Congratulations to a group of schools from the Wiltshire IBC who have been awarded a prestigious Chartered Institute of Purchase and Supply (CIPS) supply management award for Best purchasing initiative by a smaller organisation.  The group comprises seven buyers that have been in the vanguard of the development and expansion of their buying community.

Their entry described how the team has used the IBC to meet challenges and opportunities that are common to communities of organisations across the public and private sectors – time pressures, financial pressures, duplication of effort, limited buying power, variable skill levels and uneven distribution of procurement resource.

The team has demonstrated how the time and cost savings we have generated have significantly impacted on our schools’ abilities to deliver the education remit.  Examples include individuals that have saved thousands of pounds – enough to afford much needed resources, such as teaching assistants”, commented Anita Druce of Stanton-St-Quintin School

The judges commented that the Wiltshire Buying Community submission was “truly fascinating and humbling”, that it “brought the complexities of being an admin officer to life” and was “a very human entry”

Please click here to view the submission and click here for the judges assessment.

Intelligent Buying Community
The vehicle for Wiltshire’s success has been their Intelligent Buying Community (IBC) service.  The IBC, a highly innovative approach to procurement, was originally commissioned by Wiltshire County Council in order to streamline and link sourcing activities across their schools.  A strong partnership between the Council, EQC and the users has resulted in a highly empowering and adoptable service on which buyers can share in each others’ knowledge of what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay

There are currently 18 Schoolquote IBCs, and the service has recently been adapted to accommodate and integrate multiple sectors and markets – including education, health and local government.
Please click here for a brief overview of what the IBCs can offer your organisation – and click here to contact Hugh Taylor for a quick explanation of how the IBCs work.

About CIPS

The Chartered Institute of Purchase and Supply is an international organisation, based in the UK, serving the purchasing and supply profession - and dedicated to promoting good practice.  Year after year the CIPS Supply Management Awards never cease to deliver amazing examples of the hard work, dedication and excellence taking place in the purchasing profession.

1100 people attended the CIPS Supply Management Awards 2007 at Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane on 20 September – which made it the biggest purchasing and supply management awards ever.  Not only was the number of entries overwhelming, but the quality of the submissions was the highest it has ever been.  For the judges it was a challenging but extremely rewarding process and the accolades presented recognised the ingenuity, professionalism and hard work that exists within purchasing and supply management.The Chartered Institute of Purchase and Supply Not only was the number of entries overwhelming, but the quality of the submissions was higher than ever.