END PROJECT REPORT
Project Title: / Contract EvaluationProject Reference: / SP0403
RIEP Work stream / Smarter Procurement – Support
Report Author: / Ann Cooper - South West Secretariat
Date: / 15th October 2010
End project Report Purpose
The purpose of this report is to:
· Review the Project using the PID as a baseline comparing the planned project to the actual, delivered project, and determine what has not gone to plan and the impact of this.
· Ensure that the lessons learnt from the project have been captured, reviewed and disseminated.
· Provide assurance that all risks, issues have been closed or transferred.
· Confirm that hand over actions have been agreed.
· Articulate the position with regard to draw down of RIEP funding.
· Confirm that the project is on track to meet the desired outcomes and set a post project implementation review date.
How to Use this Document
This document contains a series of different questions which are designed to compare what the project actually achieved against what was originally planned. The questions will also capture what went well and how this learning can be shared more widely.
Any text in italics provides further guidance to help answer questions.
Please answer questions as fully as possible. Most sections will be relevant to all projects but there might be some exceptions. If you are in doubt, please contact your Programme Manager to discuss.
Table of Contents
Page
1 End Project Report History 3
1.1 Revision History
1.2 Approvals
2 Background 3
3 Reasons for closure 4
4 Project Performance 4
5 Risk analysis 5
6 Lessons Learnt 5
7 Post-Project Review 6
1 End Project Report History
1.1 Revision History
Revision date / Previous revision date / Summary of Changes / Changes markedFirst issue
1.2 Approvals
This document requires the following approvals.
Internal (Local Authority) Approval
Name / Signature / Title / Date of Issue / VersionA Cooper / A Cooper / Principal Officer
acting Project Manager / 15/10/10 / 1
Project Sponsor
SW RIEP Approval (Sign off to be managed by RIEP Programme Manager)
Name / Signature / Title / Date of Issue / VersionS Foster / Programme Manager
Programme Board
SMT
2 Background
The South West Centre of Excellence (the predecessor to South West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership), identified a need within the region for regular help and advice on procurement and e-procurement issues. Available guidance at that time often didn’t cover specific advice about an issue or problem. This project supports Councils by determining whether there are any framework arrangements or contracts in operation and further opportunities through collaboration The intention is that time spent identifying suitable contracts already in force which councils in the South West can sign up to will save the expense and time of going through a full EU compliant tender process, avoid duplication of effort, and will allow local authorities and schools in the South West to achieve the best value for money possible.
As a result SWCoE selected a company called Ticon to provide and manage the procurement contract evaluation service on their behalf. SWCoE set up the service in 2007. Since its inception, the service, run by Ticon, has undertaken research on a wide range of procurement products and services. The service is funded on a ‘no-request, no charge’ basis providing cost effective expertise and a source of independent advice. This project identifies opportunities for collaboration by seeking suitable existing contracts which Councils in the South West can sign up to. This will save the expense and time of going through a full EU compliant tender process, avoid duplication of effort, and will allow Local Authorities in the South West to achieve the best value for money possible
The project supports the SW RIEP strategy through:
1. providing free, independent evaluation about procurement products and services available to councils and fire and rescue services (FRSs) in the South West
2. enabling councils and FRSs to make time and financial savings by accessing expertise that can provide valuable and helpful answers swiftly and enabling the organisations to check that they are taking the right approach to a problem or to get a different view.
Following the early work, SWIEP continued to fund this support mechanism through CSR07 funding. However, there was no specific PID regarding the continuation of this service. Nor has there been an overarching contract with Ticon. To improve control of the service, the Programme Manager notified Ticon of the Smarter Procurement Programme Board decision in 2010 to limit the total CSR07 budget expenditure on this service to £10,000.
3 Reasons for closure
The Project shows signs of having reached project maturity and diminishing returns. The following reasons justify bringing closure to the project:
· The Savings Report produced by Ticon in July 2010 indicates that between Jan 2008 and July 2010 the service covered 27 contract research projects completed for 7 Councils on behalf of SWIEP. Of the 22 responses received, 10 provided questionnaire returns. Based on these Ticon estimate that each research project equated to about 7.5 man hours time savings. 1 council made a total of £25,000 cash savings. This is a low level of identified cash savings. Of the 10 returned questionnaires, only one Council had followed Ticon’s recommendations (in part).
· No funding for this project remains. There is a need to avoid incurring additional cost as no further budgetary provision has been made.
· Anticipated cost of further investigation using Ticon to identify benefits delivery by bodies using other RIEP-funded deliverables. Growing experience within the South West, the expertise within the South West procurement forum and public sector bodies plus facilities such as the Portal and Huddle provide potential mechanisms to share knowledge, tools and to provide alternative ways to gather evidence for key projects that deliver significant savings.
4 Project Performance
· State the original aim of the project:
Providing more access to contract information for Local Authorities in the region :
· To provide authorities with a means for sharing information on the contracts that can be utilised by other South West authorities
· Where possible, contract prices will be published to provide a benchmark for authorities seeking to let a new contract
· The information will also highlight where there may be future potential to let contracts collaboratively
The key objective of each contract evaluation is to provide authorities with access to contract and pricing information for key goods and services.
· Did the project achieve what it set out to? Was it successful? If not, why and what elements weren’t successful? What is the impact of this?
