of expenses as well as the obvious road, rail and air costs.
Once the data is gathered, new frameworks must be developed and in developing these frameworks category managers must balance aggregation and consolidation of spend with the coalition’s aim of supporting SMEs where possible. The recently re-let government hotels framework caused concern among businesses which felt it was cutting out smaller hotels – exactly the kind of situation that Francis Maude, at a recent summit on engaging with SMEs, said he was keen to avoid. Finally, there is the problem of enforcing procurement decisions made a central level across many departments and agencies with their own travel polices, procurement arrangements and IT systems. HR, finance and IT teams will need to work together to ensure that the hard work of category teams in the ERG is not undone through unplanned or unauthorised spending.
As the ERG team works to deliver a new strategy for travel management, this round table, held in association with American Express, will bring together managers from across government to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by centralisation in this area. It will address the question:
How can commercial, IT and HR teams support the effective centralisation of travel spend, and maximise efficiencies in their own departments?
Topics will include
- What data will departments - and government – need in order to plan an effective category management strategy for travel?
- How can travel category managers contribute to the government’s aim of giving more business to SMEs?
- How can greater use of SMEs be balanced with the need to aggregate procurement and produce efficiencies?
- What are the challenges of centralising procurement in this particular category?
- How can they be overcome?
- How can managers support the procurement decisions made by commercial teams to ensure that new frameworks achieve maximum value?
12:30 – 14:30, Wednesday 6 April 2011 London Westminster venue
If you are interested in attending this discussion please email roundtables@civilservicenetwork.com
Notes
Like all of our round tables, this event will be covered in a major feature within a forthcoming issue of Civil Service World. A reporter and photographer will attend, and the event is on the record. Participants will not see the content of the article before publication, though we will send a copy of the piece upon publication and further comment would be welcome. If at any point participants do not wish particular comments to be reported, they are welcome to announce before speaking that their words are off the record. Civil Service World aims to explore the issues facing leaders across central government. It has a strong reputation as a responsible and considerate newspaper, and understands the complexities of work in the civil service; in covering this event, participants can be sure that we will report the discussion thoughtfully, sensitively and intelligently.
Last updated 422 days ago by Daniel Atkinson
Oh and can CSL do something about the lousy formatting of text posted by contirbutors on here. Its no wonder no-one reads stuff on your site - as presented, its unreadbale. Doh!!!!!
Michael ONeill 422 days ago
Michael ONeill
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I would agree with a lot of what is being said above: it's just a pity that what any sensible (ordinary) person/manager might call the bleedin' obvious has to be reinvented and presented in highfalutin language by people with a thinly disguised commercial interest and intent on blinding their prey with pretentious gobbledegook (middle managers are suckers for it).
As the event is in London (as usual), the likes of myself (in Manchester) and many others from the often more sensible cost-saving culture found in the hinterland, will not be able to attend. But I'll make a few observations.
1) If a huge spending block such as the government services consolidates its spend successfully, the benefiting sectors (transport, hotels) suffer a significant loss of revenue. They must then either reduce their costs accordingly, or else raise their unit prices. The first will most likely lead to deterioration in service; the second stands to undermine government attempts at spend reduction.
2) I hear complaint after complaint from colleagues about how new consolidated online self-service travel and hotel booking systems do not do their job properly and result in them wasting a lot of their (expensive) work time. So beware the hidden costs of a naive utopian vision that, in reality, largely moves costs out of the light and into the shadows. They may be harder to spot, but they may have no less (and maybe more) of an impact on the running of the business/services
3) I was in the hotel booking business (I ran an external conference and training course business) for many years. I worked hard to find hotels with no reputation but with good potential. These were usually smaller independent ones (SMEs if you like). I got excellent price savings, and my customers stayed happy (excited even, at these mystery trips). The small hotels got their reputation built up, and free promotion from all my mailings. Eventually, enquiries for bookings with them rose as a result, and so did their prices (supply and demand). At that point, I had to move on and search for the next ‘Cinderella’ hotel. So it goes. But there is no doubt that a motivated procurer of goods and services can get some good deals provided they accept the need to be constantly reviewing things and seeking new suppliers (perhaps not so easy with transport as the rail and air sectors at least don’t have SMEs?). Whether Big Business + Government can or genuinely will embrace that ethos with success, is another matter entirely.
4) let’s expose ‘strategic partner’ and ‘preferred supplier’ arrangements for what they are: restrictive practice that works against market forces. The claimed gains in efficiency made by the protagonists are about as credible as those made for nationalising industries look when set against their historical performance.
Michael ONeill 422 days ago