PRESS RELEASE

Haringey Council is maintaining itself at the forefront of procurement best practice by implementing CompeteFor to make contracts available to local and small businesses.

This week, the London Borough announced that it will adopt CompeteFor, a procurement opportunity and short-listing tool that allows businesses to easily search and apply for contracts generated by Haringey Council, as well as other major public sector organisations and projects across the capital.

Haringey Council has made the commitment to advertise most, if not all, of their contracts on CompeteFor, ensuring that thousands of private sector sub-contracts are identified and made available to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) through the free web portal.

CompeteFor began as a service developed by London 2012, the London Business Network and the London Development Agency to match buyers and suppliers in the Olympic supply chain and has since been adopted by other public sector organisations. To date, the likes of London 2012, the London Development Agency, Transport for London, Crossrail and Westminster City Council have generated over 7000 contract opportunities from over 1000 public and private sector buyers.

Michael Wood, Head of Corporate Procurement, says there are several financial and social benefits for both the council and the local business community.

Value for Money – CompeteFor is a more efficient use of Council resources and greatly facilitates the use of competition in obtaining services

Sustainability – CompeteFor makes the pre-qualification stage of the procurement process paperless

Excellence – CompeteFor ensures that a wide range of potential suppliers are invited to participate

Transparency – all contracts and their awardees are advertised consistently through the portal generating useful management information

Supporting the local economy – CompeteFor opens up the supply chain to small and medium sized enterprises that may have struggled to access relevant opportunities

“Of the contracts awarded through CompeteFor to date, 67% have been awarded to SMEs. One such business was Ontime Parking Solutions. The Parking Enforcement specialist was awarded a contract to supply mobile CCTV enforcement vehicles to Haringey Council. Eddie Lewis, who heads up Parking Services, says that applying for the opportunity through CompeteFor was a very quick and easy process.

Eddie says ‘We registered on CompeteFor because we heard about the opportunity through our business networks. It only took us about half an hour to sign up and a little more time to actually apply for the contract. It’s definitely been worth our while because now we get alerted to other contracts from buyers other than Haringey Council. We wouldn’t normally have contact or access to these organisations’.

Using CompeteFor to procure mobile enforcement vehicles was also beneficial to Haringey Council. Michael Wood says ‘The end-to-end procurement process was made easier by CompeteFor. It allowed us to open up the opportunity to a wider audience while minimising the internal resources within our procurement team. This is key to achieving cost efficiencies within the council during the current economic climate. We also achieved value for money as the supplier came in significantly cheaper than our incumbent provider. So it was definitely a win-win situation for us and the London business community’.

-ENDS-

Editor’s notes:

- Any business, across the UK, can register on CompeteFor. Registration is free and only needs to be done once to gain access to thousands of contract opportunities. Visit www.competefor.com for more information.

- CompeteFor was launched in January 2008. It has over 36,000 businesses registered in London and over 127,000 across the UK.

- The London Business Network is a business organisation set up to ensure that the capital’s business community maximises the economic benefits of the London 2012 Games. It is run by London First, the London Chamber of Commerce, CBI London and the Federation of Small Businesses; with the support of the London Development Agency.

- Haringey Council will advertise and/or shortlist most, if not all, future contract opportunities through CompeteFor. This means that once registered, businesses will only have to submit documents if they are invited to tender. This will considerably reduce the administrative burden currently associated with applying for Council opportunities.

For enquiries relating to CompeteFor, contact Kevin Ma at the London Business Network on 0207 665 1550 or kma@londonbusinessnetwork.com.

For enquiries relating to Haringey Council please call the council’s press office on 020 8489 2997.