Durham Schools to go eOrdering by Spring 2007

Jan 11, 2007


Durham County Council schools are scheduled to be using eProcurement by Spring 2007. This will complete the successful pilot and then staged rollout which has been underway since mid 2006, using the @UK PLC supplier network linked directly to SIMS FMS™.

DCC Senior Procurement Officer Peter Shuttleworth said “There is a strong drive from central government for the adoption of eProcurement and Durham County Council has chosen @UK PLC as its marketplace provider. This eProcurement solution will provide electronic ordering and invoicing and e-enable the council’s supply base. The solution directly interfaces with the Capita SIMS system used in all but one of the council’s 302 schools and could also interface directly with the shortly to be introduced Oracle iProcurement solution, thereby affording even greater benefits and user acceptance. The system is operating in 10 pilot schools and is anticipated for full roll-out to all schools in Spring 2007. The marketplace will then contain the contracted supplier content suitable for schools to place everyday ordering.

Savings can be made in two main areas. Firstly efficiency savings on the over 100,000 orders currently placed per annum with the time consuming paper based system being eradicated. The electronic requisition passes directly into the SIMS FMS™ system of the school concerned for approval, and once approved straight back to the supplier to fulfil. The remaining phase of the DCC schools programme will be for suppliers to send back invoices electronically so the school can manage the whole transaction onscreen. @UK has had this facility available for a long while and we may use this for our Corporate Service Areas once our new Corporate Oracle™ system is up and running. Schools will move to eInvoicing as soon as Capita SIMS issues the release with invoicing.

Secondly, the marketplace acts as a ”procurement hub” highlighting to schools the highly beneficial contract pricing and avoiding the necessity for schools to undergo onerous tender exercises as these have already been carried out by the County Council’s Corporate Procurement unit.

Suppliers linked to the Durham schools purchasing marketplace include those listed below. All these suppliers and hence available to any other authority which chooses to provide its schools with a purchasing marketplace, along with the thousands of others on the @UK network. (NB Any authority, usually in conjunction with its schools decides which suppliers are to be made visible in its marketplace. Any contract terms from those suppliers to that authority are then automatically shown and applied).

Suppliers on the DCC marketplace include : Ambic Ltd, Cannon Hygiene, Community Playthings, Dell, Denis Rawlins Ltd, Direct Visual, Dixon and Hall, Economatics Education, EFM Chesterfield, Glenmore Business Papers, Godfrey Syrett Ltd, Gopak Ltd, GreenhamTrading, Grosvenor House Papers, GV Multimedia, Hepscott Water Systems, ITSS Durham, Jessops Business, Marmax Products, Maudesport, NES Arnold, Office Depot, PHS Group, Promethean, Russell Systems Telecom, Sebel Furniture, SICO Europe, Specialist Lamp Distributors, Thomas Owen and Sons, Ultralon, United Carlton, XMA Ltd

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For further information ref DCC school system peter.shuttleworth@durham.gov.uk