The Buyers That Stole Christmas…Again
It’s that most wonderful time of the year again, but some buyers can’t help but play the role of Grinch with tender deadlines that steal time away from holiday festivities.
We’re returning with an annual updated naughty list of those spreading holiday misery in the procurement world.
You may recall our 2022 blog, which highlighted a depressing 82% increase ...
Blockchain falls out of favour
Not long ago, blockchain technology was touted as the go-to technical solution to a raft of government problems. From social security to smart contracts, blockchain was going to be the product that could revolutionise public services.
In the past, we explored the question of whether procurement needs blockchain technology in an article "Does Procurement Need Blockchain?". In ...
AI, a path to riches
The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has begun to reshape the very core of procurement analytics. As part of an EU project exploring data enrichment, we're learning exactly how AI is catalysing a new age of data enrichment in the procurement sector.
AI-Powered Data Enrichment in Procurement:
Automated Supplier Analysis: Using AI, procurement teams can automatically link and ...
Zombie Tenders Continue To Rise
Public sector contracting in Europe continues to demonstrate worrying levels of uncompetitive tendering. Across 2022/23 nearly one in three reported contracts were let having received just one bid.
This amounted to nearly half a million contracts, with many more contracts unreported, this number could be higher still.
We call these zombie tenders and it is worth putting them ...
Buyers who stole Christmas (again)
It’s time to shed a festive tear and feel some sympathy for all the bidding teams who’ve got bids to respond to during the Christmas break. So put on a Christmas jumper and let’s have a run down of the buyers who insist on setting tender deadlines during the Christmas break.
The list below includes buyers that ...
Procurement and impact
Governments spend over 13tn USD a year with their suppliers, or around 15% of global GDP. We’ve started analysing the carbon intensity of public procurement. It is uncertain how much of our carbon is emitted through public procurement, but with a strong emphasis on infrastructure, transport, and military spending it is likely to be more than ...
The Future Belongs To AI Powered Purchasing.
This week a respected Professor took to Twitter to criticise the government’s purchasing arrangements.
It was immediately clear what had happened, a supplier with what must have been the best overall catalogue of goods and prices had earned a place on a framework providing electrical equipment for schools. Their products were subsequently promoted by Crown Commercial Service ...
8 things you need to run a supplier blacklist
The news that UK government will implement a new supplier blacklist, banning errant companies from winning contracts has raised the question of how to operate a bidding blacklist in public contracting.
Below we outline the 8 essentials things that a government needs to have in place to make a blacklist work.
A process that everyone can sign up ...
Our story. Reinventing a business.
Spend Network exists because I almost lost everything.
Where we came from:
I'd built a consultancy with twenty staff and clients across the financial and government sectors.
It was a good little firm.
We knew our stuff and it was good to see Government and Banks collaborating.
The crash
Then the financial crisis hit.
Our clients withdrew from contracts and projects in ...
Procuring Inequality: Our Report.
Spend Network is pleased to release our survey on the gender pay gap data in public procurement. We linked gender pay gap reports from over 2,600 organisations across nearly 31,000 contracts won by these organisations during the 2017-2020 period. This gave us insight into what organisations public money is going to, what gender pay bias exists ...
Procurement Transparency Suffers Under Covid-19
Government publishing of procurement notices has fallen significantly following the global spread of Covid-19. The total number of tender notices published globally has fallen by nearly 40%, with the numbers in Asia falling by 68%.
In many cases, the pandemic has forced buyers to focus on emergency procurements, particularly of personal protective equipment for medical staff. These ...
South Africa, Kenya lead the way on African transparency.
Both South Africa and Kenya lead the way in procurement transparency according to our data, South Africa and Kenya publish more tender notices than the rest of the continent combined and Kenya is the only country with that systematically publishes contract award notices. Both countries have implemented transparency initiatives and both are committed to using transparency ...
Where Next For Data Led Procurement in Europe? A Discussion.
The They Buy For You Project (TBFY) concluded on 31 December 2020. To mark the occasion, we look back at three years of hard work, take stock and discuss the future of procurement analytics to unlock data value chains. Our conversation is with Till Christopher Lech (SINTEF Digital), Elena Simperl (King's College, London), Oscar Corcho (Universidad ...
How Long Does It Take A Department To Publish A Contract Notice?
Public sector organisations have, according to guidance, thirty days to publish details of their contracts online. So, thirty days after a contract there should be a public notice with some key details about the contract online.
Our analysis shows that on average, just three departments met the thirty day guideline in 2020. In 2019, just two departments ...
Visualise your data
Harness the power of procurement data to make informed decisions. Using our advanced analytics, we can create custom visualisations and dashboards for your team.
Whether you're building new insights for your own campaign or wanting to understand the nuts and bolts of your own procurement data, we can help you bring your data to life; from identifying ...