IT PROCUREMENT SITE SAVES ORGANISATIONS

A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT:
SPRING 2011
IT PROCUREMENT SITE SAVES
ORGANISATIONS £MILLIONS
Cheltenham BC boosted
by E-sourced savings
E-procurement is at the top of the
agenda for many public sector organisa-
the cost of buying IT is Cheltenham
Borough Council.
An online ICT procurement site
which saves Government and
£millions, has won a Queen’s Award for
approach to IT procurement.
buying for www.theITindex.co.uk,
Technology services provider, Probrand,
developed this technology with support
said: "The IT Index has made considerable and outstanding inroads towards
25% below OGC thresholds.
Probrand’s www.theITIndex.co.uk
automates procurement comparisons
down to a single unified price, eliminatquickly enabling the best deal to be done
within one secure environment without
any ‘punch-out’ to supplier sites.
customer-centric, giving the buyer what
Peter Robbins, Managing Director of
automated purchase cycle.”
This IT procurement site is believed to be
Europe’s largest automated ICT catalogue
that daily updates over 150,000 products
and services from more than 2,500
manufacturers ranked by best price and
stock availability. It is also accredited by
major reassurance that we are securing
15% of CBC's consumables budget,
changing the face of how public and
the cost of buying ICT. With customer
“The fact that we know the IT Index
conducts daily price comparisons based
on product within the industry’s
Mercato technology behind
www.theITIndex.co.uk and year-on-year
growth for the business and also,
crucially, our supply chain partners.
“This technology is deployed globally for
IBM as part of its ‘Pre-Sales Advisor Tool’
project across 37 countries in 22
languages. It is very rewarding to see
ally recognised mark of success.”
budget. Savings made on individual
products consistently range from 3-6%
"On average The IT Index is saving at
used to have to spend sourcing and
comparing prices.
serve and manage our IT infrastructure
work on a robust network. This means
our public is maintained without
THE TECHNOLOGY THAT DRIVES THE www.theITindex.co.uk See Page 3
www.probrand.co.uk and www.theITindex.co.uk
Special Supplement: Spring 2011
TRUSTED ADVISORS WHEN I.T SUPPLY CHAIN
DISASTER STRIKES...
Recognised for
Procurement
excellence
everything from computers to cars
and electrical products.
Two further damaged plants that
nents have also been unable to operate
since the Tsunami and are now in
recovery mode. One produced 70% of
the world’s copper-clad laminates for
Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). The other
produced approximately 70% of
worldwide aluminium substrate, which is
used in disk drive manufacture.
Taking the froth
off stock prices
Improving business processes,
reducing overheads and increasing
profits are challenges faced by every
company.
Probrand’s Iain Bowles, said: “Large
manufacturers have invoked Business
daily price and stock changes, shortening
price and purchase processes is difficult.
As a forward thinking business, high
street coffee co, Coffee Republic,
Value www.theITindex.co.uk.
As Pee Herron points out: “We are now
saving 5 days a month, which we used to
spend managing procurement adminis-
It has become widespread news that the Japan earthquake
supply chain rich Sendai prefecture.
And Probrand’s unique knowledge
of the devastated area combined with
deep understanding of the IT supply
chain, has been helping customers
understand the detailed impact the
technology stock and prices.
made a significant impact on our
department very quickly.
"We regularly benchmark The IT Index
against spot prices in the market place
especially when you bring in the factor
of stock availability. It isn't difficult to
use if you are on a two-month back
stock levels in the manufacturing supply
chain. This scenario is forecast to
increase with delays and costs being
passed through the supply chain to end
users.
Reports confirm that component
manufacturing has been hit hardest,
which in turn will impact finished
products later in 2011.
Components have a long and highly
complex manufacturing cycle, requiring
specific materials. For example, a
semi-conductor wafer, the basic building
block of the computer chip, takes around
four weeks to manufacturer and
comes from the damaged area.
A very pure version of a cleaning fluid,
manufacturing semi-conductors with
from damaged plants in the Sendai area.
A complete semi-conductor chip takes a
further five to seven weeks to produce,
limited supply has caused problems.
Japan needs constant power through the
damaged plants. Power shortage is a
major issue with peak demand in
increases. A hot summer in Japan will
cause further power cuts and reduced
is already being asked to limit demands
for power during the summer months.
shortage has already caused global car
will be limited.
supply issues but there is concern over
medium to long term plans to overcome
global shortage. Without stable power
semi-conductors, at the heart of IT
technology, will be limited.
is not available to fulfil demand. July to
will be price with stock becoming more
of an issue later in the danger period.”
web based, which means I can gain
access when I’m out of the office.
