The Home Office identified a need for an integrated digital marketplace solution to help streamline its ad-hoc, low-volume, low-spend product purchasing and deliver cost and resource efficiencies across the organisation’s procurement processes. The business case for digitising the Home Office’s indirect procurement includes reduced costs of acquisition, better spend management, informed decision-making, supplier choice, and minimising the time and effort expended in comparing products, delivery options and price.
Cardiff-based Mercateo UK Ltd is part of Unite Network SE, one of Europe’s leading B2B and B2G platform businesses. It delivers the Mercateo Procurement Portal, an e-procurement and marketplace solution that empowers purchasers to consolidate their spot buying, multi-supplier purchasing and one-to-one supplier relationships into a single digital management system.
The marketplace offers over 11 million listed articles across 30 product assortment categories available from thousands of pre-vetted suppliers. Core categories of interest to the Home Office are furniture, PPE, packaging, document destruction, operational supplies, printed products, cleaning, catering, first aid, tools, and electrical goods.
Mercateo is one of two named suppliers on the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Tail Spend Solution Framework (RM6202). Launched in January 2022, the framework was developed to address a lack in digital procurement service delivery across the public sector that enables organisations to effectively manage their tail spend and indirect purchasing.
Through the framework, the Home Office’s Commercial Directorate awarded a contract to Mercateo UK Ltd in June 2022. Mercateo will facilitate a managed digital channel for those items where the Home Office does not have preferred or agreed supplier arrangements, replacing open internet searches and other un-monitored routes to finding and buying from suppliers for these items.
Commenting on the contract, Vince Voon, Director of Commercial Enablers, said: “The Mercateo Procurement Portal offers the Home Office and its agencies an exciting opportunity to revolutionise the way it purchases low value, one-off purchases via the host supplier’s own online buying portal. It empowers colleagues to buy goods simply and compliantly through a self-serve system which will help them to achieve workload and cost efficiencies, and give us increased visibility of purchasing behaviour and spend across the organisation.”
The Home Office has integrated Mercateo’s e-procurement platform directly into the organisation’s internal procurement systems, launching the marketplace solution to 43,000 users across multiple agencies at the end of August 2022.
Delivering social value
The Mercateo Procurement Portal helps purchasing organisations drive digital transformation across their processes while creating value for their communities and meeting considerations to embrace social responsibility and sustainability strategies.
The platform enables fair competition and collaboration; approximately 70% of the pre-vetted suppliers are SMEs, independent and minority-owned. Across the marketplace businesses are listed by region making it easier for organisations to meet ’buy local‘ goals and search filters identify those with sustainable or diversity accreditation such as Minority Supplier Development UK (MSDUK).
Simon Roberts, Managing Director for Mercateo UK Ltd, said: “Our business is committed to connecting central government, local authorities and public bodies to under-represented supplier groups. We want to nurture a diverse supply chain and help build equity for businesses that wouldn’t normally have a route into the public sector especially central government bodies.
Through our platform, the Home Office and other entities automatically become part of a supply chain community working collaboratively to champion social enterprises, female-owned and British ethnic minority businesses to build a more inclusive economy.”
Sam Ulyatt, Chief Commercial Officer for the Home Office, said: “There’s a clear need to transform public procurement and ensure organisations and agencies purchase responsibly, compliantly and sustainably. We must work to save the taxpayer money and provide social and environmental value to the communities we serve.” Sam continued, “Mercateo’s solution offers fair competition and will open up opportunities for small, innovative and diverse businesses to become visible to our purchasing teams and end users which is vital to support regional economic growth across the UK.”