In Spring 2010, Ticon undertook a review to establish overall savings achieved in the SW through the contract evaluation service over the period January 2008 to July 2010. In the Savings Review Report (July 2010) Ticon reported that they had undertaken 27 contract research reports completed for 7 councils.
Council / Product / SavingsBath & North East Somerset / Christmas Decorations / 7.5 man hours
Bath & North East Somerset / Community Alarms / 7.5 man hours
Bath & North East Somerset / Banking Services / 7.5 man hours
Bournemouth County Council / Family
Group Conference Services / £0
Bristol City Council / CCTV Maintenance & Installation / 7.5 man hours
Bristol City Council / Photography Services / 7.5 man hours
Bristol City Council / Books / 7.5 man hours
Bristol City Council / School Improvement Services and Food & Beverages / ?
Bristol City Council / Computer Repair & Maintenance / £25,000
Dorset County Council / Supply of Road Salt / 7.5 man hours
Gloucestershire County Council / Printing Services / 16 man hours
Gloucestershire County Council / SAP Application
Support.
Gloucestershire County Council / Green Office Furniture / £?
North Somerset Council / Road Condition Surveys / 7.5 man hours
North Somerset Council / Playground Equipment / £?
North Somerset Council / Motorcycle Procurement / £?
North Somerset Council / Bedding Plants. / *
North Somerset Council / Library Furniture / *
South Gloucestershire Council / Vehicle Tracking Service / 7.5 man hours
South Gloucestershire Council / Counselling / 7.5 man hours
South Gloucestershire Council / Voice Over IP Telephony Services / £0
South Gloucestershire Council / Vehicles, Vehicle Purchase and Consultancy / *
* no information returned
Milestones Performance
How did the project perform against its forecast timescales? Complete the following table to illustrate how the milestones were delivered.
The early work carried out under CSR04 funding set up a site that was created to act both as a repository for the project outputs and a means through which authorities can share their experience and knowledge.
This project has been conducted in collaboration with the South East in order to broaden the commodities covered and avoid duplication of workload.
The only milestones relating to continuation of the service are the Savings Review Report approved by the Programme Manager and End Project Report/Project sign-off and closure approved by the Programme Board.
Key Milestone / Forecast date / Actual date / ImpactContract evaluation service operational / 2007 / 2007 / No impact
Savings Review Report / July 2010 / July 2010 / No impact
Project Completion / Date not specified / Sept 2010 / Decision by Programme Board on 15 July to complete project closure processes resolves the milestones’ uncertainty identified in the 15/7/10 Exceptions report to the Board
End Project Report / October 2010 / 21/10/10
Project Sign-off /closure / October 2010 / 21/10/10 / Subject to Programme Manager recommendation and Programme Board sign-off
Financial Performance
Overall Project Budget (CSR07): £ 10.0k
RIEP Allocation: £ 10.0k
Actual Spend to date: £ 10.0K
· Reasons for variance: The £1491.85 residue, as at the end of June 2010, of the £10,000 budget allocated for employing Ticon for contract evaluation was used to part pay for the Savings Review report by Ticon. Therefore no funding for this project remains.
RIEP Funding Outstanding to be Claimed: £ 0.00
Date any outstanding RIEP Funding will be Claimed: Not applicable
Outputs
Was the output deliveredOn time / To agreed quality / Within budget
List each output delivered
Contract evaluation service established / √ / √ / √
Savings Report / √ / √ / √
In 2009 SWIEP carried out an in-house, interim assessment of client satisfaction of work for Councils undertaken by TICON and received positive responses to service provision and quality.
Outcomes
· List the outcomes that can be assessed at this stage.
o Councils have been able to get free, independent advice and access information not readily available from published guidance
· What benefits have been achieved?
Time and cash savings made by Councils - each research project equated to about 7.5 man hours time savings per project. 1 council made a total of £25,000 cash savings
· Is the project on track to deliver the remaining planned outcomes? If not, why not? What is the impact of this to the RIEP priorities?
As this is an ‘on-demand’ service, there are no further planned outcomes.
5 Risk Analysis
Closing Project Risk Register / Handing over open risks
· Are all the Risks identified on the Risk Register/Log/Template closed? Closing the project removes the remaining risk of project overspend
· For those that are not, have owners been identified actions to manage into the future? Not applicable
· Have those risks that may affect the operational use of the outputs been articulated? Not applicable
Assessment of risk capture
· Did any risks arise that had not been captured? If yes, why? What was the impact?
No.
6 Lessons Learnt
· What went well?
Councils have taken up the use of the service, particularly in the earlier stages.
· What did not go so well?
Control of the project in the absence of PID and contract for continuation of the service.
Councils have not followed the recommendations for a variety of reasons
· What was lacking?
Absence of PID and contract for continuation of the service.
· How have these been shared for the benefit of future or other projects or pieces of work within your Authority/Partnership?
Summary reports on projects are available on website
Exceptions reports to Programme Board.
· Has this information been included within the completed case study for your project?
No proposals for a case study at this time
However, the 21 October 2010 SWIEP Smarter Procurement Board is considering this End Project Report as part of the Project sign-off process
7 Post-project Review (PPR)
No post project review required. A wider consideration of the mechanisms for collaborative working post March 2011 is being undertaken.
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