"For a business such as ours, which has a
small IT team, it is helping us more
we can focus our energies on front line
Page 2
robrand’s work within the
purchasing and supply community
has earned a major procurement
Purchasing & Supply (CIPS).
The business demonstrated excellence in
procurement policies and procedures to
join an elite group of accredited
Mike Mari, Head of CIPS’ Procurement
Excellence Programme, said: "Probrand
delivers what CIPS calls the immovable
auditability, version control, archiving,
procurement workflow that include
approvals, sign off, contracts and
procedure, amongst others. Probrand
delivers all of this through fully
automated systems and has succeeded
where many have failed."
www.theITindex.co.uk, which brings
together all of the elements of good
However, most component and
chemical plants are now in the recovery
end-to-end offering.
stock in the manufacturing supply chain
and the component suppliers’ produc-
Chris Haynes, Director EDT at the
Department for Work and Pensions, said:
Semi-conductors are used in the
manufacture of a variety of complex
technology based components used in
a process and deliver savings and
efficiencies are to be sought out and
commended, especially when Government is working so hard for sustainable
“The IT Index has simplified the
management of purchases. The other
P
A right Royal honour
for Birmingham...
by Jon Griffin, Birmingham Mail
As a professional 'company watcher' I have
industries have disappeared. Changing
sands of the Midlands business scene for over
13 years.
lives of many.
shining example of entrepreneurial growth. A
from some of the UK's top Government
Probrand has been enterprising and innova-
Probrand is one of those.
Queen's Award to prove it.
rise and watched it become a world class
player in its sector - providing much needed
employment and securing major contracts
It's a genuine honour for everyone connected
with the firm, and a reason to make the City
of Birmingham and its business community
feel extremely proud.
very important that buyers are able to
see what is officially recognised as good
reduce the amount of paper used during
the RFQ process, enhance supplier
management, offer granular levels of
product and service detail, including any
purchase decision whilst extending the
reach of their budgets."
Page 3
www.probrand.co.uk and www.theITindex.co.uk
Special Supplement: Spring 2011
TURNING DATA INTO DOLLARS
FOR IBM GLOBALLY
The Three Pillars
of Public Service
services are considered by many as the
key pillars of public sector service
delivery. Probrand is proud to support
every area through a number of public
sector framework agreements,
providing best priced products and
technical excellence on deployment of
infrastructure projects.
Our specialist teams offer guidance
demands of each sector and the
complex nature of large scale public
sector IT infrastructure.
And this landmark hardware sales-support
the build, configure and price cycle for IBM
shorten the sales cycle.
website that empowers end users with
Probrand and partner supplier Mercato
complex business processes with large scale
data management and delivery of web-based
it very easy to do what was previously a very
difficult job.
“Pre-Sales Advisor only ever offers compatenvironment, which means errors or costly
returns are avoided. This is unprecedented
and has been delivered across 37 countries
in 22 languages.
This is the methodology that has been
delivered for IBM, bringing together,
harmonising and enriching IBM’s internal,
supply chain where price, stock and specifica-
“Mercato’s strength in management of data
has aided business intelligence and strengthened the end-to-end indirect supply chain
with IBM System X servers.
Reduced Returns
Powerful and integrated web ‘tools’ guide
purchasers to build and configure bespoke
accurately. Used by distributors and resellers
to learn, build, price and source IBM servers,
“Pre-Sales Advisor has been well received
Probrand’s Stephen Bushell meets
Sir Gus O’Donell to demonstrate
On the deployment of a remote access
arm, Icomm Technologies, Tim Mullan,
IP telephony systems lead at Gloucesand easy to manage. We now provision
total cost of ownership to be approximately 60% less than if we had adopted
to deliver service. For example, it has
unlocked capability for crisis workers to
instantly respond to night-calls from
reduced returns, reduced dependencies on
Spreadsheets and enabled IBM to drive
quickly into emerging markets.”
experience at www.PreSalesAdvisor.net.
faster and improved data accuracy.”
This means anyone can build a unique
invite their nearest IBM supplier to offer the
best price and delivery date. It releases
NEIL TONKIN
Architect
Tel: 0800 26 26 29
On The IT Index, Bradford Grammar
school Network Manager, Simon
of 30% on our IT budget.”
www.probrand.co.uk www.theITindex.co.uk www.MercatoSolutions.com